[SOLVED] How Far Can A MSI B450M Mortar Max Overclock?

[madartzgraphics]

Recently bought an MSI B450M Mortar Max Board which comes with Ryzen 3 3100 , Snowman 4 pipe dual fan cooler, 8GB (2x4GB) HyperX Fury 2666mhz and a Cooler Master MWE 550 Bronze. I would just like to know how far this board can overclock as I'm planning to upgrade it as you can see there's a lot of room for upgrade here and I did planned it that way. As soon as I buy a better CPU and RX 570/580, i will be testing it for overclock. Did some random tho, Ryzen 3 3100 looks pretty stable at 4.1 @ 1.2v and HyperX Fury @ 3000mhz OC. Did some Cinebench and Prime 95 and maxed out at 70 degrees (pretty hot asian summer room temperature right now here).

Any thoughts? First time at AM4 platform.

 

[CountMike]

Recently bought an MSI B450M Mortar Max Board which comes with Ryzen 3 3100 , Snowman 4 pipe dual fan cooler, 8GB (2x4GB) HyperX Fury 2666mhz and a Cooler Master MWE 550 Bronze. I would just like to know how far this board can overclock as I'm planning to upgrade it as you can see there's a lot of room for upgrade here and I did planned it that way. As soon as I buy a better CPU and RX 570/580, i will be testing it for overclock. Did some random tho, Ryzen 3 3100 looks pretty stable at 4.1 @ 1.2v and HyperX Fury @ 3000mhz OC. Did some Cinebench and Prime 95 and maxed out at 70 degrees (pretty hot asian summer room temperature right now here).

Any thoughts? First time at AM4 platform.

For CPU overclock, just like any other MB, most important part is VRM, it's not same thing to OC a 4 core or 16 core CPU.
Memory OC is primarily limited by RAM itself then BIOS and finally processor (IMC (internal Memory Controller) is in the CPU, not on the MB. Zen3 ( 5000 series) for instance handle RAM much better than first Zen. You can see it here:

1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667Mhz (by JEDEC)
For AMD Ryzen Gen3 (R5/R7/R9)
2667/ 2800/ 2933/ 3000/ 3066/ 3200/ 3466/ 3733/ 3866/ 4000/ 4133 MHz (by A-XMP OC MODE)
For AMD Other CPU
2667/ 2800/ 2933/ 3000/ 3066/ 3200/ 3466 MHz (by A-XMP OC MODE)

Those are just limits for memory automatic overclock, with right combination you can exceed it by manual OC.

Overclocking of dedicated GPU depends only on GPU itself and overclocking integrated GPU depends on processor it's integrated in.

 

[madartzgraphics]

For CPU overclock, just like any other MB, most important part is VRM, it's not same thing to OC a 4 core or 16 core CPU.
Memory OC is primarily limited by RAM itself then BIOS and finally processor (IMC (internal Memory Controller) is in the CPU, not on the MB. Zen3 ( 5000 series) for instance handle RAM much better than first Zen. You can see it here:

1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667Mhz (by JEDEC)
For AMD Ryzen Gen3 (R5/R7/R9)
2667/ 2800/ 2933/ 3000/ 3066/ 3200/ 3466/ 3733/ 3866/ 4000/ 4133 MHz (by A-XMP OC MODE)
For AMD Other CPU
2667/ 2800/ 2933/ 3000/ 3066/ 3200/ 3466 MHz (by A-XMP OC MODE)

Those are just limits for memory automatic overclock, with right combination you can exceed it by manual OC.

Overclocking of dedicated GPU depends only on GPU itself and overclocking integrated GPU depends on processor it's integrated in.

Thanks @CountMike for the detailed info! I really appreciate it. Would be doing just automatic overclock like what you've explained (would like to explore the manual way tho, no problem) I dont expect much of this board tho but i've heard some good stuff from other forums about it. Probably some intermediate level OC-ing as I am pretty new to OC-ing specially to AM4 platform.. One thing that bugs me out is that if this board (specially the VRM) can handle that much of OC-ing or my future upgrade CPUs? I did considered the bios that's why I chose this one, do you think the board can handle more powerful CPU with OC and to what extent?

Please pardon me for lacking expertise on this matter. I would love to hear some tips, suggestions and stuff.

 

[CountMike]

Thanks @CountMike for the detailed info! I really appreciate it. Would be doing just automatic overclock like what you've explained (would like to explore the manual way tho, no problem) I dont expect much of this board tho but i've heard some good stuff from other forums about it. Probably some intermediate level OC-ing as I am pretty new to OC-ing specially to AM4 platform.. One thing that bugs me out is that if this board (specially the VRM) can handle that much of OC-ing or my future upgrade CPUs? I did considered the bios that's why I chose this one, do you think the board can handle more powerful CPU with OC and to what extent?

