Question about power phases

[BaronVonJace]

What exactly are power phases? I'm shopping for a new motherboard and they keep saying thinks like "8+2 power phase" or "4+1 power phase".

 

Doing some research I see that my current motherboard is a power phase 4+1. Would going to a 8+2 design be better then a 4+1 or is it negligible?

[pwn_intended]

7 minutes ago, BaronVonJace said:

What exactly are power phases? I'm shopping for a new motherboard and they keep saying thinks like "8+2 power phase" or "4+1 power phase".

 

Doing some research I see that my current motherboard is a power phase 4+1. Would going to a 8+2 design be better then a 4+1 or is it negligible?

Power phases are only really relevant if you are overclocking, MOAR = better. but generally they perform about the same unless you are pushing it to the limits of your CPU.

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

More power phases are better because they balance the load more reducing the heat per choke (resulting in better efficiency and a theoretically longer lifespan). More power phases usually provide cleaner current going into things like the CPU, however if the manufacturer uses doublers it doesn't really help stepping down the voltage. For AMD FX processors above the FX 6300 you definitely want a beefy phase design but for most Intel processors you are fine as long as you don't get a cheap mobo and plan on doing high overclocks. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Power phases affect the power delivery to the GPU and memory controller. The more power phases you have, the more power the house keeping circuitry in the graphics card can deliver cleanly.

 

I'm totally stealing this explanation but you can think of power phases like cylinders for a car. A 4 phase power system is like an 4-cylinder car and an 8-phase power system is like an 8-cylinder car. All other specs being equal, the 8-cylinder car can deliver more power than the 4-cylinder one.

 

The +1, +2 at the end means how many other places other than the GPU does the power go to.

[BaronVonJace]

42 minutes ago, LeapFrogMasterRace said:

More power phases are better because they balance the load more reducing the heat per choke (resulting in better efficiency and a theoretically longer lifespan). More power phases usually provide cleaner current going into things like the CPU, however if the manufacturer uses doublers it doesn't really help stepping down the voltage. For AMD FX processors above the FX 6300 you definitely want a beefy phase design but for most Intel processors you are fine as long as you don't get a cheap mobo and plan on doing high overclocks. 

Seeing as I have a FX-8150, I should get the 8+2 motherboard.

 

40 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Power phases affect the power delivery to the GPU and memory controller. The more power phases you have, the more power the house keeping circuitry in the graphics card can deliver cleanly.

 

I'm totally stealing this explanation but you can think of power phases like cylinders for a car. A 4 phase power system is like an 4-cylinder car and an 8-phase power system is like an 8-cylinder car. All other specs being equal, the 8-cylinder car can deliver more power than the 4-cylinder one.

 

The +1, +2 at the end means how many other places other than the GPU does the power go to.

GPU or CPU? I'm getting two different explanations here. Or does the graphics card have its own set of power phases?

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, BaronVonJace said:

GPU or CPU? I'm getting two different explanations here. Or does the graphics card have its own set of power phases?

Either way. I was just using GPUs as an example since it cropped up more recently for me.