How much does a mobo affect gaming performance?

[Kalmah]

Let's assume you are not going to use anything onboard. You have a pci soundcard and a pci Nic.

Let's also assume that both boards have the same specifications. Same front side bus, same number of pci-e slots all 16x.. specifications truely identical. Perhaps it has a different chipset though..

So what is the expensive motherboard going to do for me as far as performance that the cheap one doesn't?

I'm considering doing some minor upgrades at the moment but am wondering if my motherboard is holding anything back.

 

[zagood]

Overclocking. More specifically, BIOS options, mosfet/nb/sb cooling, and voltage regulation.

There are probably some other things like general build quality, color of the PCB, manufacturing process etc. but the ones listed are what you might be concerned about.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

As long as the chipsets are made by the company that makes the processors, then there really wouldn't be a difference speed wise. There are plenty of differences feature wise but if you aren't overclocking, doing SLI or CFX, or doing RAID then it really doesn't matter. Solid state capacitors are a nice feature though that cheaper boards lack.

 

[Kalmah]

Thanks for your replies.

That has always bothered me when making my motherboard selection.

I understand some have heatpipes and solid state capacitors and such. My last build I was short on money and went with a cheap $40 motherboard and have wondered ever since if it was holding anything back. I've had a stable slight oc with this board on a core 2 duo from 3ghz to 3.4ghz for about 6 months now which I'm happy with. I do not wish to oc this any more.

The nagging slow framerates in mass affect are starting to irritate me. So I've been considering getting a better psu(so that it can handle higher amps) for a better graphics card. Currently using gforce 8600gt. I can't remember what the amps are on the 12v rail but I'm guessing it's barely handling what I have as it is.

The motherboard is a Gigabyte p31-es3g by the way.

That also brings up the question of whether a mobo that supports faster ram would be more beneficial?

The specifications for this mobo stated that it 'doesn't support double sided ram' which scared be away from getting larger than 1gb sticks. (so only have 2 gigs running xp 32bit home). I believe I'll have that 3.xgb max ram problem with this motherboard as well?

What makes a stick of ram 'double sided'?

Any thoughts? I appreciate it.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Kalmah
The specifications for this mobo stated that it 'doesn't support double sided ram' which scared be away from getting larger than 1gb sticks. (so only have 2 gigs running xp 32bit home).

That limit is applicable when populating four modules total. This mobo has only two memory slots, so you're free to use double or single sided modules.

I believe I'll have that 3.xgb max ram problem with this motherboard as well?

Yes, that's a hard limit for the chipset.

 

[Kalmah]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: Kalmah
The specifications for this mobo stated that it 'doesn't support double sided ram' which scared be away from getting larger than 1gb sticks. (so only have 2 gigs running xp 32bit home).

That limit is applicable when populating four modules total. This mobo has only two memory slots, so you're free to use double or single sided modules.

I believe I'll have that 3.xgb max ram problem with this motherboard as well?

Yes, that's a hard limit for the chipset.

Good to know. Thanks a bunch.

 

[yh125d]

Yeah, differentiation in motherboards is almost always three things. FOQ. Features, Overclocking, Quality

 

[faxon]

pick your board based on what features you want in a board. at most, you will see a frame or 2 difference here and there, which isnt even worth benchmarking for unless you notice something significantly off about performance as a whole