What makes a gaming motherboard?
Gaming PCs emerged in the 1980s (their specifications would make you laugh now); by the 2000s, custom-built gaming machines were everywhere; and now you can buy just about everything you need off the shelf, from colored cables to whole systems swathed in lights. Tinkering with multipliers and clock frequencies has gone mainstream.
If you’re putting together a gaming rig, you’ll want a gaming motherboard — obvious, right? But are these motherboards really worth it? What can a gaming motherboard actually do to improve gaming? In a word: overclocking. This is really what they are all about, squeezing every ounce of performance from your processor and subsystems. You know how this goes: You need a big cooler, an unlocked processor, and the right motherboard chipset. But getting the right motherboard to tie these together can make all the difference….
Reliable overclocking is all about supplying stable voltages, and keeping cool while doing so. This is where the motherboard’s voltage regulator modules (VRMs) swing into action, stepping down the voltage from your PSU (usually from the 12V rail) into the low voltage you want for the processor core, typically 1.3V or so. All boards have them, but gamer boards have fancy ones.
A good clean signal is key, with no peaks and troughs. As you approach the limits of the CPU capabilities, these spoil the fun, particularly the voltage “droops.” The VRM has four main parts: capacitors, chokes (inductors), metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), and a controller (a pulse width modulation chip).
The VRM system is regulated by the PWM controller sending control signals via drivers for each phase (the driver ICs are often incorporated into the MOSFET chips). Very simply put, the input from your PSU is fed into the MOSFETs, then out through an arrangement of chokes and
