ASUS motherboards feature an innovative, new teamed-power-stage architecture that unleashes the full potential of the latest high core count AMD Ryzen™ and Intel® Core™ CPUs. Together with carefully selected, quality components and a thermally balanced layout , ASUS motherboard VRMs are geared for any workload and operating condition.
The importance of your motherboards’ VRM
A critical part of a motherboard, the VRM converts voltage from the power supply, delivering the precise amount requested by the CPU. By sending clean, consistent power, our motherboard VRMs enable stable and reliable system performance, even when overclocking. Designed for quality, they feature:
Teamed power stages architecture
Quality components
Thermally balanced layout
Modern CPU architectures up the ante for motherboard power design by transitioning from deep power saving modes to full load instantaneously. Our latest VRM architecture rises to the challenge by utilizing teamed power stages to rapidly swing current, while maintaining exemplary thermal performance.
- A brief history
- A shift in CPU demands
- Bucking the trend
We became the first manufacturer to implement phase doublers when we shipped the A8N32-SLI Deluxe back in 2005. The board’s VRM was lauded for elegantly overcoming the power handling capabilities of components that were available at the time and also reducing voltage ripple. Those benefits led to phase doublers becoming universally accepted in the industry, and they are still used for similar purposes today.
2005
ASUS introduces the first motherboard with phase-doubled design
The current crop of CPUs pack more cores than their predecessors, and the latest instruction sets allow them to crunch computationally dense workloads at an incredible pace. As an added bonus, they also consume less power at idle and can transition between loads states much more quickly. These improvements necessitate a re-evaluation of power design priorities because phase doublers add a propagation delay that hampers transient response.
While doublers help extend the number of effective phases, they do so at the cost of delayed processing.
The latest integrated power components can handle higher currents than older devices, making it possible to implement a simple circuit topology without the processing lag caused by phase doublers. With teamed power stages, ASUS motherboards deliver higher burst current per phase, while maintaining the thermal performance of phase-doubled designs.
Pitting the teamed VRM against a phase-doubled solution results in near identical thermal performance.
Teamed Solution
Phase-Doubled Solution
The teamed architecture allows two power stages to work in tandem to provide more power to the CPU.
**Mouseover to press play and compare**
Robust power delivery starts at the component level. The power module supplies the processor with the power it needs to operate. This critical function governs the performance of the entire system, so the quality of the PWM controller, transistors, chokes and capacitors that comprise the power module is incredibly important.
ASUS motherboards feature high quality, carefully selected power components for improved overall thermal headroom, stable system performance and long-term reliability.
Each component of a VRM serves a specific purpose. Click the button to see how it works:
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PWM controller
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Power Stage
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Choke
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Capacitor
PWM controller: Controls the circuit by switching on different power stages to deliver the right amount of voltage to the CPU.
Power Stage: Comprised of a driver and two MOSFETs, these specialized integrated circuits are designed and optimized explicitly for CPU power delivery and usually offer better efficiency than their discrete counterparts.
Choke: Stores energy and regulates current in the power circuit.
Capacitor: Absorbs energy when voltage spikes and supplies additional energy during voltage dips to smooth out power delivery to the CPU.
In addition to the power architecture design and choice of quality components, the layout of the components on the motherboard plays a key role in the performance of the power solution. Arranging the power stages so that the less-heat-sensitive SoC stage are between the CPU stage , and activating each Vcore phase in a non-sequential order results in a thermally balanced layout that eliminates hot spots and keeps the VRM much cooler for optimal performance and component longevity.
ASUS design with optimized thermal balance layout
*On AMD X570 series motherboards
Conventional design
Awards and Accolades
Circuit design grounded in solid principles is only the first step to good engineering. In the end, real world performance is what counts. This laser focus on quality and performance is what makes ASUS the choice of experts and the world's most award-winning and media-acclaimed motherboard brand. Here’s a selection of what experts are saying:
ROG Crosshair VIII Hero
“almost the same about 50 Celsius, very very good temperature right here” - Der 8auer
TUF Gaming X570 Plus
“extremely good only 61 Celsius considering how much chapter it is” - Der 8auer
TUF Gaming X570-Plus
“How impressive VRM thermal performance of ASUS TUF Gaming is”- Hardware Unboxed
ROG Crosshair VIII Impact
“If you are planning a mini-monster system and want to drop in a Ryzen 3950X, we can think of no better tool for the job.” -bit-tech
ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)
“This motherboard has some seriously rich overclocking capabilities.” -eTeknix.com
ROG Strix X570-E Gaming
“Overclocking is a breeze on the latest ASUS UEFI and we managed to push our Ryzen 9 3900X to 4.4 GHz.” -OC3D. NET
ROG Rampage VI Extreme Omega
“The motherboard has one of the best VRMs and VRM heat sinks on an X299 motherboard.” -TweakTown
ROG Maximus XI Extreme
“Performance is exactly what you expect it to be from a ROG flagship, spectacular. Even with the crazy powerful 9900K overclocked, the Maximus Xi Extreme really isn't taxed. - ProClockers
Supported Model List
| Platform | Chipset | Model |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
TRX40 |
ROG ZENITH II EXTREME ALPHA |
|
| X399 |
ROG ZENITH EXTREME ALPHA |
||
| X570 |
ROG CROSSHAIR VIII EXTREME |
TUF GAMING X570-PRO WIFI II |
| Platform | Chipset | Model |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
C422 |
Pro WS C422-ACE |
|
| C246 |
Pro WS C246-ACE |
||
| X299 |
RAMPAGE VI EXTREME ENCORE |
PRIME X299 EDITION 30 |
|
| Z590 |
ROG MAXIMUS XIII EXTREME GLACIAL |
TUF GAMING Z590-PLUS WIFI |
|
| Z490 |
ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME |
ROG STRIX Z490-G GAMING (WI-FI) |
|
| Z390 |
ROG MAXIMUS XI EXTREME |
ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING |
|
| W480 |
Pro WS W480-ACE |
||
| H570 |
TUF GAMING H570-PRO WIFI |
PRIME H570-PLUS |
|
| H470 |
ROG STRIX H470-I GAMING |
PRIME H470-PLUS |
|
| B560 |
ROG STRIX B560-E GAMING WIFI |
TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS WIFI |
|
| B460 |
ROG STRIX B460-F GAMING |
TUF GAMING B460M-PLUS (Wi-Fi) |