# B550 chipset temperatures - anyone have data?



## newconroer (Aug 6, 2020)

Anyone have data or a review or video /blog about B550 chipset temperatures(mainly in contrast to one another[can see TPU has two top end board reviews which kindly mention the chipset temperature]
The chipset fan on the X570s puts me off in terms of potential noise, the fact it's a cheap part that can break and that I get bad vibes about a chipset fan in ...2020

It is pushing me towards a B550, yet the B550 has no fan for a reason. Is that because it's running at ambient and doesn't need one, or that they don't expect it to get hot?
And what is "hot" for these chipsets?

I was hoping to find a B550 equivalent of the Gigabyte x570 Elite, though no luck yet.


----------



## jayseearr (Aug 6, 2020)

hardware unboxed and buildzoid from gamersnexus usually put out some good info on these regards. 

One thing i will say about the chipset fans (from my experience, i'm sure it varies from board to board/chip to chip)
my tomahawk never even gets warm enough to activate the chipset fan using the stock curve. Granted, i only have a 3700x in there which is a low power cpu but I have seen many others basically say the same thing that it's a non-issue because the fan rarely (if ever) turns on.


----------



## mstenholm (Aug 6, 2020)

X570 chipset temperature is a non-issue. I heard it when I installed Windows and during start-up. I run 100% CPU 24/7.
B550 has a fan on vrm.....


----------



## milewski1015 (Aug 6, 2020)

newconroer said:


> Anyone have data or a review or video /blog about B550 chipset temperatures(mainly in contrast to one another[can see TPU has two top end board reviews which kindly mention the chipset temperature]
> The chipset fan on the X570s puts me off in terms of potential noise, the fact it's a cheap part that can break and that I get bad vibes about a chipset fan in ...2020
> 
> It is pushing me towards a B550, yet the B550 has no fan for a reason. Is that because it's running at ambient and doesn't need one, or that they don't expect it to get hot?
> ...


The only B550 temperature testing I've seen has been from Hardware Unboxed but that's for the VRM, not the chipset: 

























Equivalent to the X570 Aorus Elite how? Featureset? Gigabyte makes a B550 Aorus Elite: https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/B550-AORUS-ELITE-rev-10#kf


----------



## newconroer (Aug 6, 2020)

milewski1015 said:


> The only B550 temperature testing I've seen has been from Hardware Unboxed but that's for the VRM, not the chipset:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks I saw that video as well - hoped they mention it.
Thus far I think the consensus from the various threads I've read around, is that the 570 chipset is averaging around 60c? And the fan doesn't kick in till about then.
Though I don't have a secondary NVME drive nor do I have a demanding set of PCIE based secondaries(Recording, Pro Audio etc.) Maybe it is a moot point.



Yes, looked right past that model.
Well not sure, the 570 elite seemed appropriate in terms of good power throughput/Phase, board features and performance.
Price is not too high, not too low to put you off.


TUF gaming seemed alright.


----------



## xman2007 (Aug 6, 2020)

newconroer said:


> Though I don't have a secondary NVME drive nor do I have a demanding set of PCIE based secondaries(Recording, Pro Audio etc.) Maybe it is a moot point.


You're spot on with this statement, most of the time the chipset fan rarely kicks in unless under such conditions


----------



## newconroer (Aug 6, 2020)

mstenholm said:


> X570 chipset temperature is a non-issue. I heard it when I installed Windows and during start-up. I run 100% CPU 24/7.
> B550 has a fan on vrm.....


Fan on the VRM you say?


----------



## milewski1015 (Aug 6, 2020)

xman2007 said:


> You're spot on with this statement, most of the time the chipset fan rarely kicks in unless under such conditions


Yeah, have seen similar accounts. I've seen most people say the X570 chipset fan only kicks on during boot up. I'm sure that could be dependent on which specific motherboard you have though.



newconroer said:


> Though I don't have a secondary NVME drive nor do I have a demanding set of PCIE based secondaries(Recording, Pro Audio etc.) Maybe it is a moot point.


