When building your PC, you may consider a motherboard’s importance. Your motherboard components can impact your overall PC performance.
Depending on the purpose of your PC, you can enhance your motherboard’s components to serve a specific purpose. So, let’s see how much a motherboard and its components matter.
A motherboard matters greatly, and its specifications affect your overall PC performance. If you need a high-end computing PC, a motherboard with a fast processor will be required. How much a motherboard matters will depend on the specific purpose of the PC.
The remainder of this article will focus on how much the quality of motherboards matters, particularly for gaming purposes.
How Much Does the Motherboard Matter?
The motherboard has a minimal impact on gaming, except if you are purchasing a high-class motherboard.
It also doesn’t affect your FPS. Only a little FPS change results from changing the motherboard. You may only experience about 1 FPS change.
However, the motherboard specification can significantly affect the visual performance of your gaming PC.
Below, we explain how the different motherboard specifications affect your PC performance.
Processor
A motherboard processor can affect gaming performance. However, it is not every game application that a high-end processor will be helpful.
The best motherboards are those with Intel series Z processors, which allow overclocking. In gaming, overclocking is desirable as it will enable the processor to perform more operations faster.
There are also K series motherboard computers whose processors have overclocking ability.
The motherboard of Ryzen AMD and A320 processors can also overclock. However, unlike those of Intel, these motherboards vary in quality and capacity for overclocking.
GPU
GPU stands for graphics processing unit. Its function in your motherboard is to create images on your screen. The size of your GPU will determine how fast images can form on your PC screen.
For gaming, GPU contributes very much to your game’s performance because gaming is highly visual. It is undoubtedly in the top 2 of the essential motherboard gaming components ranking with the processor.
PCIe Port
PCIe stands for peripheral component interconnect express. Through the PCIe ports, it allows your peripheral device to interact with your motherboard components, for example, your graphic card.
A good PCIe port can quickly transfer data; getting the best PCIe port is critical for gaming. The more PCI Express port your PC has, the more your PC can accommodate multiple players.
The common PCIe x16 ports for graphics cards range from 2.0 (5GHz) to 3.0 (8GHz). Presently, there are new 4.0 generation motherboards like the Ryzen X570.
What Should I Consider When Getting a Motherboard for Gaming?
As motherboard quality doesn’t always lead to significant increases in gaming performance, we recommend going for mid-level motherboards.
However, for very demanding gaming applications, you should go for high-level motherboards and consider the factors below.
Proficiency for Overclocking
The most important thing to look for in gaming motherboards is proficiency for overclocking. Overclocking gives your processor a significant turbo boost in performance.
In motherboards, B450 motherboards overclock better than B350 motherboards.
On the other hand, the X370/470 motherboard performs better than the B450 and B350 because X370/470 motherboards are specially designed for overclocking.
Z370 and Z390 motherboards have similar overclocking capabilities.
Stability of the Power Unit
Consider if you want to increase your processor speeds. If you’re going to increase speed, use motherboards with suitable power units. A motherboard with a good power unit will lead to stable overclocking.
Otherwise, if overclocking is not necessary for you, go for motherboards with good slots, ports, and other additions.
PCI Express Slot Requirements
If your PC has multiple GPUs and you are considering crossfire or SLI, choose a motherboard with at least one PCIe slot of ×8 speed.
Price of the Motherboard
In most cases, more expensive motherboards are those with quality parts. However, it’s not always the case. Hence, you should find out the specifications of the motherboard components before purchasing an expensive one.
A more expensive motherboard does not always lead to higher performance.
Other things you should consider in motherboards are the USB and RAM specifications.
You should bear in mind that the higher the requirements, the more expensive it gets.
Processor Compatibility
AMD motherboards are highly selective. Their cheapest is only compatible with their processor generation. Hence, you may get compatibility problems with an unoriginal chipset.
For instance, if you use the Ryzen CPU in most AMD motherboards, you may face some challenges. Nevertheless, it’s not all Ryzen CPUs that have compatibility problems.
Which Processors and Motherboards Are Compatible?
Ryzen Gen 1 CPUs (1200, 1600, 1700) are compatible with AMD-AM4 motherboards without issues.
Ryzen Gen 2 CPUs (2400G, 2600, 2700) are compatible with AMD B450, X470, and X570 motherboards. However, they are incompatible with AMD 350 and X370 motherboards. For them to be consistent, you must update the motherboard to the latest BIOS version.
The 3000 and 2000 series processor chips are out-of-the-box compatible with X570 motherboards.
Factors Affecting the Motherboard’s Price
Here are some factors that can make a motherboard cost more.
Number of Ports
The higher the number of USB ports, the more expensive it will be.
Processors
A lower-end B350 or B450 AMD motherboard that overclocks can cost around 75-90 USD.
A lower-end Z370 and Z390 intel motherboards cost around 100 USD.
Additional Accessories
Motherboards with fancy LED lights are more expensive. They often have higher performance as well.
Conclusion
Some of the significant components of a motherboard are the processors, GPU, RAM chip, and many more. Each of these components can affect the specific performance of your PC.
For gaming, a fantastic motherboard feature includes the CPU, GPU, and PCIe slots. Check out this article to learn how these motherboard components matter to your gaming experience.
