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VRM Explained on ASUS Maximus XI Hero

markuaw1
Level 9
this is a must see video of /// VRM Explained on ASUS Maximus XI Hero /// Buildzoid analyzes the ASUS Maximus XI Hero VRM to talk about the "twin-8 phase" design and what it really means. /// https://youtu.be/bLO-vYjJN-I
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17 REPLIES 17

Zammin
Level 9
There's no doubt that there has been a number of counts of false/misleading advertising with the new Z390 ASUS Maximus boards, but I have to chime in to say that the VRM is not incapable of handling the 9900k even when overclocked. It certainly could be a lot better for the price and the advertising did originally lie about the phase count but the VRMs on the Hero do not generally overheat unless running very high voltage with no airflow. In the other thread about the XI Hero's VRM (the original one) on the last page you can read about one of the Hero owners who is running his 9900k at 5.1Ghz and his VRMs are fine temperature wise.

The real issue for me is the false advertising. As mentioned above the "twin 8 phase" terminology has been silently removed from the product pages. The marketing pages for the Z390 lineup originally had text that said "all ASUS Z390 motherboards have at least 8 phases" but not long after I pointed this out in the other thread it was silently changed to read "power stages" instead of phases. Luckily I took a screenshot of the page before it was edited by ASUS. Here it is for anyone that wants some proof to hold on to.

https://imgur.com/TJfEYU8

The other piece of misleading advertising is for the Maximus XI Formula and its absolutely pathetic onboard lighting. There is another thread in this forum about it so I won't go into too much detail about it here, but the images on the product page and all sellers pages for the board show this brilliant lighting all across the board, but in reality it is so dim that it basically cannot be seen unless you use bright green or blue and turn off all other lighting in the case, and even then it's incredibly faint. The guy who started the thread about it actually thought his lighting wasn't working at all because he couldn't see it until I suggested he turn off all other lighting. I've been in talks with cl-adrian@asus about it and he has been discussing it with the R&D team via email and all they've had to say so far is "The Maximus XI Formula website image is focusing on highlighting the lighting part, so it looks brighter than real light". So in other words, "We deliberately used misleading images in order to make buyers think the lighting was a lot better than it really is".

Z390 has been a disaster for the Hero/Code/Formula IMO. The prices have gone up from Z370 (in Australia at least) but the quality of the product has not scaled with the price, if anything the Formula seems more like a $350 AUD board being sold for $720 AUD. As you can tell I do feel ripped off.

Werewolf486
Level 7
So then what's everyone's take on the Maximus XI Extreme? This was the board I was looking at when I caught wind of the VRM issue. I won't be buying for a 2 to 3 months so any advice would be appreciated, unless you tell me to buy Gigabyte boards.....then no, just no. Do I wait to see if ASUS responds by dropping their price or do I look at something else and if so what? The X*99 series is a joke, 8700k is good but dated already, Z370 again dated, the 9900k has higher thermals than I like to see, and I'm not an AMD fan when it comes to my personal systems. I feel like i'm screwed for a solutions here.

mdzcpa
Level 12
My 2 cents (based on 20 years of overclocking, system building, and competitive benching and hands on with a few Z390 boards):

The REAL issue with the Asus VRM setup on in Maximus XI line is/was misleading advertising. Asus has now removed most of the advertising material that claimed the boards were 8 phase (twin 8 phase). But out of the gate it was a bad idea to imply the Maximus XI line had 8 phases. I suspect they did so in order to compete with other brands that actually offered more phases. But no matter the reason, it was a bad idea and looked like purposeful deception.

The secondary issue is that for the price point, a fat 4 phase implementation is not competitive with the other brands. The fat 4 phase actually performs well, but at the ROG high end, it is not competitive with other offerings from say Gigabyte. It appears Asus skimped on the design, offering adequate VRM performance, but not living up to a premium offering ROG is known for. Not good.

