Motherboard VRM Tier List v2 (currently AMD only)

[celloh]

Is B450M-A Pro Max Tier F or Tier C?

 

 

Also how bad it is to pair it with a 3600? Because that's what I did lol

[Haro]

20 minutes ago, celloh said:

Is B450M-A Pro Max Tier F or Tier C?

The ATX B450-A Pro Max is Tier C. 

The mATX B450M-A Pro Max is Tier F since the mATX version is much worse than the ATX one. 

21 minutes ago, celloh said:

Also how bad it is to pair it with a 3600? Because that's what I did lol

The 3600 is not a problem on that board. 

[Legendary Queen]

Hi hows gigabyte b550m ds3h for Ryzen 5 3600X

[Jurrunio]

6 minutes ago, Legendary King said:

Hi hows gigabyte b550m ds3h for Ryzen 5 3600X

It's okay but the rule that B550 boards are in general better than B450 boards do not apply to this one. It's only on par with them.

[Legendary Queen]

Just now, Jurrunio said:

It's okay but the rule that B550 boards are in general better than B450 boards do not apply to this one. It's only on par with them.

Right now its kinda cheaper then even some basic b450 boards so i was wondering what flaws it has to make it so cheap

[Legendary Queen]

14 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

It's okay but the rule that B550 boards are in general better than B450 boards do not apply to this one. It's only on par with them.

Will i be able to find a b450 MB cheaper then that? Thats better i mean

[Jurrunio]

1 hour ago, Legendary King said:

Will i be able to find a b450 MB cheaper then that? Thats better i mean

I dont know where you're looking at so I cant tell. It's widely known which boards are better however which means it is unlikely.

[Nena Trinity]

Where go this?

Gigabyte A520M S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (A520M S2H) - PCPartPicker

 

Ryzen 9 3950X VS a low end A520 VRM feat. Gigabyte A520M H - YouTube

 

[Jurrunio]

2 hours ago, Nena Trinity said:

Where go this?

Gigabyte A520M S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (A520M S2H) - PCPartPicker

 

Ryzen 9 3950X VS a low end A520 VRM feat. Gigabyte A520M H - YouTube

 

Worst tier. There's no heatsink at all on this thing and it runs mosfets.

[Nena Trinity]

52 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Worst tier. There's no heatsink at all on this thing and it runs mosfets.

So max CPU to slap in there?  (it seems to have a power limiter of 130w max)

[Jurrunio]

1 hour ago, Nena Trinity said:

So max CPU to slap in there?  (it seems to have a power limiter of 130w max)

65w CPUs at stock

[Nena Trinity]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

65w CPUs at stock

Something like this?

 

[Jurrunio]

1 hour ago, Nena Trinity said:

Something like this?

 

This looks ok other than the 1050ti. $228 for that feels like getting your breakfast money stolen so you have to eat leftovers from someone else.

[TacticianDaru]

First of all, thank you for putting this list together! It's been great help.
I'm going for a Ryzen 5 5600X with its Wraith Cooler. I don't want water cooling nor to overclock. I want to be able to upgrade the system for years down the road.

Considering this, I think a B550 chipset might be the best way to go, but there are many options, and frankly I don't understand what does the "XXXA " at the beginning of the tiers mean. Is it A for Amperage? Why is the bigger number better? Sorry if this is a silly question.

 

I don't want to get something I'll never fully use, nor something that'll be bottlenecked right off the bat and I'll need to swap the first time I want to upgrade a component.

[Jurrunio]

1 hour ago, TacticianDaru said:

Is it A for Amperage? Why is the bigger number better? Sorry if this is a silly question.

Yes. Higher number = more power can go through before it overheats, basically.

[sinni800]

I'm currently trying to decide between the

 

Pro WS X570-ACE

ROG Strix X570-E

 

I have a 5950X processor and would like to switch from a B550 to an X570 for multiple reasons.

 

First, the B550 I currently have doesnt share the CPU lanes between the two x16 PCIe. It actually has the second x16 on the chipset. If any other x1 on the chipset is used, all four (including the x16!) chipset attached pcie go down to x1 each. Horrible. My earlier B350-F gaming I had with my 2700x actually did a x8/x8 config.

