Gadgetory

and guys build lid here and today we're going to be taking a look at gigabytes X 299 gaming 9 motherboard so this is the top of the line board from gigabyte 4 X 299 as of right now there is rumors that there might be a second wave of motherboards for like the 18 core and such but as of right now this is definitely the top board that you can get from gigabyte so interestingly enough it also shares a lot of the vrm design with some of the lower end boards so I'm pretty sure for like the gaming 7 basically everything I say here is relevant for that board as well as far as the V RMS are concerned the features are different but the VR ends stay the same pretty far down the Gigabyte motherboard stack 4x 299 before getting to that this coverage is brought to you by our 10 year anniversary edition shirred which has an exploding design layout on the front the shirt comes in both teal and gray with tri-blend and cotton materials and celebrates the 10th year since we started designing gamers Nexus botnet ultimately leading to its launch about nine and a half years ago you go to gamers Nexus at squarespace.com to pick up one of the shirts so before we get to the VRMs we'll go I'll just point out some interesting features that the board has it has a power switch and power button right there reset button right there clear bios over here postcode down here which I'm personally not a fan of because if you put well they don't have the right spacing for for why do they nope it doesn't so it's not really an issue but if you were running a multi GPU set up there is a chance that you might end up covering the postcode and then you can't see it in that that's annoying to say the least so I don't really and actually same goes for the button so buttons so they slow like positioning for these things that you need to access is really less than ideal if you're running a multi sheepy you set up but those are super rare to these days so it's not really a huge issue for most people and the board does have dual BIOS so I can't actually point out where the BIOS chips are because you can sort of see one of them here but I haven't managed to find the other one but it does have gigabytes to a while so if you you know are flashing the balls on the board and something goes really really wrong you're still not actually you're you don't really have a problem because the dual BIOS will recover from that really really easily so yeah that's that's a nice feature to have on board and gigabyte puts it almost basically on almost every board date they make so that's standard gigabyte right there now then let's start taking a look at the actual vrm starting with the biggest and most important one the VCC n or also known as the core erm and this this is a problem caused by the fact that X 299 is is two completely different two completely different architect well architecture so to speak well dies so you have skylake X which has a fiber and then you have KB like X which doesn't have a fiver for those of you I'm not talking about the fiber coin I'm talking about the fully integrated voltage regulator and so basically that is a bit of circuitry built into the sky like CX CPUs which takes a single voltage and converts it into all the other voltages the CPU needs internally and it exists because it's a great way to save power on the motherboard of erm because ultimately it is really really hard to push a lot of current at low voltage so the fiber basically takes a slightly higher voltage it's still not straight 12 volts it takes in say 1.8 to 2 volts and it converts that down to the core vccs AVC cio any other voltages the CPU needs it produces all of those off of a single voltage so the VCC and vrm does that however if you put in a KB like X CPU instead of a sky like X which if you're putting a KB like xcp you into this motherboard there's probably you're probably doing something wrong because this board costs way more than a KB like X chip does so that's some weird priorities you have there but if you put a KB like xcp you into this motherboard what ends up happening is CCN is no longer VCC and it is now the core and the reason for that is is because kb like x doesn't have the fully integrated voltage regulator so it has to have all of its voltage supplied by them all of its voltages supplied externally from the motherboard so that's why you also have this phase right here and then this vrm right here and basically this is VCC SA and this right here is VCC IO those only run if you have a kV like X CPU because otherwise they don't need to exist so yeah it's Intel you know that this is what happens when you shove a KB like die because that's ultimately what KB like X is is just a regular old KB like die but on the X 299 package because X 299 has a much better package for power delivery which is why you get the better overclocking on KB like X the downside is is the motherboards basically need to add extra components that are completely unnecessary for running skylight deck CPUs in the process so yeah that's kind of less than ideal anyway back to the VCC N or also also known as V core vrm it's a one two three four five six seven eight phase setup it is controlled by this chip right here and that chip is a International rectifier ir35 2:01 running in eight phase mode so you do actually get a true eight phase right here and it goes