Question What's the point of buying a expensive motherboard for gaming?

[Gizmo j]

Shouldn't you just buy the cheapest motherboard that's compatible and save the rest for a better GPU and CPU?

 

[Thrashard]

Somehow I got really lucky with my setup. Lot of people say to avoid the Intel Extreme versions but some voice in my head told me to get the Ivy Bridge Extreme.

At the time, paid $328 for Asus x79-Deluxe . That's the most I ever paid for a MBD and in the past never paid over $150. The problem is these companies are constantly changing the Socket type compared to the past. It's really hard to invest in anything and it being compatible down the road.

Just installed RTX 2080 ti FE and totally blown away. I'm getting over 165+ fps in Quake Champions in Ultra Settings on 1440p 144hz display. It's just locked at 165 and didn't see any need to let it max out more. Battlefield V Ultra Settings @ 143fps on Windows 7

I've never overclocked but that was my concern with being an older system and new GPU, but I feel like I have a new system again playing modern games.

 

[whm1974]

I have always went one step up from bottom(say $70-80 vs $50-60) and stuck to medium overclocks and never had an issue. If you plan to upgrade before it dies resale on bottom end boards is often near zero where might recover the price difference on mid range board

A very good reason to avoid bottom end boards, is to ensure you don't get something that will die in less then a year on you.

 

[mopardude87]

I used to be more concerned about getting an expensive motherboard but I've been very happy with my Asrock for $80. I completely agree with an above user that additional money spent on cooling/overclocking could probably spent better elsewhere (better GPU/display/etc).

Certainly this.Last time i felt a oc was worth it was on a G0 stepped Q6600 and only cause a 25% oc was just to easy.Between needing a decent Z370 if not solid motherboard for a max oc,A better heatsink if not watercooling idk if you could get even a 25% oc? At least when i ordered my i7 8700 non k there was a 20% price difference already between that and the k model,add in the cost of a fairly good motherboard and quite possibly a water cooling loop for the cpu and what do you get?Better hope the case and everything else also is up to snuff on top of that.

My chip is sitting in a Z370 though,not a particularly good one for ocing from what i seen and heard but does have plenty of bells and whistles.Buddy of mine bough it and mixed up the chipsets thinking it would work with his 7700k. He helped me out on this board and i got him the proper one for his 7700k. My last motherboard being a H81 Asrock was pretty plain,it had nothing to it.

 

[Insomniator]

Only for extreme overclocking, or specific features you might need. I have a $60 mATX board in my 2700x/1080 build... doesn't effect anything and I don't expect it to die any sooner than a $150 dollar board would.

 

[Flayed]

Having a board with 2 M2 slots would be nice for adding another SSD down the road.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Having a board with 2 M2 slots would be nice for adding another SSD down the road.

Sure. But so long as there PCIe x4 or larger slots on board, you can just use a PCIe-to-M.2 adaptor.

 

[nOOky]

I usually spend around $100 for a new mobo. Last year I splurged and spent about twice that. It has better connectivity options, better components (I always overclock), more fan headers, 2 M.2 slots, 1 with built-in heatsink, and better support for overclocking etc. as well as it supported faster memory. I'm not rich, but I'm not poor either. I tend to keep my systems for years now, so instead of going for cheap or good enough I like to build something that will last and remain relevant for a couple of new GPU cycles.

 

[nOOky]

Having a board with 2 M2 slots would be nice for adding another SSD down the road.

It is, I have such a board, and I'm planning on adding another. It's nice to not need an adapter.

 

[davidgreams]

Motherboards are about features, they usually aren't a direct influence on performance (bit of a generalisation/simplification but close enough for the average user). Two motherboards with the same features (allow the same components to be used) will give you the same performance regardless of brand / price.

Generally any common brand is fine, just buy the cheapest board that has all the features you need. Most importantly - socket matches the CPU you want, form factor fits your case, has an Internet solution like ethernet/wifi/pci or usb slot available for wifi card/dongle.

 

[davidgreams]

You do not have to, the computer will work perfectly fine without the update. But a recent exploit found on almost all computers has been found and can only be mitigated by this BIOS update.

The exploit allows any program to steal sensitive information so I would advise you to update your BIOS.

Also, BIOS updates often give you better performances, thermals,...

 

[kurosaki]

Actually, it's the other way round. SSDs are nice (even necessary) for their impact on general purpose use. Games don't really care if they're loaded from a spinner or SSD.

If -all- you do on a system is gaming, then yes, you can skip the SSD. But I really wouldn't touch a HDD system at all for anything else. Dropped HDDs for anything but bulk storage 10 years ago, and haven't regretted it once since. This is from a guy who raid0'ed 10.000RPM WD Raptors back in the day.

Particularly Windows Update on a 5400RPM mobile drive is enough to drive anyone to do crazy things.

 

[Midwayman]

Sure. But so long as there PCIe x4 or larger slots on board, you can just use a PCIe-to-M.2 adaptor.