 

Second, since I use multiple peripheral PCIe devices, I do want to have the PCIe 4.0 bandwidth to the chipset here, since everything shares the x4 to the processor here.

 

Either one of these two mainboards have the things I want, though the WS is more appealing to me in general (gamery look isnt something I prefer).

 

Is there any good argument that would put the Strix above the WS?

[TacticianDaru]

46 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Yes. Higher number = more power can go through before it overheats, basically.

Thank you for the reply!

Considering I've no intention to overclocking or get liquid cooling, what tier would you recommend to look at? I'm guessing the S tiered ones are for crazy heavy workloads or tons of components?

[Jurrunio]

5 minutes ago, TacticianDaru said:

Thank you for the reply!

Considering I've no intention to overclocking or get liquid cooling, what tier would you recommend to look at? I'm guessing the S tiered ones are for crazy heavy workloads or tons of components?

With only a 5600X you could start with tier D, I doubt you'll go beyond an 8 core from what you've said so far

 

27 minutes ago, sinni800 said:

My earlier B350-F gaming I had with my 2700x actually did a x8/x8 config.

It's x8/x4, according to the user's manual

 

27 minutes ago, sinni800 said:

Either one of these two mainboards have the things I want, though the WS is more appealing to me in general (gamery look isnt something I prefer).

 

Is there any good argument that would put the Strix above the WS?

Cost and availability? It's easier to find a gaming board than a workstation board like the WS. WS provides x16/x16/x16 config through PLX chip, which means the total bandwidth is still capped to 4.0 x16 but every slot can hit that as long as the others don't take shares out of it. It is also ECC certified (others can run ECC but not certified to do so). Those two are its main selling points and what draws up its price.

[sinni800]

20 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Cost and availability? It's easier to find a gaming board than a workstation board like the WS. WS provides x16/x16/x16 config through PLX chip, which means the total bandwidth is still capped to 4.0 x16 but every slot can hit that as long as the others don't take shares out of it. It is also ECC certified (others can run ECC but not certified to do so). Those two are its main selling points.

Literally almost the same. I have several "in stock" merchants for both, with the WS being 10€ cheaper.

 

If you want to see the (albeit german) pages:

 

https://geizhals.de/asus-pro-ws-x570-ace-90mb11m0-m0eay0-a2079101.html

https://geizhals.de/asus-rog-strix-x570-e-gaming-90mb1150-m0eay0-a2079032.html

 

Is a PLX chip doing anything towards or against compatibility with cards in any scenario? I'm asking because I have a few somewhat finnicky cards, one of them being a HTC Vive Wireless card that I want to try on a CPU attached PCIe slot sometime. The 3-way x16 seems like a really good chance for that.

 

Does this also mean that mixed PCIe versions can be on that same PLX chip in different slots and the PLX chip will just manage to take, for example, two PCIe 3.0 cards at full x16 speed through the 4.0 x16 link, for example?

 

Quote

It's x8/x4, according to the user's manual

Misremembered that, you're right.

[TacticianDaru]

17 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

With only a 5600X you could start with tier D, I doubt you'll go beyond an 8 core from what you've said so far

 

It's x8/x4, according to the user's manual

 

Cost and availability? It's easier to find a gaming board than a workstation board like the WS. WS provides x16/x16/x16 config through PLX chip, which means the total bandwidth is still capped to 4.0 x16 but every slot can hit that as long as the others don't take shares out of it. It is also ECC certified (others can run ECC but not certified to do so). Those two are its main selling points and what draws up its price.

Again, thank you so much for your answer!

I think I'll go for the B550 Pro-VDH WiFi. Seems to have good enough room for expansion, and I need bluetooth and wifi so it's good not to have to invest extra.

[WhitetailAni]

1 hour ago, sinni800 said:

My earlier B350-F gaming I had with my 2700x actually did a x8/x8 config.

Tell me your secrets.

I want to run x8/x8 on my board.