Please pardon me for lacking expertise on this matter. I would love to hear some tips, suggestions and stuff.

That MB has one of best VRMs in that segment and should allow for reasonable OC on up to 5800x.
There is one thing with overclocking Ryzen, specially "x" models, there's a very small margin to OC over it's boost frequencies. For instance, it would be great success to OC all cores any x Ryzen over it's single core boost frequency and most often results in some compromise with stability and heat while single core performance may even drop.
Non-x models don't boost automatically as high as x models but can be OC-ed to x model performance manually.
Let's take r5 3600 for instance, it's boost is up to 4.2GHz (single core) while 3600x goes up to 4.4GHz so with some luck you could OC it on all cores to 4.3GHz. But that brings marginal scores over non-OCed 3600x.
"Reasonable" all core OC usually means using reasonable voltage (about 1.3-1.35v) and good cooling.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Thanks @CountMike for the detailed info! I really appreciate it. Would be doing just automatic overclock like what you've explained (would like to explore the manual way tho, no problem) I dont expect much of this board tho but i've heard some good stuff from other forums about it. Probably some intermediate level OC-ing as I am pretty new to OC-ing specially to AM4 platform.. One thing that bugs me out is that if this board (specially the VRM) can handle that much of OC-ing or my future upgrade CPUs? I did considered the bios that's why I chose this one, do you think the board can handle more powerful CPU with OC and to what extent?

Please pardon me for lacking expertise on this matter. I would love to hear some tips, suggestions and stuff.

A B450 Mortar has a pretty good VRM...actually the best AM4 mATX you could get before B550 came out. I have one and it handles my 3700X very well. They keep fairly cool even for 16-core 3950's so long as you don't attempt fixed overclocking. But don't expect much for overclocking any Zen2 or Zen3 CPU's, at least not in the conventional all-core sense. Most people wind up hurting light threaded performance, important for gaming, chasing big all-core clocks.

They can deliver good performance improvement, while not hurting single-thread, with PBO, however. For that the VRM probably won't be an issue even with a 16 core 3950X.

 

[madartzgraphics]

That MB has one of best VRMs in that segment and should allow for reasonable OC on up to 5800x.
There is one thing with overclocking Ryzen, specially "x" models, there's a very small margin to OC over it's boost frequencies. For instance, it would be great success to OC all cores any x Ryzen over it's single core boost frequency and most often results in some compromise with stability and heat while single core performance may even drop.
Non-x models don't boost automatically as high as x models but can be OC-ed to x model performance manually.
Let's take r5 3600 for instance, it's boost is up to 4.2GHz (single core) while 3600x goes up to 4.4GHz so with some luck you could OC it on all cores to 4.3GHz. But that brings marginal scores over non-OCed 3600x.
"Reasonable" all core OC usually means using reasonable voltage (about 1.3-1.35v) and good cooling.

Wow, that's real nice. Looks like i should not limit myself to ryzen 5's then. Didn't expect this board can handle such CPUs with OC.

About the margin. I've also noticed that.. core boost frequency is already high and somewhat leaves you little room for OC-ing anymore and is more reasonable on the bill, heat and performance. I should consider them when OC-ing, thanks for pointing it out @CountMike

A B450 Mortar has a pretty good VRM...actually the best AM4 mATX you could get before B550 came out. I have one and it handles my 3700X very well. They keep fairly cool even for 16-core 3950's so long as you don't attempt fixed overclocking. But don't expect much for overclocking any Zen2 or Zen3 CPU's, at least not in the conventional all-core sense. Most people wind up hurting light threaded performance, important for gaming, chasing big all-core clocks.

They can deliver good performance improvement, while not hurting single-thread, with PBO, however. For that the VRM probably won't be an issue even with a 16 core 3950X.

Can handle a 3700X and a 3950x well? That's some good news @drea.drechsler! I wasn't sure about if I should get the board but I guess I did the right choice. Looks like this MB is one hell of a micro atx beast.

Thanks for the info guys i really appreciate it! I will definitely take note about all of these, thank you very much.

 

[drea.drechsler]

... Looks like this MB is one hell of a micro atx beast...

I wouldn't go that far...not when you consider what you can get in B450 ATX boards. mATX has definitely not gotten the love for AM4 boards.

Until, that is, B550...the B550 Mortar is much closer to 'beastly'.

 

[madartzgraphics]

I wouldn't go that far...not when you consider what you can get in B450 ATX boards. mATX has definitely not gotten the love for AM4 boards.

Until, that is, B550...the B550 Mortar is much closer to 'beastly'.

Well atleast I could say on this price range and micro atx form factor. A B550M Mortar is an overkill for me. Not really planning to go that way but I agree with mATX boards not getting some love LOL.

Thanks again Drea!