However, that all said, this is where the truth needs to be clear. The 4+2 VRM on the Hero/Code/Formula are FAT phases with parallel components. This design FAR exceeds a normal 4+2 setup. With fewer phases to switch on and off, the fat 4 phase does run warmer and less efficient than boards with more phases to share the load. However, the temps on the Maximum line never reach dangerous levels. Heck, I can run my 9900k at 5.1 GHZ AVX consuming 228 watts on my Hero XI for 2 hours and my VRMs never exceed 68c in my case with typical case cooling. 68C is warm, but not alarming. But they are about 10c warmer than competing boards with more phases.

The Extreme board is 5+2. Again these are FAT 5 phases with doubled up components running in parallel. I guarantee you that the VRM on the Extreme will not be a limiting factor. Look around the net at world record overclocks on the 9900k and you will see most are held by the ROG boards.

What Asus SHOULD have done is say outright that they were moving in a different direction with their VRM implementation. There is more to a quality board than the number of phases (yes, I actually dared to say this lol). I've seem some real junk 8 phase boards out there. All else being equal, more phases IS better. But the quality of the components of each phase is also important. Also important to a quality board is PCB design (affects how cool the back of the board runs), memory tracing, a good UEFI, and more. Asus should have just said that they were focusing on other aspects of the board and defended their fat 4 phase instead of being worried about the marketing hype of how many phases the board has.

No doubt Asus save some cost on their design. But I can tell you from hands on experience, the VRMs perform well. Maybe a bit warmer, but it's not a horrific design that should be avoided at all costs. Should it be better for the price point? Yes. But when you look at all the boards and brands, you can see what boards are achieving the best overclocks on both the CPU and the RAM. You can see where Asus design shines. So you need to evaluate the entire offering. In my case, I am not willing to trade the best UEFI, great PCB design, and superior memory overclocking in order to get a board with more VRM phases. Other may make a different decision. And that is ok too. But I would not run away from the Extreme solely on the number of phases issue. The Maximus line VRMs are definitely adequate. They just pale in comparison to some of the competition. But the Maximus XI shines in other ways as well.

mdzcpa wrote:
The Extreme board is 5+2. Again these are FAT 5 phases with doubled up components running in parallel. I guarantee you that the VRM on the Extreme will not be a limiting factor. Look around the net at world record overclocks on the 9900k and you will see most are held by the ROG boards.


So if the Extreme is Fat 5 phase 5+2 why are reviewers not covering this board instead of the lower cost Hero?

Anyway, you are SURE 100% about it being Fat 5 phase? If so then I'm less hesitant to buy this board. That being said what's the thought on using the 8700k or the 9900k? Thermals being my concern on air cooling and slight OC.

Puffnstuff
Level 10
All I can say is shame on Asus for doing this and its the very first time that I'm going to prefer Gigabyte over Asus for a build.
Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master, AMD 3900X, EVGA 360 aio, 32gb G.Skill Trident Z Neo, Samsung 970 Pro NVME 512gb, WD Black NVME 1 TB, Crucial MX500 2tb, Zotac GTX 1080 AMP!, EVGA Nu Audio, CM HAF 932

Puffnstuff wrote:
All I can say is shame on Asus for doing this and its the very first time that I'm going to prefer Gigabyte over Asus for a build.



I went down that road myself. The Gigabyte UEFI sucks. I suppose if you never go into the UEFI after your initial set up, it might be just fine. But I like to perpetually tinker and there was just no way. It doesn't even come close. And the RAM OC was poor and didn't allow me to run my RAM at the same speeds as I can on Hero. Don't get me wrong. I completely understand your motives. And if it wasn't for the UEFI and crappy RAM clocks the Hero would have been out permanently. I only suggest you research these areas before plunking down cash on the Gigabyte (a gorgeous board really).

mdzcpa wrote:
I went down that road myself. The Gigabyte UEFI sucks. I suppose if you never go into the UEFI after your initial set up, it might be just fine. But I like to perpetually tinker and there was just no way. It doesn't even come close. And the RAM OC was poor and didn't allow me to run my RAM at the same speeds as I can on Hero. Don't get me wrong. I completely understand your motives. And if it wasn't for the UEFI and crappy RAM clocks the Hero would have been out permanently. I only suggest you research these areas before plunking down cash on the Gigabyte (a gorgeous board really).



Their BIOS was always crap...so why would their UEFI be any better.

Valentin17
Level 7
There is a good review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lAE3PgWoRc

😄