What is “VRM cooling” & What does it do?

[GamerBlake]

Hey guys. I’ve been watching videos about how to choose a good motherboard and I’ve noticed a lot of times Linus, Jayztwocents, Paul’s Hardware and other Tech YouTubers mention “VRM cooling”. Jay even called VRM cooling a “feature not a gimmick”, and I’m wondering..

 

What is VRM cooling and what does it do in regards to performance?

 

Also does my motherboard have good VRM cooling?  

 

Thanks!

[Fasauceome]

The VRMs are the power delivery to your CPU. The VRM area is directly above and to the left of the CPU socket, and you can sometimes judge VRM cooling by the size of the heat sinks (although sometimes the heatsinks are large but with little surface area for heat dissitipation)

 

The MEG Z390 ace has good VRM thermals. 

https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/msi-meg-z390-ace-review,20.html

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

The VRMs are the power delivery to your CPU. The VRM area is directly above and to the left of the CPU socket, and you can sometimes judge VRM cooling by the size of the heat sinks (although sometimes the heatsinks are large but with little surface area for heat dissitipation)

 

The MEG Z390 ace has good VRM thermals. 

But why do VRMs need heat sinks? 

[GamerBlake]

2 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

The VRMs are the power delivery to your CPU. The VRM area is directly above and to the left of the CPU socket, and you can sometimes judge VRM cooling by the size of the heat sinks (although sometimes the heatsinks are large but with little surface area for heat dissitipation)

 

The MEG Z390 ace has good VRM thermals. 

https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/msi-meg-z390-ace-review,20.html

But like..how does that affect performance? I mean if you have two motherboards and one had terrible vrm cooling and the other has amazing vrm cooling would there be any sort of tangible performance benefit? Or would it just be the peace of mind or knowing the vrms are cooler? 

[Godlygamer23]

11 minutes ago, GamerBlake said:

But like..how does that affect performance? I mean if you have two motherboards and one had terrible vrm cooling and the other has amazing vrm cooling would there be any sort of tangible performance benefit? Or would it just be the peace of mind or knowing the vrms are cooler? 

It deals with lifespan, and possible overheating depending on how much work you make them do. Properly cooled MOSFETs(that's what VRMs are composed of) will last longer and are less likely to overheat. They may also run more efficiently. 

[GamerBlake]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

It deals with lifespan, and possible overheating depending on how much work you make them do. Properly cooled MOSFETs(that's what VRMs are composed of) will last longer and are less likely to overheat. 

Ohhh ok thanks!

 

So it’s not better for overclocking or anything like that? It’s just a durability issue?

[Fasauceome]

10 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

But why do VRMs need heat sinks? 

Anything that produces heat that puts it above its safe operating temperature needs a heat sink

 

9 minutes ago, GamerBlake said:

But like..how does that affect performance? I mean if you have two motherboards and one had terrible vrm cooling and the other has amazing vrm cooling would there be any sort of tangible performance benefit? Or would it just be the peace of mind or knowing the vrms are cooler? 

Better VRMs and better cooling means better power delivery, this better overclocks and better overall performance.

 

More heat = more resistance, so power delivery is worse. Also, excessive heat will degrade the VRMs. Motherboards with weak VRMs will be programmed to deliver less power, so you'll end up with lower CPU clocks.

 

[SkilledRebuilds]

8 minutes ago, GamerBlake said:

But like..how does that affect performance? I mean if you have two motherboards and one had terrible vrm cooling and the other has amazing vrm cooling would there be any sort of tangible performance benefit? Or would it just be the peace of mind or knowing the vrms are cooler? 

SEVERE CPU throttling or outright restarts.

 

Perfect example is AMD FX processors on OLD Phenom2 Motherboards that were patched to support FX, but didn't really handle it at all..

[xg32]

10 minutes ago, GamerBlake said:

But like..how does that affect performance? I mean if you have two motherboards and one had terrible vrm cooling and the other has amazing vrm cooling would there be any sort of tangible performance benefit? Or would it just be the peace of mind or knowing the vrms are cooler? 

if i had to bet on which component in a pc would fail first, it would be the mobo vrm, they have a finite hour of life base on actual temps and is usually the hottest component in a pc (unless it's a gigabyte master with its gorgeous heatsink, 60C inside a case lol), on a z390 taichi/ace it's not unusual to see 80C load temps during the summer, and those are considered good boards.

[Godlygamer23]

12 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

But why do VRMs need heat sinks? 

They don't always. If the power requirements are low enough for what the manufacturer is intending, you can get away with not having any, and just utilize the heat dissipation of the device itself. When you start cranking up the power requirements, MOSFETs get real hot, and will overheat, which will probably cause them to fail prematurely and run less efficiently. 

[Godlygamer23]

9 minutes ago, GamerBlake said:

Ohhh ok thanks!

 

So it’s not better for overclocking or anything like that? It’s just a durability issue?

For the most part. Like mentioned above, you can have system restarts, but let's say you don't have those, and you're riding on the point of overheating, but not quite there...then it's a durability issue. Those VRMs being pushed without heatsinks being on them will see less life due to the harsh conditions. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

I've seen MANY FX processors (3.5-4Ghz near constant) on crap motherboards be put to 1.4Ghz for extended periods (10-20 seconds every 30 seconds) because the VRMs got past their temp limits.
Games stutter, performance is craptastic.

[Wingfan]

Power delivery is quite important and often over looked. They need air flow. Something im trying figure out at the moment, but the heat sink is decent for my lower end chip not sucking to much power. Using an AIO is good for cpu and nothing else.