DIfference between normal MSI mpower and mpower-MAX?

[melias24]

Hi, i was wondering, whats the difference between the normal mpower by MSi and the mpower-MAX? How many features am i loosing by going cheaper with the mpower instead of the max, will i still have sli support?

Thanks,

~Elias

[Fulgrim]

You're talking about the Z87 motherboards right?

 

MPower Max has more phases in its power design than the MPower ( 20 vs 16 phases ), plus 2*8pin cpu power header instead of 1, so it'll give out better results if you want to do some extreme overclocking. Beside that main difference, Max version also has more usb3 ports ( using NEC's usb3.0 controller ) and a TPM header. That's all. Other features are identical between the 2 boards.

 

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z87-MPOWER-MAX.html

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z87-MPOWER.html

[Faa]

 

You're talking about the Z87 motherboards right?

 

MPower Max has more phases in its power design than the MPower ( 20 vs 16 phases ), plus 2*8pin cpu power header instead of 1, so it'll give out better results if you want to do some extreme overclocking. Beside that main difference, Max version also has more usb3 ports ( using NEC's usb3.0 controller ) and a TPM header. That's all. Other features are identical between the 2 boards.

Mpower max has 5 phases not 20. The Z87 mpower/ has 8 phases. Physical count or the marketing count means nothing, it's all about how many phases the pwm IC has not about the chokecount. The max is 8 anyways, there's no pwm chip that has more than 8 phases isn't vdr12.5 certified yet either. Mpower is better than the max but it will never show itself doing better even for LN2.

[Fulgrim]

Mpower max has 5 phases not 20. The Z87 mpower/ has 8 phases. Physical count or the marketing count means nothing, it's all about how many phases the pwm IC has not about the chokecount. The max is 8 anyways, there's no pwm chip that has more than 8 phases isn't vdr12.5 certified yet either. Mpower is better than the max but it will never show itself doing better even for LN2.

[Faa]

*

 

Didnt you read what I said? There is no 16 phase pwm. Do you even realize how they achieve "16 phase"? Using doublers? What do doublers do? Doing nothing besides spreading the load over more mosfets therefore spreading the temps across more mosfets so its easier to cool. A doubler splits a phase in two channels or 4 (4 is the case for the mpower max), with old pwm's you need for each voltage a channel thats why most low-end boards use them. For world record overclocking all that matters is the pwm phase count, digital and mosfet quality. Like I said the choke count or the physical count or the marketingscount means nothing performance wise. Doublers do nothing to your vrm's performance

This is the currently the best PWM IC with the most phases: