Boards launching with Zen 3's...

nEo717

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Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero -- looking forward to this board - 16 Power stages, 90A

Also new Strix B550-XE Gaming WiFi - 16 Power stages (14+2)
 
Given ASUS' VRM shenanigans, I wouldn't be so sure about those power phase numbers being correct. ASUS likes to call something a 12 phase, or "twin 8-phase" when it's really a 4 phase VRM.

The ROG VIII Dark Hero looks to be somewhat higher end, so it might hold true. Though typically, the "Hero" boards have subpar VRMs. The Strix B550, I would bet on having a lower actual VRM phase count. They are probably doubling or tripling the power stages and chokes to make it look like its more robust than it is.
 
Given ASUS' VRM shenanigans, I wouldn't be so sure about those power phase numbers being correct. ASUS likes to call something a 12 phase, or "twin 8-phase" when it's really a 4 phase VRM.

The ROG VIII Dark Hero looks to be somewhat higher end, so it might hold true. Though typically, the "Hero" boards have subpar VRMs. The Strix B550, I would bet on having a lower actual VRM phase count. They are probably doubling or tripling the power stages and chokes to make it look like its more robust than it is.
What would your advice for a new motherboard be then, for those of us who are looking to dive into the higher-end of the 5000 series CPUs? If the ASUS products aren't all that VRM friendly, then what would you suggest for the 5900X or 5950X CPU?

Thanks for your time Dan!
 
What would your advice for a new motherboard be then, for those of us who are looking to dive into the higher-end of the 5000 series CPUs? If the ASUS products aren't all that VRM friendly, then what would you suggest for the 5900X or 5950X CPU?

Thanks for your time Dan!

ASUS does have products with very good VRM implementations. It's just their lower end and some mid-range motherboards that don't. My issue isn't even with the implementations themselves, it's with the deceptive marketing that goes along with them that hide the fact that they aren't high end VRM solutions.

To be clear, at stock speeds you can run any of the CPU's you want on any of the motherboards you want so long as you aren't overclocking. With the 3900X and 3950X (as well as their Ryzen 9 5000 series successors), running on lower end VRM's isn't the best idea. I'll post some thermal images from an X570-A Pro when I finish the review on it and you'll see what I mean. The test was done with a 3950X and the VRM's ran pretty hot but not as hot as you would imagine. It wasn't overclocked though.

The higher end CPU's will tax lower end VRM's and they won't be operating very efficiently. It might shorten their life spans and you probably won't get the best boost clock behavior. What you want is a good VRM implementation that will allow you to fully realize the performance of your fairly expensive CPU's. To that end, I've compiled a list of motherboards that will not only handle these CPU's easily, but allow for overclocking with ease as these are all overbuilt.

ASUS Crosshair VIII Formula (8 phase, wo/doublers, marketed as 14+2, 60a each)
ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (8 phase, wo/doublers, marketed as 14+2, 60a each)
MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE (14+4 phase w/doublers, 70a each)
MSI MEG X570 Unify (12+2 phase w/doublers, 60a each)
MSI MEG X570 ACE (12+2 phase w/doublers, 60a each)
GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Xtreme (14+2 phase, wo/doublers 70a each)
GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Master (12+2 phase, wo/doublers, 50a each)
ASRock X570 Creator (12+2 phase w/doublers, 60a each)

This list isn't the end all be all by any means. There are many other good boards out there. However, if you'll notice, the only one around $300 is the MSI MEG X570 Unify. I might have recommended the Tomahawk, but I don't recall it's configuration off hand. I haven't worked with one. If you aren't overclocking, you can get away with less powerful VRM's as I said. This would include motherboards like the ASUS Prime X570 Pro which has a 6+2 phase VRM without doublers. It has 50a power stages and doubles up on a lot of the components. It's ASUS' fat phase approach as its often called, but it's not a four phase solution. Those are fine too, but those shouldn't really be paired with 12 and 16 core CPU's. The 12's are OK, but only if you run at stock.
 
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Thank you Dan! Holy Useful Posts Batman!!!
View attachment 510

Taking it a step further, here is an example of what you sometimes get with ASUS:

ASUS Maximus XI Hero (Marketed as "Twin 8-phase". Reality: 4+2 phase with two power stages per phase.)
ASUS Maximus XI Formula (Marketed as "Twin 8-phase". Reality: 4+2 phase with two power stages per phase.)
ASUS Maximus XI Extreme (Marketed as 10 phase or 10+2 or even 12 phase. Reality: 5+2 phase with two power stages per phase. )
ASUS Maximus XI APEX (8+0 phase. No doublers with two power stages per phase. There are also no phases dedicated to iGPU.)

The Extreme has a slightly better phase configuration than the Formula and Hero. However, it's still not amazing. It's a fat phase with double the power stages per phase. It looks like a 12 phase when you eyeball it, but it isn't. This one is the most deceptive in that the ASP1405 voltage controller can support an 8 phase configuration. The only give away that this isn't a 12-phase board is the fact that it has no doublers on the PCB. The Maximus XI APEX on the other hand is a true 8 phase design but those are fat phases. It's a very good 8 phase solution that's capable of handling 9900K's on LN2 at any speed they can possibly achieve.

The Maximus XII Extreme (Z490) pulls more of the same crap. ASUS advertises 16 power stages. However, there are no doublers. Therefore, it's not actually a 16 phase design. It's another 8 or 6+2 phase solution with twice as many power stages per phase. They are rated at a monstrous 90A each, so it is beefy, but ASUS is once again being deceptive.
 
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