from 200 kilohertz switching frequency all the way up to two megahertz though international rectifier power strip pages are typically optimized for 300 kilohertz switching frequencies so that's what I'm going to be doing all the calculations for this vrm with and also what the board is probably running I have no idea based on just pictures of the motherboard even if I had the board in hand I'd probably end up having to use an oscilloscope to figure out what frequency or on that so let's talk about the power capabilities of this lovely thing the power stages which I've already mentioned are these chips right here and these are international rectifier again because you usually use the same brand power stages a controller manufacturer these are ir35 five sixes these are 50 amp power stages and unfortunately I cannot get a full public datasheet for these so instead I'm using the International rectifier three five five one datasheet which is also a 50 amp power stage and the predecessor of the 35:56 the main difference between sort of the newer generation of international rectifier power stages like the 35:56 here compared to say its predecessor the 35 51 is the new generation of power stages is a lot more power power efficient at higher switching frequencies however they are still optimized to run best at 300 kilohertz whereas like but the older ones would like get really really inefficient as early as like 600 kilohertz whereas you know the newer ones could go up to 600 kilohertz before it gets really really bad so there's a small improvement in efficiencies while there is a pretty significant improvement in efficiency at higher switching frequency well ultimately most boards aren't going to run it because you get best efficiency yet around 300 kilohertz so that's what I'm doing all my calculations with I'm also not going to do any calculations for Kb like X because it's just blackened one you shouldn't put kV like X in this motherboard 2 KB like X is not concerning compared to Skye like X in terms of power consumption and current draws so I'll just do all the skylake X will go through values for skylake X and you know that that's going to be the comparison point from other boards because KB like X is just a lower load really it's just easier to run them sky like X so since we're going to be calculating for Sky like X and I'm going to give you different power levels for different overclocks so 150 watts that is a 7900 X app stock 200 watts would be a very very mild overclock mind you these numbers are peak loads are like prime95 or in one case Cinebench because this board with where we've run into some weird issues in testing with it where you basically like you try to run prime95 avx-512 on it and the power draw ends up being lower than Cinebench at some point so the board is obviously powers rather like the CPU is obviously throttling but there's no way to get rid of that so yeah that's that's a bit of an issue then 250 watts so this is probably where most people will stop between 250 and 300 watts the reason for that is is passed this point you need deal is also exceeding this point like this is where we run into the power throttling because basically we can't get the CPU so pull more than two it like we can get a stable overclock and usable overclock at 264 watts of power draw so for the 7970 900 X that we have here at gamers Nexus that was done at 4.5 gigahertz 1.17 5 volts v core so yeah and that's you know that's not that's V core not VCC n that's a major distinction so this is the voltage the CPU actually ends up like that's what the core that's that that's what comes out of the fiber so the VCC end goes into the fiber this comes out of the fiber ultimately what this erm is seeing is not that the vrm will see a constant 1.8 volts because it doesn't really seem to do anything to change VCC in on skylight X so far and so all my ratings are also at 1.8 volts so yeah I sort of this is where we max out and another issue with this max out was beyond this the CPU temperatures just go through the apps like through the roof you very quickly end up hitting 90 plus degrees 95 plus degrees under under stress test which you can't do anything about and now you may be thinking oh but I'll get a custom water loop and I'll totally get an even higher overclock you won't because unfortunately the thermal interface material used on Skye like ax is so bad now basically the water in the AIO that we use to do this overclock was really not that hot relative to how much you know relative to how much power the CPU was putting out so that was with high rpm fans and everything and basically the a IO radiator was pretty much cold and the CPU was cooking because the thermal the thermal interface material that intel is using or just the way it supplied one of the two is really really like it's just blocking all heat transfer from the die to your cooling system so a bigger cooling system won't help you because your bottleneck is the thermal paste under the IHS so to exceed that 300 watts or 250 watts of power draw you're going to need to the lid your CPU but if you do to lead your CPU it is completely possible to go as high as 400 watts or if your cooling system is up to it even 500 watts of power draw so I will do count I've done calculations all the way up to there I'm assuming that 1.8 volts for all of those