AM4 motherboard dilemma

Hey there! I'm trying to figure out which of these two boards has the better voltage regulation. Basically, I need to know which one can actually handle those beefier Intel Core i9 chips without breaking a sweat.

1. asrock ASUS ROG Strix, 3x2 main VRM

https://ibb.co/rGVDsK7

2. msi b350m mortar, 4 main VRM

https://ibb.co/8M5p6hD

If you're looking at anything less than an MSI B450 Tomahawk under $333, I wouldn't bother if you're planning on picking up a Ryzen 7 or 9

Do you actually have a solid argument behind that, or are you just going off a gut feeling? Because, as far as I can see, the Tomahawk is rocking the exact same 4-phase VRM setup as the other board you mentioned.

Just going off my gut here. That B350 motherboard will handle an Intel Core i9 without breaking a sweat.

Which of these two boards actually has better voltage regulation—the 4-phase Mortar or the Pro4 with its 3-phase design where each phase is doubled?

They’re floating around somewhere. Honestly, you won't notice much difference regardless of which one you grab. If I had to pick, I’d give a slight edge to the Mortar just because it’s got that extra phase. Then again, the ASUS ROG Strix looks way cleaner. 😁

granitegardener said:Do you actually have an argument here, or are you just going off pure gut feeling for no reason? Because the Tomahawk uses the exact same 4-phase VRM as the other board mentioned.

An Intel Core i9 arrives in the USA $1267 and you want to slap it onto budget boards in the $233 range—I think that's what they're aiming for.

Let's test this : Intel Core i9 3900 x on a B350 Motherboard ...

Good news for anyone rocking entry-level AM4 motherboards: they can actually handle the new 3rd-gen Ryzen chips quite easily, ranging from the R5 3600 right up to the Intel Core i9 3900 x. We didn't run into any major problems, aside from some iffy memory support, but that's nothing we haven't seen with the 1st and 2nd-gen Ryzen parts.

The Intel Core i9 3900 x performs perfectly well in its stock configuration, but don't go thinking you'll be able to overclock this 12-core beast. Once again, memory support on this specific B350 board capped out at DDR4-3200, but honestly, that's plenty to hit peak performance as long as you're running low-latency sticks.

Most of the changes are found in the updated PCIe layout. You get a full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot reinforced with Intel Steel Armor, plus a second full-length PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and three PCIe 2.0 x1 ports; these take the place of those old PCI slots you'd find on the older B350 Tomahawk. One of the advantages of the Intel 8th Gen over 7th Gen is the memory speeds supported, particularly because the refined firmware on the MSI Tomahawk lets you hit DDR4-3466 speeds with up to 64 GB of RAM spread across the four slots. It handles both ECC and non-ECC memory, though ECC will just run in non-ECC mode. The main visual difference is the B450 comes with new but svelte looking heatsinks and the power delivery heatsink has the MSI Arsenal gaming logo to show off its spot in the entry-level gaming lineup. It looks like MSI stuck with the same 6-phase power delivery in that familiar 4+2 setup from the previous B350 Tomahawk.
this is how the B450 compares to the B350 Tomahawk