Question Performance increase from motherboard upgrade?

[r0urke]

I currently have a first gen Gigabyte AB350 Gaming CF motherboard, with a Ryzen 7 5800x, a 2080 super, 16gb 3200mhz ram and was wondering would upgrading to a more recent gen of motherboard like a b550 or x570 would yield improved performance? I already saw before that my current motherboard was limiting an RX 6650 xt due to it not having enough pcie lanes but since I wouldnt be planning to change any other parts would a motherboard upgrade benefit my current cpu or gpu? Cheers!

 

[USAFRet]

No.
Changing the motherboard and keeping everything else the same will not give you a performance benefit.

 

[LordVile]

I currently have a first gen Gigabyte AB350 Gaming CF motherboard, with a Ryzen 7 5800x, a 2080 super, 16gb 3200mhz ram and was wondering would upgrading to a more recent gen of motherboard like a b550 or x570 would yield improved performance? I already saw before that my current motherboard was limiting an RX 6650 xt due to it not having enough pcie lanes but since I wouldnt be planning to change any other parts would a motherboard upgrade benefit my current cpu or gpu? Cheers!

Debatable. Higher end motherboards generally have better VRMs and VRM cooling which means better, cleaner, power delivery to the CPU whilst also not heating up to the temperature of the sun which aids longevity. From what I can read yours was an alright VRM for the generation though it’s weird having a 3+4 split and they’re not doubled whereas a newer X570 board will more likely have something lien a 7+1 or 6+2 whilst being doubled. TLDR an inadequate VRM setup can lead to the CPU not being delivered enough quality power or can lead to overheating losing performance. However I doubt that will be an issue unless you’re lighting up the whole CPU.

On the PCIE slot I do not see how a PCIE 3.0 x16 slot would hamper a 6650XT.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...From what I can read yours was an alright VRM for the generation though it’s weird having a 3+4 split...

On the PCIE slot I do not see how a PCIE 3.0 x16 slot would hamper a 6650XT.

I think more correctly...it's a 4+3 split if the 1st number is Vcore phases and 2nd Vsoc phases. It is 4 true phases though, with doubled low-side Vcore FETs (three FET's per phase) which helps a lot with the heavy lifting.

FWIW, I ran my 5800X on a similar setup (B350m Mortar) for a few weeks. It ran perfectly with the same CO and memory settings as it did on the damaged B550 board I had to replace. VRM temperatures did run well into the 90's, even teasing the century mark at times, during long video renderings. That is pretty high, but no where near worrisome for FET's that have Tjmax ratings of 125C. I'd think twice, put fans blowing on the VRM and monitor closely before trying the same with a 5900X or 5950X.

The apparent advantage performance-wise to going B550/X570 is to get benefit of PCIe gen 4 (GPU and system NVME mainly). Lots of debate, but it will certainly depend on useage patterns as to how much (if any) you realize. One clear benefit is if you have to (and can) split out GPU lanes to other devices then 8 lanes of Gen 4 have equiv. bandwidth to 16 full lanes of Gen 3.

The other, and notably more relevant, benefit is a general upgrade in ancillary components that often come with B550 and X570. Better audio, better LAN, more/better USB ports in particular.

People also talk about memory overclocking being better but that's really due to the vastly improved MCU on gen 3 and 4 Ryzen that are most often put on a B550/X570. Put one on a B350 and you will likely get the same clocks you can on a B550 but never could from gen 1 or 2 on the same B350.