[SOLVED] B450 Aorus Elite VRM vs 2700x OC

[maziech]

Hey,

Any idea how good Gigabyte's Aorus Elite B450 vrm section is?

• is it capable to work stable with 8c/16t cpu's on stock clocks?
• is it stable and not insanely hot on CPU OC?

This board is super cheap, and afaik quite good, but i'm worried it's not the best choice for high end / X Ryzen cpu's?
Any opinions?

CPU's i have in mind:

• 2700X (+maybe OC)
• 2700 (OC)
• 2600X (+maybe OC)
• 2600 (OC)

...and yes, i am aware of X470 chipsets and better vrm sections on that mobos

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hey,

Any idea how good Gigabyte's Aorus Elite B450 vrm section is?
....

Not very good at all...

Bottom end of the barely adequate tier, you'd best put a fan on the VRM section to keep it cool. In your range of CPU options I'd say the 2700 is the least preferred on that board. With An 'X' CPU you're better off not all-core overclocking anyway...instead disable PBO, relax current, power and temperature limits and let the processor overclock it's best two cores as high as it can. That works well for gaming.

But if you must have an all-core overclock a 6-core 2600 would be preferred considering the VRM that board has.

A good reference:
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/9uc6bi/am4_b450x470_vrm_tier_list/

 

[maziech]

Great answer, thanks!

 

[Rjich]

I'm no motherboard engineer nor do I own all the models listed above, but it seems odd that a motherboard wouldn't support the chips it was explicitly created to support, at stock. Personally I can recommend the b450 mortar for a 2700x.

 

[maziech]

I'm no motherboard engineer nor do I own all the models listed above, but it seems odd that a motherboard wouldn't support the chips it was explicitly created to support, at stock. Personally I can recommend the b450 mortar for a 2700x.

It's a common problem on AM4 socket motherboards with overclocking -> VRM quality and temperatures are not always sufficient for all CPU's.
All AM4 motherboards will support those CPUs, but they may behave different if it comes to VRM temperatures and stability on OC.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I'm no motherboard engineer nor do I own all the models listed above, but it seems odd that a motherboard wouldn't support the chips it was explicitly created to support, at stock.
....

I believe it's safe to say all B350 or B450 motherboards support any 1st or 2nd gen Ryzen fully (with appropriate BIOS) and especially so at 'stock' configurations - even 2700's whether or not 'X'. It's just that some are more suited to overclocking than others. (The story is yet to be told for 3rd gen Ryzen.)

You can still overclock even on boards with weak VRM's but you have to be careful about how high you push frequency and how hard / long you push it during processing. Assuming it's stable, the most likely thing to happen will be onset of throttling (not so bad but certainly annoying) and the next thing is early capacitor failures if/when they are forced to operate above 105c for extended duration. I don't think any of the FET's used have temperature ratings below 125C so they should be OK. This is, of course, aside from random failure due to defect which high temperature/current operation will exacerbate.

 

[Rjich]

Thanks for the responses. I agree and purchased my motherboard to take VRM issues into account. It was just some of the previous responses to the initial poster inferred that the motherboards weren't even good enough to run stock of which I wanted to highlight, the answer was then confirmed by your detailed reply.

 

[maziech]

It was just some of the previous responses to the initial poster inferred that the motherboards weren't even good enough to run stock of which I wanted to highlight, the answer was then confirmed by your detailed reply.

Some VRM's on cheapest mobo's are said to run too hot even on stock settings with high end CPU's like 2700x, that's why I asked. They will work ofc, but overheating might cause some problems in the long run eventually.