Hello Guys so I used to have an I7 7700K with my RTX 3070 but recently on the games like Division 2, Warzone I got bottleneck.
So I decided to buy an new motherboard that support Ryzen, so I'll gonna ordered B450 TOMAHAWK MAX II paired with an R5 5600X, I've read that that mobo support the new Ryzen gen with a bios update to do.
So my question is...
That i've saw on internet that mobo use to have two diffrent versions :
That one B450 TOMAHAWK MAX II are more cheaper
And the B450 TOMAHAWK MAX are more expensiv
So before buying anything, can you tell me what's the diffrent beetwen those two mobos ?
Thx.
Tomahawk was one of (if not the) most popular B450 boards on the market...certainly MSI most popular. When Ryzen 5000 came out at first AMD wasn't going to support it on B450 and board partners pitched a fit because they were promised (says they) it would. This especially hurt MSI because they redesigned select B450 boards (that's the MAX line) to work with 3000 and be ready for 5000. AMD relented.
So, when 5000 landed out comes the MAX-II. My guess it was a way to assure buyers it has a BIOS ready for Ryzen 5000. But it also includes a re-jiggered "fully digital" VRM section improving it's efficiency and performance. It may have gone from discrete FET's to DrMOS power stages, dunno. Maybe someone has link on that.
The price difference can be explained by cheaper manufacturing if they are power stages now. The discrete FET VRM for Tomahawk MAX had 4 discrete FET's per phase and one driver times 4 phases plus the supporting components. That's over 20 parts that have to be mounted, and they are all expensive parts (comparatively). A DrMOS power stage has the driver and FET's and (most) supporting components all in one package so only 4 parts (one per phase) and support. That one package, while not cheap, is probably cheaper than all those FET's and driver for each phase. Especially considering MSI (like everyone else) has gone crazy over power stages on B550 boards and so have huge discount buys.
Feature-wise nothing's different between the two, so it shares the Tomahawk MAX's failings of no secondary M.2 (which would be gen2 anyway, and at a cost of the 2nd PCIe x16/4 slot when used) and no TOS-Link output for audio and no USB3.1 Ty-C for front panel nor rear.
The B450m Mortar MAX has all those, except USB Ty-C for front panel, and it's VRM is more than capable of handling a 5950X, as is the Tomahawk MAX and MAX II. But it is mATX.