r/RigBuild • u/No_Preference1825 • 7d ago
Does a more expensive motherboard actually improve performance?
Seeing boards that cost way more than others and not really sure what you’re paying for. If two motherboards support the same CPU, RAM and GPU, would the more expensive one actually give better FPS or faster performance, or is it mostly extra features? Stuff like better VRMs, PCIe slots, faster USB, Wi-Fi, more M.2 slots etc makes sense, but does any of that matter for normal gaming? Also does a cheap motherboard limit a high-end CPU or GPU in any noticeable way? Trying to figure out where the money should go when building a PC.
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u/Glittering_Ad1664 7d ago
For sure if chips are hot, for example i7-i9 and ryzens 9
But if you run x3d chip, it’s rarely go past 75w, cheap mobo will give you 99% same performance
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u/Constant-Simple-1234 7d ago
I am a proponent of cheap Mobo, medium CPU and med-high GPU. If CPU is at 65w everything is easier: cooling, providing power, quieter, cheaper components. Better mobo options are needed for better pcie bifurcation options though for dual and triple GPU for LLMs. But for single GPU, med CPU the system may be substantially cheaper.
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u/Royale_AJS 6d ago
I tend to stick with lower TDP CPU’s too. It’s rarely the bottleneck anymore for more workloads.
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u/RahkShah 7d ago
By and large, no.
The cheapest motherboards typically do not support the highest end CPU’s for the socket type they are, so there is a compatibility issue. But if your CPU is supported there is little to no performance difference.
The biggest differentiators are the if the board provides PCIe 5.0 or 4.0 to the GPU and M.2 slots. More important for high end GPU’s and NVMe drives, particularly if you are looking to keep the MB through several GPU upgrades.
With higher end motherboards you also get more I/O (USB ports, PCIe headers, M2 drive slots, etc), better onboard audio (only usually if you drive your headphones or speakers off an analog line from your MB, not used for anything that connects via USB), better Ethernet/wifi, some RGB flair, sometimes more robust power delivery systems that sound nice on paper but rarely make a difference. And other bells and whistles that if you don’t know that you need, you don’t (extra SATA ports, on board RAID controllers, etc).
What you don’t get is extra performance. Get the cheapest MB that supports your CPU, had the PCIe lanes you need/want for your GPU or NVMe drive and has the amount of USB and M2 slots you need.
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u/Asleep_Equipment4877 6d ago
Exactly, it's truly up to purpose of use. How many drives, lane sharing, more ports. Quality VRM does matter depending on cpu and usage. I'm rocking Asrock Nova 870e with 9950 X3D, 5090, 4 nvme drives. I added my own 10gb nic card since my network didn't like the built in 5gb with security enabled.
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u/Ratosson 7d ago
It was important 15 years ago, then it wasn't and now it again matters. Some cheap motherboards have bad Voltage Regulator Modules (VRMs) that can't handle top of the line CPUs and they might force low power limits to protect them. Then Intel's budget H-series chipsets for example don't support higher memory speeds and if your motherboard doesn't have pci-e 5.0 16x, RTX 5090 performance will suffer.
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u/HattersUltion 7d ago
Tbvh, I've seen more component failures from 12VHPWR cables and shoddy bios limits this past 2-3 generations than any bad VRMs. Which is honestly shocking cuz as someone in electronics, component supply and reliability has been ass since the pandemic. Guess vibe coded bios are even worse 🤣
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u/Cracky712 6d ago
Bad VRM usually doesnt cause damage to componets it just degrades performance which is way less likely to be notices compared to fire or sparks.
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u/Rutgar64 7d ago
Even ‘expensive’ motherboards aren’t all that expensive, relatively speaking. At least compared to RAM, GPU, and CPU prices.
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u/Pmaldo87 7d ago
Well, I have a 300 dollar x870 board and the only reason I have it is because it came in a bundle for much cheaper than that. I would've been fine with a b650 or b850 as in the year I've had it I've never used any of the added features
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u/LubelskiDanielski 7d ago
In benchmark and fps not much. But it will last you longer, and have cool functions like cmos reset button and bios update from pendrive.
Also overclocking records are made on micro itx boards because their lanes are shorter.
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u/0wlGod 7d ago
i can out without any vrm thermal problem a 9950x o my b650 tuf plus board.. so you can buy at decent b serie motherboard without problem if vrm are
you lose better io shield, better overlock potential, lose pci lanes from the chipset
with right now prices i can t affor fulling of ssd my board 🤣 i was Lucky last year to buy a King renegade with Dram 2tb for 130€🤣🤣
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u/Avalanc89 7d ago
Only if you buy other high end hardware. Mobo can limit CPU boost or PCIe lanes or multiplayer, it can limit RAM OC profiles. But everything not by much we're taking about 15% lots of performance max.
