Does the motherboard matter in overclocking?

[Charon142]

So originally i was choosing parts for a new rig and randomly read on a site that the "ASUS PRIME A320M-C R2.0" Can't do any overclocking

This brought up two questions for me

First how much the motherboard matter in overclocking? 

and second which one of these motherboards can overclock? 

TUF GAMING A520M-PLUS II
ASUS PRIME B560M-A  
ASUS PRIME B460M-A 

(If you have any other suggestions, i would be glad to hear them) 

[TheBean]

if you look a the specs of the mobo, it will specify a chipset. A-series (A320 in this case) cannot do overclocking. B series and Z series does have OC.

 

I would also make sure that the motherboard supports the correct cpu you will be using since the bios update can affect this. Use "PCPartPicker" website to help you with this. 

 

personally, I would stay away from asrock motherboard. I like gigabyte, asus, and some msi ones. 

in terms of finding the right budget, since I am not getting an expensive CPU, the mobo does not matter that much for overclocking since many will work well. If you go for higher end CPU like 5800x or better or 11700k or better, then it does matter more

[miracleboy14]

Motherboard does not matter that much for overclocking. And the asus boards can overclock

 

[BondiBlue]

34 minutes ago, miracleboy14 said:

Motherboard does not matter that much for overclocking.

Yes, yes it does. 

[Charon142]

1 hour ago, TheBean said:

if you look a the specs of the mobo, it will specify a chipset. A-series (A320 in this case) cannot do overclocking. B series and Z series does have OC.

 

I would also make sure that the motherboard supports the correct cpu you will be using since the bios update can affect this. Use "PCPartPicker" website to help you with this. 

 

personally, I would stay away from asrock motherboard. I like gigabyte, asus, and some msi ones. 

in terms of finding the right budget, since I am not getting an expensive CPU, the mobo does not matter that much for overclocking since many will work well. If you go for higher end CPU like 5800x or better or 11700k or better, then it does matter more

I tried PcPartPicker but it doesn't have the "ryzen 5 pro 4650G" and "TUF GAMING A520M-PLUS II" in its list. I'll have to check compatibility by myself

also since you said B and Z series have overclocking does that mean all A series doesn't support overclocking or some of them?

I'm not going for an extreme build, it's not really budget friendly for me

[Chiyawa]

Hi, well, to clarify:

 

For AM4 socket (AMD Ryzen processors), The chipset that allows overclocking would be B350, B450, B550, X370, X470 and X570 motherboard.

 

For Intel, I think only Z series motherboard offers overclocking, such as Z390, Z490, Z590 and the recent Z690. Not sure if BX60 offers overclocking, though.

 

However, even if the chipsets allow overclocking, that doesn't mean all motherboard can be over-clock. The power phases as well as copper traces are very crucial to over-clocking. If the copper traces are in poor quality or the power phases could not supply a stable power to the processor, it is not possible to over-clock your CPU, and even if you can over-clock it, it will become very unstable.

 

So, if you are looking for over-clocking capable motherboard, you may want to check out the power delivery system of the motherboard. There's Motherboard Tier List which list power capability of the AM4 motherboards, so I suggest you to start from there. Usually, for Ryzen 5, a motherboard that is capable to provide 150A of power is sufficient, but if you are running Ryzen 7 and wants to over-clock it, then you might want to get a motherboard with 200A power.

 

Also, do note that even if the motherboard has no capability to over-clock your CPU, many modern CPU can still utilised over-clocking capability like Precision Boost Overdrive or Turbo Boost. These usually integrated with the CPU and doesn't dependant on chipset or motherboard. They only over-clock for a short time, however, and it is automatic. Better motherboard and better cooler can prolong this type of over-clocking.

 

Hope these information helps you a little. I know that this information barely scratch the surface, so I suggest you to broaden your horizon. Youtube is a good place to start because there are many Youtubers such as Linus Tech Tips, Jayz 2 cents, and Gamers Nexus explaining about this.

[Chiyawa]

1 minute ago, Charon142 said:

I tried PcPartPicker but it doesn't have the "ryzen 5 pro 4650G" and "TUF GAMING A520M-PLUS II" in its list. I'll have to check compatibility by myself

Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G is an OEM part and it is not available for general consumer, the reason why PCPartPicker doesn't have that CPU.

 

I would recommend B450 or B550 motherboard if you are looking for overclocking your CPU. MSI has some good B450 motherboards (I think Bazooka) that overclocks well, but you might need to update the BIOS first if you are using Ryzen 3000, 4000 or 5000 series CPU/APU.

[Charon142]

12 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Hi, well, to clarify:

 

For AM4 socket (AMD Ryzen processors), The chipset that allows overclocking would be B350, B450, B550, X370, X470 and X570 motherboard.

 

For Intel, I think only Z series motherboard offers overclocking, such as Z390, Z490, Z590 and the recent Z690. Not sure if BX60 offers overclocking, though.

 

However, even if the chipsets allow overclocking, that doesn't mean all motherboard can be over-clock. The power phases as well as copper traces are very crucial to over-clocking. If the copper traces are in poor quality or the power phases could not supply a stable power to the processor, it is not possible to over-clock your CPU, and even if you can over-clock it, it will become very unstable.

 

So, if you are looking for over-clocking capable motherboard, you may want to check out the power delivery system of the motherboard. There's Motherboard Tier List which list power capability of the AM4 motherboards, so I suggest you to start from there. Usually, for Ryzen 5, a motherboard that is capable to provide 150A of power is sufficient, but if you are running Ryzen 7 and wants to over-clock it, then you might want to get a motherboard with 200A power.

 

Also, do note that even if the motherboard has no capability to over-clock your CPU, many modern CPU can still utilised over-clocking capability like Precision Boost Overdrive or Turbo Boost. These usually integrated with the CPU and doesn't dependant on chipset or motherboard. They only over-clock for a short time, however, and it is automatic. Better motherboard and better cooler can prolong this type of over-clocking.

 

Hope these information helps you a little. I know that this information barely scratch the surface, so I suggest you to broaden your horizon. Youtube is a good place to start because there are many Youtubers such as Linus Tech Tips, Jayz 2 cents, and Gamers Nexus explaining about this.

these information helped me more than "a little"

thank you very much for explaining it so clearly

[Charon142]

18 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G is an OEM part and it is not available for general consumer, the reason why PCPartPicker doesn't have that CPU.

 

I would recommend B450 or B550 motherboard if you are looking for overclocking your CPU. MSI has some good B450 motherboards (I think Bazooka) that overclocks well, but you might need to update the BIOS first if you are using Ryzen 3000, 4000 or 5000 series CPU/APU.

Ohhh, that makes sense

I'll take a look at those motherboards, thanks

[Beerzerker]

I have one of these boards and technically yes, it CAN be OC'ed but it's not a good candidate for that use.
It only has the basics and not much else to work with, plus it's weak VRM setup isn't nearly ideal for that kind of thing.
 

7 minutes ago, Charon142 said:

Ohhh, that makes sense

I'll take a look at those motherboards, thanks

Yes, you'd be much better off doing that.