[SOLVED] Is there any difference in gaming performance between H610 and B660 chipset motherboards?

[mossi]

Is there any difference in gaming performance between H610 and B660 chipset motherboards?
I would think there isn't really..
The idea behind this question is if it's worth spending more money to get a B660 motherboard (ie £30 more) to house an i3 12100F with a GTX 1660S or Radeon 6500XT
That's just an example but I was wondering if there is any actual performance gain in gaming if you buy a B660 instead..
I mean cheaper B660s still have only 2 RAM slots.

Any views are welcome. Thank you

 

[boju]

Ram speed on 610 is limited to cpu memory controller which for 12100 is;

Ddr5 4800
Ddr4 3200

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-h670-b660-h610-motherboard-roundup

B660 allows for xmp above those speeds so if you're not interested in faster memory then 610 is fine.

 

[logainofhades]

You will want B660, for the faster ram. The old adage of Intel doesn't care much about ram speed, is a bit outdated. Also, buying a better board now, means you can actually upgrade to better CPU, later on, without having to get a new motherboard. 13th gen is coming late this year, so you will have the full range of 12th and 13th gen available, for upgrades. H610 and really terrible B660 boards cannot handle the more powerful chips, as you can see here.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3o1Ebk_jCA



PCPartPicker Part List

Motherboard: MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£134.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Total: £134.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-03-23 13:27 GMT+0000

 

[mossi]

Ram speed on 610 is limited to cpu memory controller which for 12100 is;

Ddr5 4800
Ddr4 3200

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-h670-b660-h610-motherboard-roundup

B660 allows for xmp above those speeds so if you're not interested in faster memory then 610 is fine.

I'll have a read thank you

 

[mossi]

You will want B660, for the faster ram. The old adage of Intel doesn't care much about ram speed, is a bit outdated. Also, buying a better board now, means you can actually upgrade to better CPU, later on, without having to get a new motherboard. 13th gen is coming late this year, so you will have the full range of 12th and 13th gen available, for upgrades. H610 and really terrible B660 boards cannot handle the more powerful chips, as you can see here.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3o1Ebk_jCA



PCPartPicker Part List

Motherboard: MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£134.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Total: £134.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-03-23 13:27 GMT+0000

Thank you I'll watch it.

Basically I was thinking that perhaps Intel CPUs are better value for money now with the likes of the i3-12100F and similar but the cost of the motherboards vs AMD means AMD is still better value..

I was thinking of a system that would remain the same for 5-6 years at which point mobo/CPU/RAM might be changed in their entirety when the next upgrade happens.

Then again there isn't much stock around for AMD :S
Let's see if there is more stock in April..

 

[boju]

You would be better off going 12600, with b660 board. 6/12 thread will serve you much longer than 4/8t would in games and much higher all core turbo as well.

With this cooler

https://noctua.at/en/nh-u12a-chromax-black

 

[mossi]

You would be better off going 12600, with b660 board. 6/12 thread will serve you much longer than 4/8t would in games and much higher all core turbo as well.

With this cooler

https://noctua.at/en/nh-u12a-chromax-black

Yeah true but there is also the budget in mind and who will be using it which is my son who has only started complaining about his i5-4460 + GTX 760 about its performance on Fortnite and he is 11 and I don't know much he will want to be using the PC in the future so don't want to buy something expensive and then he gives up on PC gaming in the future..
Thanks though!

 

[logainofhades]

What are the full system specs of that machine, including make/model of the power supply? That GPU needs updated. It is old and no longer has driver support. What is the budget?