figures so the current levels for these different numbers are you know for 150 watts you're looking at sort of 85 amps through the VRM and I've just realized that I should have not put this right in the middle of my stuff but oh well 85 amps through the vrn that would produce about 10 watts of heat so not an issue I don't know have a board well ultimately you know do in testing for thermal vrm thermals I do not have the board and it is impossible like I can calculate how much heat the vrm will put out for a given amount of power that it needs to supply and current it needs to output but I cannot I cannot tell you if the cooling system is good enough to actually deal with that so yeah but 150 watts one point four eight volts you'll get you know around 85 amps and 10 watts of heat off the erm 200 watts of CPU power consumption you're going to be looking at about a hundred and ten amps through the vrm and I'll produce about 13 watts so still like that should be non-issue 250 watts you're going to be looking at about a hundred and forty amps and about 16 watts of heat so I still think this should be relatively not not problematic since you're only exceeding the stock heat output by like you know 60% which is a law but once we get into the bigger power numbers you're going to see where where the issues start showing up 300 watts you'll be looking at around a hundred and sixty five amps also which translates to about 21 watts of the heat output on the vrm 400 watts is 220 amps and 31 watts of heat this is where I think you'll start seeing the rme thermal issues and we can keep going up because it is still possible to push the power draw even higher at 500 watts 1.8 volts the vrm will have to output about 280 amps of power current and will produce about 47 watts of heat that is a problem that's like a low-end CPU worth of heat that's like a laptop CPU source of heat output so yeah that that is really really hot it will need a substantial heatsink you'll probably even need to give it extra airflow if you have a cooling system sufficient to this to pay 500 watts of CPU power consumption and as well as you know the diluted CPU so that your cooling system can actually get to those 500 watts because the thermal paste that comes on these CPU stock will definitely stop you from actually getting anywhere near that before the CPU basically thermal throttles so yeah that's the sort of erm situation I don't really see it as a like I don't really see it as a huge problem because we've not like Steve hasn't managed to get the board to give the CPU more than 264 watts of power and that kind of power draw level you're looking at between 16 and 21 watts of heat which you like even an anemic and kind of badly designed vrm heatsink shouldn't really have a problem with but if you do deal it'd you might run into serious issues because like that that's a lot of heat output now just for the sake of comparison I've gone ahead and also calculated what the 220 amps would do on a z2 70 gaming nine because that's like the same class of motherboard is this I know it's on a different chipset but it's the same sort of target and so I've calculated the z2 70 gaming nine and its 16 phase erm except that has is using international rectifier 35:53 power stages which I do have a public data sheet for so that's great and interestingly enough that 16 phase using the 35:53 power stages which are 40 amps instead of 50 amps produces the exact same amount of heat as this one does for 220 amps of power consumption i mean current draw at 1.8 volts 300 kilohertz switching frequency so that actually really surprised me because I was kind of hope like there are still some motherboards on mainstream Intel platforms where the vrm is actually better than what you'll find on a lot of X 299 motherboards but at least there's no recent examples of that so I don't know if that means ecology has just gone downhill across the board or if you know as I guess you could say quality has just gone downhill across the board couldn't you because there's no real reason to not give a super high-end platform a super high-end vrm I mean this is definitely sufficient and you know one of the major issues with X 299 vrm design is the fact that you need to somehow fit the VRM between the two banks of 4 memory slots but this could be stronger you know it's not a problem for your even on a 70 900 X and normal overclocking use and you shouldn't run into issues if you deal it if you somehow manage circumvent all the power throttling stuff yeah you can definitely get to the arm to overheat because then your power consumption will balloon get kind of silly your current draw will go way up and the vrm heat output will go through the through the roof but for normal day-to-day overclocking I don't really see a problem with with the RM here so yeah I mean that's not really a good thing to say about a top-of-the-line board in my opinion because this is the gaming nine so it should be held to higher standards but uh well it is what it is I'll let you pass your own judgement on this I'm just the messenger anyway let's move on to all the other minor VRMs on the board so starting off with a VC CA right here which it just conveniently happens to be there and now I'm starting to think this might not be VCC i/o now let's go to BBC CIO anyway so this is VC CSA and that's control