1 hour ago, sinni800 said:

Pro WS X570-ACE

ROG Strix X570-E

I'm planning to get the X570-E with a possible upgrade to a 5900X (and also because I can't find a cheaper board that has all the features I need).

[Jurrunio]

41 minutes ago, sinni800 said:

Is a PLX chip doing anything towards or against compatibility with cards in any scenario? I'm asking because I have a few somewhat finnicky cards, one of them being a HTC Vive Wireless card that I want to try on a CPU attached PCIe slot sometime. The 3-way x16 seems like a really good chance for that.

Not that I've heard of, cards that dont like chipsets doesnt seem to reject PLX chips from my experience. 

 

42 minutes ago, sinni800 said:

Does this also mean that mixed PCIe versions can be on that same PLX chip in different slots and the PLX chip will just manage to take, for example, two PCIe 3.0 cards at full x16 speed through the 4.0 x16 link, for example?

This I am not sure. I don't see why it can't though

[sinni800]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Not that I've heard of, cards that dont like chipsets doesnt seem to reject PLX chips from my experience. 

 

This I am not sure. I don't see why it can't though

 

I see. Thank you so much for your help here. The ECC also might be a thing for me at some point, since I think ECC was deliberately pushed out of the consumer market by Intel early on. Now with AMD allowing ECC on their consumer line of processors whic might be having a return. Fingers crossed on that.

 

13 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

Tell me your secrets.

I want to run x8/x8 on my board.

I'm planning to get the X570-E with a possible upgrade to a 5900X (and also because I can't find a cheaper board that has all the features I need).

It was me being an idiot and misremembering. That B350 board only did x8/x4. The WS Ace that I am looking into has a PLX chip that does x16 on all three big slots with (basically) dynamic bandwidth sharing. It means that in total, the three cards can take that x16/4.0 bandwidth, with any card taking any share of that.

[WhitetailAni]

1 minute ago, sinni800 said:

It was me being an idiot and misremembering. That B350 board only did x8/x4. The WS Ace that I am looking into has a PLX chip that does x16 on all three big slots with (basically) dynamic bandwidth sharing. It means that in total, the three cards can take that x16/4.0 bandwidth, with any card taking any share of that.

Guess I'll have to wait for my motherboard upgrade to run SLI.

[Baldor]

MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T5QDRFX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

vs

 

MSI X470 GAMING PLUS Max https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y468HV3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The MPG X570 cost $93 with an Amazon Warehouse deal. Item came in basically brand new condition, all accessories included.  ...But I ordered this board after the X470 (X470 Gaming Plus Max was $90 brand new) due to the shipping time and before I even knew about this LTT tier list.  And apparently a lot of MSI X570/B550 boards weren't real great VRM-wise, this being one of them....  Assuming I'm reading the tier list correctly, of course.

 

Not that the X470 is a whole lot better.  But it should still be the better board between the two for a potential future upgrade to 5800x/5900x, correct? 

 

The biggest con to the X470 Gaming Plus Max is that it has no bios flashback, and I don't have any 1st/2nd/3rd Gen Ryzens to flash it with either.  Although I do suspect this could be updated new stock because I bought it from Amazon with the disclaimer that it would not come into stock until late Jan/early Feb?  Losing the USB C and PCIE 4.0 kind of sucks too, but tbh, I probably wouldn't have much use for them anyways.  Mainly just want to move over to a larger OS drive (bought a 1tb Mushkin Pilot-E, just can't use it on my current Sabertooth Z87) and I figure I REALLY need to ditch my 256Gb Samsung 840 Evo.  Luckily that thing hasn't prematurely degraded, yet, like many others, but I'm not holding my breath for it either. 

 

And I plan on putting a 5600x, which I do currently have in my possession, into either of these boards.  But I wouldn't mind having the option to later upgrade to a 5800x/5900x when they get real cheap.

 

So the X470 Gaming Plus Max should be the better board, VRM and upgrade wise?  Obviously not great and not terrible, just average.   And is there anything else I'm missing or should know about?

 

I'm open to other suggestions too, but not real keen on spending more than $100-$110 on a board right now.