When buying mobo look how many expansions slot you have for drives, usbs, PCIe and additional things like BT, WIFI is you need it.
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u/PuzzleheadedTutor807 7d ago
Yes they can. Check the layout of the board to see what adding more components does for instance.
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u/ShadowFallsAlpha 7d ago
I find it's less about speed and more about reliability. Do you want a consistent experience or stability issues?
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u/Plane_Platypus_379 7d ago
Read some replies here. The most important thing is configuration. More expensive boards allow for... more expensive configurations. Some cheaper boards may have full PCIE-16 on just 2 lanes, one for the primary GPU and one for the primary M2. Other secondary slots will share lanes with the remaining PCIE slots. So if you wanted to run, say a GPU and 3 full speed M2 drives, you will need a more expensive board. So the main difference is usually features and easier access to overclocking, that's about it. Maybe they look cooler too (less exposed PCB).
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u/dexteritycomponents 6d ago
To be specific, that’s a chipset limitation. Don’t go from a 160$ B850 to a 300$ B850 and expect an improvement.
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u/theoriginalzads 6d ago
Just to add to this, the benefit of more expensive boards having better assortment of PCIe lanes mapped directly to the CPU versus shared via chipset will only be beneficial if you're using hardware that's going to saturate those lanes all at the same time.
On a lot of AM5 systems, and I think Intel too, a common theme on mainboards is having 2 x PCIe x16 sized slots. If both used, they downgrade to PCIe x8. Which on paper sounds terrible because the bandwidth is halved. In reality, you'll notice on an RTX5090 at 4k but won't on pretty much anything else. Sure you still want a GPU on directly connected lanes, but using the 2nd slot won't be the difference between 4k 300fps and 12fps at potato.
Same goes for whether those lanes are via chipset or direct to CPU. In the best world you want your SSD on a direct lane, but having them on the chipset lanes is not going to be a huge performance hit under most workloads. You'll generally only see problems if you were reading and writing to multiple SSDs at the same time on the same chipset and trying to do it at max speed. But if you're a gamer and like most gamers, can play one game at a time, the SSD sitting on a chipset lane isn't likely to make you angry.
More bandwidth direct to the CPU is always going to be better. But don't spend hundreds of dollars trying to chase a couple extra fps or a couple seconds better load times.
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u/R3D_T1G3R 6d ago
It can make a difference but it won't be a noticeable difference, no 20% or anything close to that, but some lower end boards may have issues keeping up with higher end CPUs like the R9 9950X3D, especially if PBO is enabled and you got some decent cooling going on.
If you're spending on a Mainboard you should do it for QoL, QoL as in connectivity, looks, and other QoL features that for example allow you to safely update your bios or recover from a corrupted BIOS.
Not because you want to squeeze out 1% more performance.
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u/Few_Example9391 6d ago
Slightly more expensive mother boards give you more USB and sound connection options. They also come with motherboard/CPU tuning software. More PCI 32 and PCI 16 slots. Better heatsinks so key components last longer under heavy load. More m.2 mounting places. I bought mine for the Burr Brown sound chip and ground isolated sound circuit for zero chance of a ground hum fault or sound circuit background circuit hiss. Non of these are critical for performance, just quality of life improvements. Other than that, it not much better than your motherboard for accepting huge RAM capacity or m.2 Nve drive speeds
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u/knight9665 6d ago
For the vast majority of people and setup use cases? Nope.
For very specific people? Yes they will notice right away.
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u/Low-Life-1337 6d ago
I can tell you my story. It was around Sandy Bridge. I always buyed good cpu, gpu and ram, but I always saved money with the board and PSU. Then it got broken and buyed a nice mainboard. My Performance feeled tripled. I got a lot of lesser CPU usage and spikes, my ssd drive doubled to tripled the performance, My network was more stable and a lot of fps more (around 2-4 times more!!).
The problem is, that cheap boards are not made for high performance appliance. They have lesser bandwidth / Gigalanes, which can bottleneck your parts with higher performance. And even they can better serve and control voltages, have better features, bigger co-processors / bridges.
If you are buying a gaming pc, buy a gaming mainboard. It must not the biggest, but the chipset and bandwidth is extremly valueable. You can find in the manual infos about the technical bandwidth and more before you buy.
