8-phase power vs 16-phase power

[Spawn-Inc]

A I recall, 8+2 power phase is the strongest VRM offering available, I mean true 8+2.

12+2 and 16+2 use tricks to claim a higher power phase rating but neither is electronic reality. The one possible benefit if I understood those videos correctly is to be able to put more components around the socket to balance out the heat pattern around the socket area of a poorly designed motherboard. It doesn't deliver more power.

lol, way to make me feel bad about my board..

 

[Aldakoopa]

I know, right!

 

[missionsbound]

A I recall, 8+2 power phase is the strongest VRM offering available, I mean true 8+2.

12+2 and 16+2 use tricks to claim a higher power phase rating but neither is electronic reality. The one possible benefit if I understood those videos correctly is to be able to put more components around the socket to balance out the heat pattern around the socket area of a poorly designed motherboard. It doesn't deliver more power.

On that note, it so happens the asus pro with 12 phases and plus with 8 phases clock exactly the same according to some reviews. Needless to say, "the extra 4" phases didn't really make the difference there. If I choose one board over another it would be for the added components like wifi and bluetooth.

 

[trents]

I think these are the two videos I was referring to:

Courtesy RGone. Thank, buddy.

 

[Evilsizer]

phases on newer boards dont play that large a role as they use too. Since the cpus have IVD's built in, though for overclocking reasons, i still went with a 8phase board. i was going to get a GB gaming 5 Z97 but the 4 phases kept bother me... LOL i guess im kinda stuck in the core 2/first gen i's area for cpu voltage and making sure there is enough.

 

[trents]

And this, it's short but has something important to say 'bout power phase: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hawthorn-farm-motherboard,2963.html

Youtube shorty discussing similar things to link above:

 

[Woomack]

Considering maximum power delivery for new phases then really who cares if it has 6,8 or 20+ power phases. Even 4 phase boards can use ~300W and CPUs are up to 100W TDP anyway. Overclocking boards have also 6+2+2 phases what is enough for LN2 benching.

Manufacturers are trying to give good reasons to pick their brand but most users simply don't need stuff like that as more phases than 8 per CPU are generally not helping in anything. Still many users think that their 12 phase+ board is much better than anything else.

I'm glad that most brands decided to make 2 phases for memory as older boards had problems with voltage stability. On 775 boards memory controllers were dying or degrading after memory overvoltage.

 

[Witchdoctor]

Theory behind power phases is simply it spits up the power more evenly across the components of the board. This arguably gives you cleaner signals resulting in higher and more stable overclock.

This is why you see enthusiast level boards advertising this. I am not convinced it makes that much of a difference.

I have a z87M OCF that sports a 12 phase design and it holds it own against anything out there.

The new one the z97M is sporting an 8 phase design so we will see if this is a significant change or if it really makes little difference. they did decide to stay with the 12/4 power train on the full ATX version though.

Looking at these boards if I am to go with a z97 platform would have to say I would lean towards the full ATX design this time around on the premise it can't hurt ?

 

[EarthDog]

Theory behind power phases is simply it spits up the power more evenly across the components of the board. This arguably gives you cleaner signals resulting in higher and more stable overclock.

This is why you see enthusiast level boards advertising this. I am not convinced it makes that much of a difference.

I have a z87M OCF that sports a 12 phase design and it holds it own against anything out there.

The new one the z97M is sporting an 8 phase design so we will see if this is a significant change or if it really makes little difference. they did decide to stay with the 12/4 power train on the full ATX version though.

Looking at these boards if I am to go with a z97 platform would have to say I would lean towards the full ATX design this time around on the premise it can't hurt ?

Great post here...

But really, I wouldn't shy away from the Z97M OCF because it has less phases than its ATX brother does... remember Haswell has the FIVR so its even less important than with past generations... even with extreme cooling.

 

[Woomack]

Great post here...

But really, I wouldn't shy away from the Z97M OCF because it has less phases than its ATX brother does... remember Haswell has the FIVR so its even less important than with past generations... even with extreme cooling.

What makes me sad more is that Z97M OCF has 1 BIOS chip while Z87M OCF had 2.

 

[missionsbound]

I think these are the two videos I was referring to:

Courtesy RGone. Thank, buddy.

Thanks.

 

[Witchdoctor]

What makes me sad more is that Z97M OCF has 1 BIOS chip while Z87M OCF had 2.

Did not pick up on that, kinda seals it for the full ATX. Good to see both are priced reasonably.

 

[Woomack]

I also liked that USB port next to memory slots as I didn't have to stand up to switch flash drives etc. Small things but we can already see where is that price difference between Z87M and Z97M. Z87M cost about 20% more at start.
Btw. I just got package with Z97M OCF and I will probably test it this weekend.

 

[EarthDog]

I love that USB placement as well.. Giga's was by the sata ports on the bottom right of the board...

 

[Witchdoctor]

I also liked that USB port next to memory slots as I didn't have to stand up to switch flash drives etc. Small things but we can already see where is that price difference between Z87M and Z97M. Z87M cost about 20% more at start.
Btw. I just got package with Z97M OCF and I will probably test it this weekend.

Nice, let me know what you think.

 

[Woomack]

I just runned the Z97M OCF ... there is no diagnostic LED display, not even power/reset buttons ... really ASRock, no power/reset buttons on new overclocking board ? These buttons cost like 2 cents !!! ... This board just looks like a regular Z97 board. I have no idea what about overclocking yet but so far I'm not hidding I'm disappointed by lack of some handy things.
I could check the board more closely before I bought it. Price is for sure a good side of this board.
I also have to check new BIOSes as 1.30 version has less voltage options than I could find on Z87M.

 

[Witchdoctor]

Ahh man, that blows, hope it clocks like wild animal for you

TBH, really ? I would be happy to ay an extra 10 or 20 bucks for the same features as the z87m

have to think this is a fail for AsRock , barring this board just killing it in the OCing department

 

[EarthDog]

That board shouldnt hold anything back... its just, sadly, doesn't have the features of its big brother. Which, from a business stand point, makes sense to me.

 

[Woomack]

Z97M with 1.30 BIOS is clocking my 4670K worse than Z87M. Simply needs higher voltage for the same clock. There are no vrm frequency options at all. I'm doing something else for the most of the time and I just runned some stability tests to check how it's acting but I guess I have to check newer BIOSes.

Ah, one more thing. I have to set core multi "per core" as "all cores" is always setting max multi x39 even though in BIOS I see higher values. So Evilsizer was right but he had the same on G3250. As I said I didn't check any other BIOS than 1.30 yet ... will post something more later

 

[Witchdoctor]

Try adaptive power mode with primary plane amperage limits & try limiting turbo duration limits, if the setting are there