Sure, it it works. However with a native M2 your MB can steal PCIe lanes from your sata controller. Mine does. If you're running many NVME drives lanes can get pretty precious. If you're using a 4x slot you're most likely taking lanes from your GPU.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Sure, it it works. However with a native M2 your MB can steal PCIe lanes from your sata controller. Mine does. If you're running many NVME drives lanes can get pretty precious. If you're using a 4x slot you're most likely taking lanes from your GPU.

PCIe lane layout will of course depend on the individual mainboard in question. For Intel, this is because of the PCH's FlexIO, were lanes can be configured as PCIe, SATA and USB3. AMD's AM4 platform has 4 lanes from the CPU/APU dedicated for NVMe. The AM4 platform does have a limited "FlexIO-like" capability in that the on-chip (as opposed to the FCH) provided SATA ports -can- be configured as PCIe. Few boards do this however (f.x. Asus B450-E/F Gaming).

Most boards with a SATA M.2 connector will take the necessary lanes from the onboard SATA ports. I'd think this is for added flexibility. One user might only require an M.2 drive for storage, while another might need a HDD/SSD RAID array.

With regards to "stealing" lanes from the CPU, this is a complete non-issue as there is zero performance penalty between PCIe x16 and x8. I'd (and do) trade 8 GPU lanes for more storage slots in a heartbeat.

If you require more then 3 NVMe drives, you're likely looking at a HEDT class platform already. The AMD TR4 platform is particularly juicy, with its 60 PCIe 3.0 lanes with full bifucation support.

 

[anandtechreader]

If you're overclocking your CPU, LLC is a major improvement in the higher boards. It's the difference between a crash and a stable clock.

If you're not overclocking... you can get by with a budget board.

What is LLC?

 

[anandtechreader]

Not to mention better VRMs for overclocking. Most real overclocking boards are a tad overbuilt, so if you run them at stock speeds, they should have extremely good longevity.

Most all except for possibly some extreme budget boards, use solid caps these days. But back in the day, that was a "deluxe" feature that people paid extra for too.

But when Biostar (to use one example) can put all-solid-caps on a $50 S775 mATX board, you know that there's no reason that every other "tier 1" mfg can't as well, and generally, they all do. Gigabyte started the trend, mostly, with their "Durable", and later, "Ultra Durable" lines.

If I run RAM of 3200+, I better get a motherboard with good VRMs?

 

[Indus]

What is LLC?

Load Line Calibration.

Generally motherboards have a thing called Vdroop where when you run the comp at max load, the voltages to the CPU drop a little bit. So what was a stable overclock at base, isn't a stable overclock at load.

LLC fixes that by making sure Vdroop doesn't occur.

 

[Midwayman]

With regards to "stealing" lanes from the CPU, this is a complete non-issue as there is zero performance penalty between PCIe x16 and x8. I'd (and do) trade 8 GPU lanes for more storage slots in a heartbeat.

Depends on your GPU and game. If you have low to mid range GPU you're probably not going to notice. If you have a 2080ti it can be substantial to nothing depending on the title.

Here's a link to one test
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Titan-X-Performance-PCI-E-3-0-x8-vs-x16-851/

Its certainly non-zero anyways.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Its certainly non-zero anyways.

Who said otherwise? Performance penalty is in the order of 2-3% with a 2080ti. Which is almost within the standard benchmark error range of 2%. So it's non-zero but completely negligible.

Your own link only showed a substantial difference at 3x 4K resolution. That is at a resolution of 11520x2160. Which is an awful lot of pixels and can hardly be considered mainstream. Even without the dual Titan X's used.

At that kind of expense, mainboard costs are almost a rounding error.

Depends on your GPU and game. If you have low to mid range GPU you're probably not going to notice. If you have a 2080ti it can be substantial to nothing depending on the title.

techpowerup did a good writeup on the subject.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_RTX_2080_Ti_PCI-Express_Scaling/6.html

They have PCIe 3.0 x8 at 97-98% of PCIe 3.0 x16 with a 2080ti (which again is out of price range for most) depending on resolution used. Again almost within error margin. A regular mainstream 1060(ti) or RX570/80 user is not going to notice anything.

 

[Midwayman]

Who said otherwise?

You. Quite literally. Its even quoted in the post you're replying to.

Performance penalty is in the order of 2-3% with a 2080ti. Which is almost within the standard benchmark error range of 2%. So it's non-zero but completely negligible....

Again almost within error margin. A regular mainstream 1060(ti) or RX570/80 user is not going to notice anything.

As I said, depends on GPU and game. From your techpower up article
https://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/G...xpress_Scaling/images/hellblade_1920-1080.png

Sometimes it's not insignificant. And Yes, also as I said, a mid-low end GPU probably won't see this.

Is it worth worrying about for most people? Probably not now. Does it matter for some people? Absolutely. If I'm dropping the kinda of money for a system that saturates 8x, every percent matters.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

You. Quite literally. Its even quoted in the post you're replying to.

Okay, a bit of hyperbole.

Zero practical difference then.