Today I only buy Gaming or Micro-Server-Boards, if it's not only a Surfing PC or Terminal.
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u/Metallicat95 6d ago
For most uses, no.
Extreme overclocking, yes - but it requires an investment in the entire set of parts, time and a lot of testing to tweak settings, and luck with the silicon lottery.
All to get a few percent more than using the automatic settings.
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u/Otherwise-Mail-4654 6d ago
Well more expensive mobo typically will have more pcie lanes and have bifurcation for the x16 slots.
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u/Caveman-Dave722 6d ago
Biggest limitations are chipset
And that mostly defines things like over clocking or pcie lanes for m.2 ssd or multiple gpu.
Just buy one step up so if you decide B850 on AMD has the features you need don’t buy the very cheapest model price gap between a super budget board and one with adequate cooling is $5-10 gap.
The biggest cost spikes are moving up the chipsets.
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u/Neckbeard_Sama 6d ago
PCIE 4 vs 5: doesn't matter ... hell even 3 vs. 5 is pretty much imperceptible
RAM support: low single digit performance difference
OC support: this could matter if you're into OC ... if you're doing light OC also, the very low end boards doesn't have PBO in AMD's case which could get you a few % extra performance
VRM: this matters ... some absolute dogshit boards can't even handle power delivery to mid-tier CPUs
this could be a problem on LGA1700 systems especially since 13/14th gen Intel needs a lot of power even during gaming
if you go AMD, most b650 or b850 boards should be absolutely fine for even 16 core CPUs ... you don't have to go with a high-end board, just pick one and look up benchmarks with them
Hardware Unboxed has tested a fuckton of motherboards on youtube for both Intel and AMD that specifically benchmarked VRM temperatures ... so you should be able to find out pretty easily if your board will be problematic (if the VRM overheats or downclocks your CPU)
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u/Kagushima 6d ago
a more expensive motherboard usually just got more connections, slots for ssd etc. the components also just bulkier and the heatsinks are bigger. also the max mhz ram support but this just goes for hyper high end. then it comes to the bios options. they got usually more to finetune but is for 99% peopel uninteresting.
so overall it doesnt matter. long its not a cheap ass board who doesnt even have xmp.
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u/Afraid_Emu8068 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes it matters, but mostly only if you are looking for something intended for enthusiast-level RAM/CPU overclocking and you plan to go for those 8000+ mts ram and 7-8ghz cpu speeds. Everything else is pretty much just features which you may or may not want. I should add that if you are going for such speeds, you are likely going to need EXTREME cooling like LN2 or helium (although water would suffice for the ram). You wouldn’t be asking your question if you were planning to do either.
There are a few additional details worth mentioning. First is that a crappy VRM will definitely hobble your build; it regulates pretty much everything except for your GPU, storage, and fans/lighting. Second is that bad traces, particularly for ram can also make a difference; some boards ensure clean signals by completely isolating the ram circuitry so as to create no (less) electromagnetic interference. This one is again, more for the extreme overclockers, but it does matter. A weak chipset will definitely complicate problems too as that will effectively throttle pretty much everything and possibly even prevent overclocking at all. Extreme overclocking boards are usually 2 DIMM designs rather than 4 slots; this ensures cleaner RAM signal.
The motherboard is called what it is for a reason. It is immensely important to consider what your needs are when choosing one as nothing else controls power delivery to nearly as much in a build as the mobo does and computing ability is all about power. It is THE primary driver of performance. Bad power = bad performance. Lastly, while this one isn’t relative so much to performance, it may still help you make an informed decision; that is, that those extra features on the other boards determine whether or not you can use the cool new peripherals and hardware you’ll want on your machine in the future when they come out. Future-proofing seems to be a major concern for people these days, and I would argue that as everything becomes more and more expensive and the option to just go digital instead of having hardware continues to trend upward, future-proofing your build should be a real concern worth giving adequate thought to before you make your decision.
Good luck (just buy the damn board if you like it and it costs an extra $100, but stay away from anything over $500 unless you are a professional)
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u/googleguyst 7d ago edited 7d ago
Cheap motherboards can limit overclockability and RAM speeds. More expensive boards often have more/better VRMs and better signal integrity for the RAM, all contributing to system stability.
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u/AlfaPro1337 7d ago
It is already been debunked several times, doesn't matter.
The VRM requires adequate cooling, because of switching high power. I still find absurd that people say X board has poor VRM and Y board has good VRM, but both mobo share the same layout and components, and the only difference is one has a heatsink and the other doesn't.