[SOLVED] Motherboard with T-Topology or motherboard with Daisy Chain & Optimem III ?

[Deleted member 2808222]

If we were to look at motherboards with similar features and price, would a T-Topology board work better than a Daisy Chain board with Asus’s Optimem III for 4x32GB (128GB) of RAM?

I’m aiming for RAM speeds of 3600Mhz or 3733Mhz but I don’t want anything less than 3200Mhz due to a higher memory latency being introduced around there for AMD CPUs.
If I would get an Intel chip then all of this wouldn’t matter for me but since I’ll be going with a Ryzen CPU I don’t want to gain unnecessary memory latency so the choice of motherboard plays an important role!

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Honestly, I don't think it is going to matter much.

I am using a kinda mediocre MSI b350 gaming plus and can achieve 4000mhz, or 3800mhz if I keep it in 1:1 mode.

I would imagine any good current gen board should be able to achieve what you want, regardless of topology.

 

[drea.drechsler]

If we were to look at motherboards with similar features and price, would a T-Topology board work better than a Daisy Chain board with Asus’s Optimem III for 4x32GB (128GB) of RAM?

I’m aiming for RAM speeds of 3600Mhz or 3733Mhz but I don’t want anything less than 3200Mhz due to a higher memory latency being introduced around there for AMD CPUs.
If I would get an Intel chip then all of this wouldn’t matter for me but since I’ll be going with a Ryzen CPU I don’t want to gain unnecessary memory latency so the choice of motherboard plays an important role!

Ryzen 3000 CPU's are a lot less picky about it (and Ryzen 5000 too) but for 4 sticks T-Topology has inherent advantages because of the way it's wired. But in the same way it becomes less advantageous, a hindrance even, for 2 sticks only. Honestly, if you're going with Zen 2 or Zen 3 and it's really important then picking a high(er) quality board with 6 or more layers is probably going to make for better chances regardless of topology.

I've no idea what that Optimem III thing is all about but most likely it's just marketing speak. I'd look for the true technical indicators; board layers is one and so is DIMM interconnect topology. But in the end, it's overclocking so you're still playing the silicon lottery. Check any board's compatibility charts and you'll see the rated memory speed dropping with 4 sticks. All you can do is stack the odds in your favor and then take what you can get.

 

[Deleted member 2808222]

Ryzen 3000 CPU's are a lot less picky about it (and Ryzen 5000 too) but for 4 sticks T-Topology has inherent advantages because of the way it's wired. But in the same way it becomes less advantageous, a hindrance even, for 2 sticks only. Honestly, if you're going with Zen 2 or Zen 3 and it's really important then picking a high(er) quality board with 6 or more layers is probably going to make for better chances regardless of topology.

I've no idea what that Optimem III thing is all about but most likely it's just marketing speak. I'd look for the true technical indicators; board layers is one and so is DIMM interconnect topology. But in the end, it's overclocking so you're still playing the silicon lottery. Check any board's compatibility charts and you'll see the rated memory speed dropping with 4 sticks. All you can do is stack the odds in your favor and then take what you can get.

Do you think the Asrock X570 Extreme4 has a good amount of layers and is a decent quality board? It has T-Topology, sells for around $230.
I think the cheapest board with Optimem III goes for around $430, Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero. The board I’m really interested in is the $190 Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro V2 but it’s not a T-Topology board and I‘m not sure it has something similar to Optimem III. I want to be as sure as possible that my 4x32GB RAM sticks would run smooth at the speed I want so that’s the reason why I’m leaning more towards the Asrock or Asus motherboard.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Do you think the Asrock X570 Extreme4 has a good amount of layers and is a decent quality board? It has T-Topology, sells for around $230.
I think the cheapest board with Optimem III goes for around $430, Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero. The board I’m really interested in is the $190 Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro V2 but it’s not a T-Topology board and I‘m not sure it has something similar to Optimem III. I want to be as sure as possible that my 4x32GB RAM sticks would run smooth at the speed I want so that’s the reason why I’m leaning more towards the Asrock or Asus motherboard.