 

[hotaru.hino]

I'm going to poke at the notion of "Intel doesn't see improvements with faster RAM"

I would argue that's still the case in most applications:

Best RAM for Intel 12th-Gen Core: DDR4 vs. DDR5

A close look at memory scaling performance with Intel Core 12th-gen CPUs, to help you choose the best DDR4 and DDR5 memory kits for Alder Lake.

www.techspot.com

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17078/intel-alder-lake-ddr5-memory-scaling-analysis

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/intel-alder-lake-ram-guide-ddr4-ddr5

DDR5 Memory Performance Scaling with Alder Lake Core i9-12900K

In this article, we take a closer look at the performance scaling you can expect for various DDR5 configurations. We test from DDR5-6000 all the way down to DDR5-2400 and compare CL30 vs. CL36 vs. CL40. Last but not least, we also consider these numbers in relation to what DDR4-3600 offers.

www.techpowerup.com

With the qualifiers:

• The minimum RAM speed is 3200 MT/s
• "Significant improvements" is at least 10% on average

 

[mossi]

I'm going to poke at the notion of "Intel doesn't see improvements with faster RAM"

I would argue that's still the case in most applications:

Best RAM for Intel 12th-Gen Core: DDR4 vs. DDR5

A close look at memory scaling performance with Intel Core 12th-gen CPUs, to help you choose the best DDR4 and DDR5 memory kits for Alder Lake.

www.techspot.com

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17078/intel-alder-lake-ddr5-memory-scaling-analysis

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/intel-alder-lake-ram-guide-ddr4-ddr5

DDR5 Memory Performance Scaling with Alder Lake Core i9-12900K

In this article, we take a closer look at the performance scaling you can expect for various DDR5 configurations. We test from DDR5-6000 all the way down to DDR5-2400 and compare CL30 vs. CL36 vs. CL40. Last but not least, we also consider these numbers in relation to what DDR4-3600 offers.

www.techpowerup.com

With the qualifiers:

• The minimum RAM speed is 3200 MT/s
• "Significant improvements" is at least 10% on average

Thanks you beat me to it I was going to post this video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-tk0UGnYC8


It clearly shows that there is a difference between 2666Mhz and 3200Mhz but upwards of that hardly any.. so there's no point to get anything more expensive while on a budget.

 

[mossi]

What are the full system specs of that machine, including make/model of the power supply? That GPU needs updated. It is old and no longer has driver support. What is the budget?

i5-4460
GTX 760
16GBs of DDR3 1600Mhz
Fractal Design 750W Gold rated power supply (Edison I think)

Budget is £250 for CPU/Mobo/RAM at best.
was going for
Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x 8GB) 3200MHz DDR4
Intel Core i3 12100F Alder Lake-S CPU
Gigabyte H610M H DDR4 Intel Motherboard

total £242 for now and look to upgrade the graphics card later on

 

[logainofhades]

While still not a super great board, but better than any H610.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£98.54 @ Box Limited)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660M GAMING DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (£99.99 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £258.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-03-23 16:36 GMT+0000

 

[hotaru.hino]

Thanks you beat me to it I was going to post this video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-tk0UGnYC8


It clearly shows that there is a difference between 2666Mhz and 3200Mhz but upwards of that hardly any.. so there's no point to get anything more expensive while on a budget.

Plus if history is anything to go by, every time we've upgraded to a new generation of RAM, the first generation of processors to use it almost never show any significant improvement over using the previous generation. It doesn't help a lot of them have compatibility with the older generation of RAM, so it had to be designed with that in mind.

I'm also under the impression that faster RAM speed doesn't really matter unless you have processors that can eat that bandwidth and ask for seconds.

 

[logainofhades]

Plus if history is anything to go by, every time we've upgraded to a new generation of RAM, the first generation of processors to use it almost never show any significant improvement over using the previous generation. It doesn't help a lot of them have compatibility with the older generation of RAM, so it had to be designed with that in mind.

I'm also under the impression that faster RAM speed doesn't really matter unless you have processors that can eat that bandwidth and ask for seconds.

I still remember when GN did the 10400/f review. When paired with a board that would not allow for ram, beyond 2666, it would lose to a 3300x, with 3200 ram, on a B450 board, in gaming. Also the H610 boards have very weak, and non heatsinked VRM's, that will want to overheat. They are best suited for low power celeron, pentium, and maybe i3 office pc's. Definitely wouldn't trust them to run even a 12400f. For a bit more, getting a semi decent B660 makes far more sense, than an H610.