am4 mobo Budget AM4 mobo with good vrm?

[seraa]

I'm currently using a r5 3400g on a a320m hdv and the vrm is awful and gives huge input lag and stutters. Thinking of switching to a b450 board for better vrm, I was hooked on asrock steel legend but started reconsidering the Tomahawk (even though it's kinda hard to find in my region) after checking several threads along with tier lists of b450 mobos and according to it the Steel legend vrm is mid. I just wanted a mobo that could withstand XMP (3200mhz) and stable performance with stock r5 3400g with PBO and some mild oc if needed.

 

Perhaps I might also upgrade it to either 3000 or 5000 series later

[Alex Atkin UK]

34 minutes ago, seraa said:

I'm currently using a r5 3400g on a a320m hdv and the vrm is awful and gives huge input lag and stutters. Thinking of switching to a b450 board for better vrm, I was hooked on asrock steel legend but started reconsidering the Tomahawk (even though it's kinda hard to find in my region) after checking several threads along with tier lists of b450 mobos and according to it the Steel legend vrm is mid. I just wanted a mobo that could withstand XMP (3200mhz) and stable performance with stock r5 3400g with PBO and some mild oc if needed.

 

Perhaps I might also upgrade it to either 3000 or 5000 series later

What makes you think its the VRM?  AFAIK the only thing a bad VRM would do is shut down due to overheating.

[jaslion]

14 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

What makes you think its the VRM?  AFAIK the only thing a bad VRM would do is shut down due to overheating.

It will also slow down a cpu when its overheating to lower heat but well even a crap board like that will run a 3400g fine.

 

Can you expand upon the issues you have op? What are the other specs? The a320m will run a 3400g fine normally.

[Tetras]

The VRM would have to be awful to throttle a 3400G, I'd be surprised if that was your problem. If I recall correctly, the B450 Tomahawk was one of the most popular and widely recommended boards, but if you're going to the trouble of replacing an existing AM4 board wouldn't it be better to go B550 and get PCI-E 4.0? You also get 2x M.2 slots on most B550 boards.

[okkee]

1 hour ago, seraa said:

I'm currently using a r5 3400g on a a320m hdv and the vrm is awful and gives huge input lag and stutters. Thinking of switching to a b450 board for better vrm, I was hooked on asrock steel legend but started reconsidering the Tomahawk (even though it's kinda hard to find in my region) after checking several threads along with tier lists of b450 mobos and according to it the Steel legend vrm is mid. I just wanted a mobo that could withstand XMP (3200mhz) and stable performance with stock r5 3400g with PBO and some mild oc if needed.

 

Perhaps I might also upgrade it to either 3000 or 5000 series later

What's the evidence against the vrm? An A320 seems like the type of board built for exactly a cpu like the 340g.

[seraa]

On 4/20/2025 at 7:19 PM, jaslion said:

It will also slow down a cpu when its overheating to lower heat but well even a crap board like that will run a 3400g fine.

 

Can you expand upon the issues you have op? What are the other specs? The a320m will run a 3400g fine normally.

Sorry for the late reply, My CPU temps are fine, I tried repasting it and the max temp it could go is 70c during under load and 38-40c during idle which is still bearable. I use Addgame spider4 3200mhz RX 580 8GB and a 580+ PSU. The issue I always stumble upon is mainly the severe input lag, there's a moment where a game if I left it to idle for a while and come back, the game will look smoother and the input latency is flawless but 10-20 seconds later, it came back. I tried researching all possible solutions for this. Replacing RAMs, changing PSU and GPU. The problem still persists

[seraa]

On 4/20/2025 at 7:03 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

What makes you think its the VRM?  AFAIK the only thing a bad VRM would do is shut down due to overheating.

I've tested every hardware parts and even replacing them and also repaste them, it all remains the same even resetting PC and Updating Drivers. I somehow managed to 'found' the problem when I turn off the PBO for the cpu which results 'undervolting'  which makes my system run smoother but it will not give a consistent fps in games, I also apply this theory before when I tried undervolting the GPU (RX 580 8GB) it gives the same results as well. I tried to consider the reasoning behind an issue where my game stutters during mid fight was due to the VRM couldn't keep up on giving the adequate voltage which results throttling

[seraa]

On 4/20/2025 at 8:17 PM, okkee said:

What's the evidence against the vrm? An A320 seems like the type of board built for exactly a cpu like the 340g.

You can check the other replies that I made if you don't mind

[seraa]

On 4/20/2025 at 7:25 PM, Tetras said:

The VRM would have to be awful to throttle a 3400G, I'd be surprised if that was your problem. If I recall correctly, the B450 Tomahawk was one of the most popular and widely recommended boards, but if you're going to the trouble of replacing an existing AM4 board wouldn't it be better to go B550 and get PCI-E 4.0? You also get 2x M.2 slots on most B550 boards.

Hi, yes but unfortunately I'm currently on a budget and needed a new mobo as my a320 CPU pins got bent, and my other hardware parts are enough to adequate my work and gaming needs. I'm considering on getting the B450 Mortar Max as I heard it's also equivalent to tomahawk as well

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, seraa said:

Sorry for the late reply, My CPU temps are fine, I tried repasting it and the max temp it could go is 70c during under load and 38-40c during idle which is still bearable. I use Addgame spider4 3200mhz RX 580 8GB and a 580+ PSU. The issue I always stumble upon is mainly the severe input lag, there's a moment where a game if I left it to idle for a while and come back, the game will look smoother and the input latency is flawless but 10-20 seconds later, it came back. I tried researching all possible solutions for this. Replacing RAMs, changing PSU and GPU. The problem still persists

What game?

 

Are you running it of a ssd or hdd?

 

Whats the ram usage look like? Page file and actual ram.

 

Nothing here sounds like the asrock is having a problem. Easiest test of all would be to just make your cpu a bit slower in the bios, ryzen master or even windows built in cpu limit. If it does the exact same at lets say 80% speed then yeah no way the asrock is having a problem with overheating vrms.

[seraa]

25 minutes ago, jaslion said:

What game?

 

Are you running it of a ssd or hdd?

 

Whats the ram usage look like? Page file and actual ram.

 

Nothing here sounds like the asrock is having a problem. Easiest test of all would be to just make your cpu a bit slower in the bios, ryzen master or even windows built in cpu limit. If it does the exact same at lets say 80% speed then yeah no way the asrock is having a problem with overheating

I'm using NVME M.2

For CPU intense game: TF2, Roblox and Valorant 

For GPU intense game: GTA 5, DMC 5, Far Cry 5

 

Most of them are stable at 100+ ish during under load, but the input latency is just unbearable and the game doesn't look smooth (monitor refresh rate isn't the problem). The RAM usage is mostly at 70%(16 GB) if it only runs one heavy game like GTA 5 and the paging file are managed automatically by Windows. Furthermore, the a320 doesn't support overclocking so It can't tweak voltage and clock speed even using Ryzen Master 

 

Additionally, one of my technician also has a similar spec with me along with the same mobo and he also said that the culprit was the mobo that causes the delay in the input latency