Check this guide out:

VRM on the new AM4 motherboards

AM4 Motherboard VRM list: X570 ----- ASUS: ROG CROSSHAIR VIII EXTREME 20-phase[18+2] | 90A?, PWM: ??(?-phase), 10K caps, passive PCH heatsink ROG CROSSHAIR VIII DARK HERO 16-phase[14+2]*' | Texas Instruments X95410RR 90A, PWM: ASP1405I(8-phase), 10K caps, passive PCH heatsink ROG CROSSHAIR VIII...

www.overclock.net

First post of the thread. X570 and B550 boards have a good summary that includes number of layers.

Keep in mind what I said before about memory overclocking...you'll end up getting what it can deliver so there are no assurances.

Also, the stuff about latency with Ryzen is more complicated than just saying it. First: the low-clock (3200 and lower) latency is probably due to die-to-die and CCX-CCX latencies of the IF that's been mostly mitigated away with the Zen3 architecture changes. Also, claims and counter-claims about memory latency are hard to prove and often go unchallenged for that reason alone; Aida64 is famously inaccurate for instance. So 'latency' has become a favorite for Intel fan-boys to lean on as other benchmarking metrics go away from Intel's current architecture CPU's

 

[Deleted member 2808222]

Check this guide out:

VRM on the new AM4 motherboards

AM4 Motherboard VRM list: X570 ----- ASUS: ROG CROSSHAIR VIII EXTREME 20-phase[18+2] | 90A?, PWM: ??(?-phase), 10K caps, passive PCH heatsink ROG CROSSHAIR VIII DARK HERO 16-phase[14+2]*' | Texas Instruments X95410RR 90A, PWM: ASP1405I(8-phase), 10K caps, passive PCH heatsink ROG CROSSHAIR VIII...

www.overclock.net

First post of the thread. X570 and B550 boards have a good summary that includes number of layers.

Keep in mind what I said before about memory overclocking...you'll end up getting what it can deliver so there are no assurances.

Also, the stuff about latency with Ryzen is more complicated than just saying it. First: the low-clock (3200 and lower) latency is probably due to die-to-die and CCX-CCX latencies of the IF that's been mostly mitigated away with the Zen3 architecture changes. Also, claims and counter-claims about memory latency are hard to prove and often go unchallenged for that reason alone; Aida64 is famously inaccurate for instance. So 'latency' has become a favorite for Intel fan-boys to lean on as other benchmarking metrics go away from Intel's current architecture CPU's

I’ve compared these two motherboards and I think that I’ll go with the one from Asus. Although the Asus board is more expensive, do you think it would be a good choice for me?

Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero:
Daisy Chain & Optimem III
16 Power Stages
8 PCB Layers
3 PCI Express x16 Slots
1 PCI Express x1 Slots
2 M.2 Slots
2500Mbps LAN Speed
Anti-Surge LANGuard
CLR CMOS Button
Bios Flashback Button

Asrock X570 Extreme4:
T Topology
10 Power Stages
4-6 PCB Layers
2 PCI Express x16 Slots
3 PCI Express x1 Slots
3 M.2 Slots
1000Mbps LAN Speed

 

[drea.drechsler]

I’ve compared these two motherboards and I think that I’ll go with the one from Asus. Although the Asus board is more expensive, do you think it would be a good choice for me?

Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero:
Daisy Chain & Optimem III
16 Power Stages
8 PCB Layers
3 PCI Express x16 Slots
1 PCI Express x1 Slots
2 M.2 Slots
2500Mbps LAN Speed
Anti-Surge LANGuard
CLR CMOS Button
Bios Flashback Button

Asrock X570 Extreme4:
T Topology
10 Power Stages
4-6 PCB Layers
2 PCI Express x16 Slots
3 PCI Express x1 Slots
3 M.2 Slots
1000Mbps LAN Speed

The CHVIII is a great board, only negative is price (you've noted). But if you need it's features it's going to be worth it. The thing is it's features are centered on LN2 overclocking (CLR CMOs button, BIOS flashback, power-on button, options in BIOS to by-pass the zero degree bug, among many others, error code display LED panel, a VRM you could weld with, the list goes on and I don't know them all). That's what that price is getting for you.

If you've need of that...which is to say, if you're considering dabbling with LN2 overclocking experiments (one doesn't do that 24/7) then it's the board you need. Otherwise...well...it's hard to say the Asrock won't do just as well as the Asus for memory overclocks because it's also hard to say how 'high' an OC you can get with 4 sticks on either. Either board will stack the odds in your favor but there simply are no guarantees until you match a specific CPU with some specific memory on either board to see what it will do.