I think for the time being PCIe 4.0 still has a very niche market. IIRC, the only graphics card that really benefits from PCIe 4.0 is the 4gb 5500 and that's because it's only wired for x8. If you don't have any other devices that will make use of the increased bandwidth PCIe 4.0 has to offer, it makes little sense (in my opinion) to spend more money on an X570 board for more 4.0 lanes from the CPU instead of from the chipset like on B550. But then you have to ask yourself, is it even worth getting a B550 board if you won't utilize PCIe 4.0? As my system specs show, I've got a 2600 on a B450 Gaming Pro Carbon. I have no need for PCIe 4.0 because I don't have (or need) NVMe SSDs, and my 5700XT isn't limited by the PCIe 3.0 bandwidth. While I've got the upgrade itch to drop a chunk of change on something like a 3700X and an X570 Tomahawk, I wouldn't get enough of a performance upgrade out of it to warrant spending that money. I'm of the mindset that for someone like me without a need for PCie 4.0, it'd be better to wait until AM5 and/or DDR5 before shelling out for an upgrade.

Edit: It's worth notign that I'd likely putting off an upgrade until AM5/DDR5 because my system is relatively modern and meets my needs in terms of performance. Looking at your system specs though, you may be getting close to needing an upgrade depending on how that 2600k is holding up.



newconroer said:


> Fan on the VRM you say?


I think there are some B550 boards that have VRM fans under the IO cover. The Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming has one for example. Not sure if there's a comprehensive list somewhere out there or if you'd have to dig through the product page to confirm or deny the presence of a VRM fan.


----------



## tabascosauz (Aug 6, 2020)

newconroer said:


> Fan on the VRM you say?



Not on the ATX Elite or any boards you should be interested in. The B550-I Strix needs it just in case because its VRM heatsink design mirrors that of the X570-I Strix, both being optimized for active rather than passive cooling, and it's an ITX board, not to mention one with lower-end DrMOS than its ITX competitors. The MSI B550 ITX board has a chipset fan, but I suspect it's for controlling thermals when hotter PCIe 4.0 SSDs are installed, as the drive will be stacked over the chipset.

From what I can see, the B550 Elite and X570 Elite are both 12-phase Vcore (doubled 6-phase with ISL6617s), each phase with a 50A Vishay DrMOS. Just that the B550 uses a newer generation of Vishay part, SiC651 vs SiC639; the 651 integrates more current and temp protections, but performance is the same for practical purposes. No problems handling high core count.

The weakest part of both boards is that they're 4-layer boards, so memory overclocking won't be top of the line, but generally the skepticism of RAM speed on midrange 4-layer boards is way overblown, unless a particular board has unexpectedly serious design flaws as to memory trace routing.

The B550 boards don't need chipset fans. It's a very similar design to the Promontory PCH in B450 and X470, low power and low heat. X570 is not an ASMedia design; it's more or less an adaptation of the Ryzen 3000 I/O die, but put on the board. Even then, most owners will tell you that the PCH fan is silent, or you can set a custom fan curve and it will be.

On a side note, your username definitely rings a bell. Did you take a long break from TPU?


----------



## milewski1015 (Aug 6, 2020)

tabascosauz said:


> The weakest part of both boards is that they're 4-layer boards, so memory overclocking won't be top of the line, but generally the skepticism of RAM speed on midrange 4-layer boards is way overblown, unless a particular board has unexpectedly serious design flaws as to memory trace routing.


It's not like OP would be looking to push more than maybe 3800 anyway (if they can hit that) due to wanting to keep memory clock and FCLK in the 1:1 ratio so as not to introduce more latency. I would agree that it's not worth making a big deal out of the Elite(s) only being a 4-layer PCB.


----------



## newconroer (Aug 6, 2020)

The chip on it's own is a legend. ..2600k.
Despite all the chips that have come out since 2010/2011, at 1400p or higher you are not going to see very much in say gaming increases, unless there is a bottleneck

And that's one of the reasons for the change. I think it is choking the 1080 TI or at least causing more frame latency than it should, worse 1% lows and general lack of breathing.
I did try to use a jump to 2133mhz DDR3 as way to give it some shine, though not sure it helped much.

Just getting to that stage when tired of replacing graphics cards for 10-20 fps(which is a big deal actually..) when I might get that from a CPU/Motherboard upgrade now.

Anyways, off topic - thank you for the replies.
I think the data is out there, though not quite in your face as I assumed it might be in a comparative way.


@tabascosauz
Yes, I have not posted in some time.


----------



## Rossix71 (Aug 7, 2020)

Der Bauer tested two Asus boards The Strix B550-E and Tuf B550M-Plus and compared it to a few x570s.
He ran an open air bench and compared his findings with his earlier X570 vrm testing on those boards.
Considering, the B550s ran exceptionally cool compared to some x570s.