that's a single-phase controlled by this chip right here and that is an IR through point ir 3 3 5 2 0 4 that is a four phase voltage controller I have not written down anyway it runs in one phase mode here anyway so yeah it's not a problem I have the important part it's running in one phase mode and it's controlling an international rectifier IR power stage again and that is a IR 35:53 so that's that 40 amp power stage which this is just ridiculous overkill for VP TSA this vrm is only ever used on kV like like on a lot of motherboards sort of from from kV like you'd see a vrm like half as big or even a quarter of what this is for VC si si so 40 amp hours of 40 amp power stage IR 35:53 absolutely not an issue massive overkill there I don't have any complaints and I just realize that that goes over another vrm that we're going to be talking about the memory vrm located right over here so this provides your ddr4 6 power and it's using it's a two-phase again using the same IR that and it's also using IR 35:53 power stages again in fact basically every single one of the minor VRML on this board is also a 3553 that there is a 3553 that's the 3553 AB 63 that and that is also a 3553 this voltage controller up here is yet another ir35 to 0 for this set of phases over here is memory again so basically here they put them in a corner and next to each other here they put them you know in behind each other and sort of to the left of the memory slots so that's your memory power there both of these are two-phase VRMs both of them are controlled by the same 35 to 0-4 voltage controller both of them are completely ridiculous overkill for ddr4 so that's nice I'm guessing what happened is gigabyte got like like Infineon started giving away I our 3553 s 2 gigabyte for free or something because I've seen a lot of gigabyte boards and there's just I our 3553 s everywhere and I just kind of noticed from a few boards I've looked over recently and it's just it's if it's a vrm it's probably using a 3553 which you know that's nice because you get a lot of ridiculous overkill in places but on the other hand it's a bit wasteful maybe I guess it does make the Bill of Materials a lot simpler though so that's nice let's move on to the other remaining vrm there's the VCC i/o which is basically similar to the VCC si that's your system agent that's basically the memory system and PCIe and that's the other part of the memory system and PCIe these voltages affect memory overclocking and if you're running a lot of GPUs they would also affect that but basically you don't have to worry about voltage regulation although they're very low-power it's just a case of like yet they exist um moving on the other minor rail these guys right here those are both VPP I cannot find the voltage controller for them and VPP is the that's a supporting voltage for your ddr4 memory sticks this is a power rail that was so small that it used to be integrated into ddr3 Stakes like this voltage didn't exist on ddr3 because ddr3 produced this voltage on the state on the memory sticks themselves so this is a very very low-power vrm and the use of the IR 35:53 on these is just even more ridiculous overkill than the use of IR 3553 s anywhere else on this board so yeah I'm 99% sure a gigabyte just has a warehouse full of these and they don't know what to do with them anymore because they're putting them everywhere which you know that's a good thing but I guess vcore vrm could could it be better so now that pretty much wraps it up for the arms on this board there's nothing left for nothing left I can still cover here but memory power definitely just Flying V CGS AVC cio are just fine there's no issues with those VCC n /r e core it could be bigger it probably should be bigger for one thing the 35:56 is not the most powerful power stage that would fit into this package right here like I mean the actual physical board space because that's the main constraint with X 299 you need to fit your VR M into a very small relatively small footprint the thing is international rectifier makes a 60 amp hour stage that states basically in the exact same amount of space as a 35:56 so using the 35:56 instead of the 3555 is almost entirely a cost-saving measure from gigabyte because the 3555 would actually get you better vrm efficiency but yeah that's that's kind of a thing ultimately it's not like the VR M is going to blow up on you it might get really hot if you get past the cooling restrictions of kind of sky like X but if you're doing today today over talking that's not going to be an issue now I guess if you're doing day-to-day overclock ultimately this board has features that I just don't care about so I'm not going to talk about the merits of the rest of this motherboard but yeah the VR m4 recore VCC and I'm not impressed the memory of erm is I have no complaints all the supporting voltages really I have no complaints v core VCC and could definitely be stronger but you know it's not like it's going to burn your house down so that's it for this video like share comment subscribe also please support gamers Nexus on patreon if you would like to see more videos like this you can head over to my channel called actually hardcore overclocking where I do PCB breakdown like this one as well as lots of other overclocking related videos thank you for watching and see you next time you