VRM/Mosfet temperature overheating

[wah007]

Hello peeps,

I wanted to know what happens when the VRM on the motherboard overheats?

Does it start throttling the CPU, blow up and ruin the motherboard or take any other components with it?

My Motherboard is GA-970a-ud3p with a fx-8320 CPU.

I can't find any info regarding this.

Thanks

 

[Cristi72]

Hello,

The VRM consists in arrays of MOS-FET transistors (in this specific case, they are grouped in 10 modules). As any electronic component, they must be kept under specific working conditions (power dissipation is the most important here), with imposed thermal limits (the lower the temperature the better). If that limit is surpassed, the component enters in thermal runaway: the case of the component cannot dissipate the heat anymore, resulting in fast internal temperature build-up, which modifies the electrical characteristics of the component (higher latencies, generating even higher power dissipation , auto-oscillations and so on, leading eventually to permanent damage).

In the VRM case, thermal runaway generates CPU voltage drops; if your CPU/GPU are cool, have a good PSU and your HDD/SSD is in top shape, but the system still freezes/stutters, this is a positive sign that the VRM is not in the comfort zone. Of course, in rare cases, the VRM can suffer damages and can damage the CPU also (and, if the PSU is not of a good quality, can further bring down an entire system or even start a fire, but this is already an extreme situation... ).

Your motherboard is good (it has a solid VRM, consisting in 8+2 phases), you should have no problems running your FX-8320 at 4GHz (with a good cooler and good airflow around the CPU socket of course; don't forget that you also need a good PSU).

 

[wah007]

Thanks for the detailed explanation Cristi72. That makes a lot of sense.

My CPU is not throttling even though "VR T1" and "VR T2" are showing over 90C in HWiNFO. My PSU is an Antec HCG-620M.

Thanks again.