----------



## tabascosauz (Aug 7, 2020)

newconroer said:


> The chip on it's own is a legend. ..2600k.
> Despite all the chips that have come out since 2010/2011, at 1400p or higher you are not going to see very much in say gaming increases, unless there is a bottleneck
> 
> And that's one of the reasons for the change. I think it is choking the 1080 TI or at least causing more frame latency than it should, worse 1% lows and general lack of breathing.
> ...



Legendary chip indeed. I replaced my venerable 4790K with the Ryzen. My gripe with AMD always was and is still with firmware, but since you're coming in towards the end of the 3000 product cycle, most if not all the problems have been ironed out already. Including poorly performing and unstable launch firmware for B550, long since resolved by now.

I got mine 3700X exactly one year ago, 1 month after launch. I didn't immediately upgrade my GPU and stuck with my 1070 for a while. The platform upgrade didn't afford any significant uplift in average frames @ 1440p that might, say, enable me to play at a resolution I couldn't previously, but in aspects like frame time, multitasking and system responsiveness there was absolutely no contest. The jump from fast SATA SSD to NVMe probably played a role in it too, but the experience in day-to-day usage and Photoshop CC was night and day. Which says a lot, since I didn't make any upgrades to RAM capacity either in 2019, 16GB to 16GB.

The legacy i7s still make for fantastic HTPCs if the rest of the hardware works.



Rossix71 said:


> Der Bauer tested two Asus boards The Strix B550-E and Tuf B550M-Plus and compared it to a few x570s.
> He ran an open air bench and compared his findings with his earlier X570 vrm testing on those boards.
> Considering, the B550s ran exceptionally cool compared to some x570s.


----------



## delshay (Aug 7, 2020)

I would like to see the return of all copper heatsink like what we had in the past instead of cutting cost. Some how i don't see this happening, but if customer's are willing to pay that little bit extra, why not.


----------



## Rossix71 (Aug 7, 2020)

Thermalrights XP90c was a heavy monster but it cooled a lot better than the stock heatsinks back in the day. But I think we have reached the point of a radical redesign due to the current cpu packages overloading a lot of the modern air coolers. Unless of course hyper fan speeds are not a problem then we can strap some Delta fans on and let er rip. 

Damn tpu even reviewed it lol








						Thermalright XP90-C Review
					

Thermalright is one of the foremost cooling companies in the overclocking community. They have been around for many years providing that extra edge needed to keep your system cool. Although their lineup has changed quite a bit recently, many users out there are still cooling their CPUs with the...




					www.techpowerup.com


----------



## delshay (Aug 7, 2020)

Rossix71 said:


> Thermalrights XP90c was a heavy monster but it cooled a lot better than the stock heatsinks back in the day. But I think we have reached the point of a radical redesign due to the current cpu packages overloading a lot of the modern air coolers. Unless of course hyper fan speeds are not a problem then we can strap some Delta fans on and let er rip.
> 
> Damn tpu even reviewed it lol
> 
> ...



I was talking VRM, Chipset copper heatsink on the motherboard, but that's ok I have a few all copper CPU heatsink here.


----------



## Rossix71 (Aug 7, 2020)

delshay said:


> I was talking VRM, Chipset copper heatsink on the motherboard, but that's ok I have a few all copper CPU heatsink here.



Shoot, My bad

I can imagine manufacturers charging an extra premium for an all copper heat pipe vrm solution. Power phases seem to be getting toasty as hell lately. Hopefully next gen will work out some of the heat issues. I know the x570s are about maxed out rn.


----------



## EarthDog (Aug 7, 2020)

1. A fan isn't needed on b550 chipset as pcie 4.0 isn't on the chipset. Because of this, power use is a lot lower.
2. The fan issues on x570 was blown out of proportion. A couple of boards out of the gate that were loud, but bios updates took care of it.
3. B550 doesn't have vrm fans on all b550 boards. In fact, few do. I couldn't hear those.
4. The TUF boards are budget boards. Robust vrm due to the cpu requirements (like all b550), but otherwise a budget offering.
5. As far as fls improvements with cpu upgrade, you seem to game at 2560x1440 which isn't really cpu dependant. So while I'm sure you'll see a couple/few % increase moving to a new platform, I wouldn't expect much more than that.



Rossix71 said:


> I know the x570s are about maxed out rn.


Sorry, but no..

Or better, what does this mean?


----------



## newconroer (Aug 7, 2020)

Updated my specs..not sure where you got the resolution from?
Though I am on 3440x1440p  - not far off.

Yes, not expecting great FPS increase, more the minimum FPS, general system responsiveness, better memory and subsequently again - system responsiveness, lesser stuttering in games?
And of course feature set.

Though after consideration very recently, this project may wait.
Savings can be had come November/December electronics sales and prices might also be less due to new products.


----------



## EarthDog (Aug 7, 2020)

newconroer said:


> Updated my specs..not sure where you got the resolution from?
> Though I am on 3440x1440p  - not far off.
> 
> Yes, not expecting great FPS increase, more the minimum FPS, general system responsiveness, better memory and subsequently again - system responsiveness, lesser stuttering in games?
> ...


I only googled the first monitor listed in your system specs...which is QHD. Regardless, that is an even higher resolution putting more weight on the GPU. Well aware it cen bring up minimum too, just don't expect a significant difference at your resolution.


----------



## canadien (Aug 16, 2020)

Do you still want that?


----------



## CubanB (Aug 26, 2020)

I completely agree with OP in terms of chipset fans.  Maybe if they provided a spare in the motherboard box I'd feel differently.  Typically, smaller fans don't last as long as larger fans (especially if they are Noctua, they seemingly last forever).  It's not that it will definitely fail or be noisey, but more that there is the risk that it will.

This hurts the value of the board in terms of a hand me down to a relative, or selling it on the used market, or hoping to use it beyond the 5 year mark.  For example, I have a Strix 780ti that will be going to a hand me down computer, the GPU works perfectly, assuming you aren't doing heavy gaming but the fans now both noisey and unreliable (on the verge of failure).  Fortunately I was able to pick up some replacement fans for $20, which gives the GPU another five years of life.  I highly doubt that these chipset fans will have replacement fans available 4 years from now.  If it's a budget motherboard who cares right?  But if it's a flagship model, that was expensive and has high quality components it's a serious downer.

The tradeoff between B550 and X570 is the fact that the chipset of X570 is PCI4.0 for everything, which is great if you're looking to run a bunch of PCI4.0 m.2 drives. The problem is there is an inefficiency in the chipset where it runs higher wattage at idle.  Under load it has similar power usage as X470.   As shown by der8auer July of last year on his channel.  Apparently they don't downclock on idle or were made ineffeciently (or something).  The benefit of B550 is that it's a standard PCIE3.0 chipset similar to X470.  It's been optimized to run PCI4.0 in terms of PCB.. but only for one m.2 and for the GPU.  It avoids the chipset and goes straight to the CPU and the chipset is more what you'd find on X470 or a current Intel system.  With everything else being PCIE3.0.  If that bothers you go with X570.  If it doesn't.. the lack of a chipset fan (and lower power usage) is a nice bonus.  Since it's 12 months on, there's other optimizations.. especially for the Asrock B550 Taichi vs the X570 Taichi.  For example the internal USB C header for X570 is in a really stupid location.. blocked by the GPU if it's a long one.  That's been fixed with B550.  There also seems to be some optimizations in terms of RAM traces and it even has a better VRM vs the X570 model.  It's a matter of choices and preferences I guess.

The Gigabyte B550 Aurus Master is a nice board, but it prioritizes m.2 drives over PCIE slots (3 m.2 slots), which doesn't work for me.  I need PCIE more than I need m.2.  It also lacks an internal USB C header (which is a joke in 2020).  But it's VRM and rear IO is very good if that's your thing.  It's VRM runs super cool even under extreme loads.  VRM fans on B550?  None of the flagship boards have any.  The top B550 boards also have good CMOS reset and USB flashback options, which is a bonus if you ever want to upgrade to 4000 series CPU.

X570 has advantages, it's super future proofed.  The prices have also dropped in the last 12 months.  A lot of boards have good BIOS optimizations and only turn the fan on when under load.  I also saw reports of the fans failing within the first few months of launch.. it's a bit hit or miss.  I'm used to a chipset that runs at 40C from an older Intel system, I like the case to be cool and quiet.  PCIE4.0 doesn't really appeal to me at the moment.  I'm happy with Samsung EVO 970 Plus.  But I do like the idea of being future proofed with the GPU, because eventually.. the GPU's will require it to run at full speed.


----------



## themadflipflopper (Sep 13, 2020)

ASUS B550-E: chipset is usually ~56C, with ambient being ~30C.


----------

