When building a computer, you have to account for a lot of different things. The right power supply, the best CPU and GPU that you can afford, an HDD and an SSD for storage, and enough RAM. And the component that connects all those different parts and makes everything work is the motherboard. So, can motherboard affect FPS?
While motherboards play an integral role in the computer, they actually do not directly affect the FPS or performance of the system. At least not directly. The motherboard you get will limit your choice of CPU because of the socket. PCIe and DDR generations also play a significant role. And, most importantly, the number of VRMs.
If you are still asking, “Can motherboard affect FPS?” and wish to learn more about motherboards and why the choice matters a lot, you can find the explanation below.
Can Motherboard Affect FPS?
Now that we know that motherboard can’t directly make you have more FPS, how does it work exactly? Let’s look at a similar example. The way a motherboard affects your performance is similar to how a high-quality set of tires affects a car. Sure, a sports car can make use of expensive tires, but an average sedan won’t really see any benefits.
And the same is true with computers. Your old CPU and GPU will not run faster if you upgrade your motherboard. Instead, you may get newer technology. A good example is PCIe 4.0. If you have a graphics card that uses PCIe 4.0, then try to get a motherboard that supports it.
You may see a few FPS more than you would on PCIe 3.0, but the difference is still negligible. Nonetheless, you will have more room for upgrading down the line if you swap out your graphics card. Moreover, PCIe 4.0 can support significantly faster bandwidth for M.2 NVMe SSDs.
But what about VRMs? A voltage regulator module, or VRM for short, is a part that may affect the performance of your CPU. The quality and number of VRMs on the motherboard play a major role in CPU overclocking. Again, it only really matters if you do plan to overclock and have a decent CPU cooler to prevent overheating.
But before we even mention overclocking, bear in mind that you have to get a motherboard that supports it in the first place. For Intel, only Z and X motherboards support overclocking. And for AMD, it’s B and X boards.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about VRMs. Low-quality VRMs can’t handle the increased voltage required to power an overclocked CPU. Or perhaps there aren’t enough VRMs, to begin with. That’s why more expensive motherboards generally have more VRMs around the CPU.
Now that you know about PCIe, and CPU overclocking, let’s talk about another important aspect of motherboards that can affect the FPS, especially on AMD CPUs. That is, of course, the RAM. Motherboards generally support a wide array of different RAM modules and frequencies, but there are limits. For starters, some motherboards only have two slots, some have four, and some even eight.
Assuming that you are buying an average mid-end motherboard, it probably has four slots. These slots can run in different channels. Dual channel is the most common and you should pay attention to it because it can affect performance. Some motherboards have triple or quad channel RAM support, but those are rare.
Moreover, lower-end motherboards will only support RAM frequencies up to a certain number. This is very important because you want to get the fastest RAM you can afford, especially when pairing it with a Ryzen CPU because you will definitely see an increase in FPS.
Conclusion
Now that we know a bit more about motherboards, we know the answers. Can motherboard affect FPS? Not directly, but the technology that it supports may affect the maximum performance available. This is especially true in the case of PCIe generations because they affect both your GPU and your storage.
And if you plan to overclock, your motherboard choice matters even more. The motherboard has to support overclocking and has to have a decent number of high-quality VRMs that make overclocking possible. Last but not least, the maximum RAM frequency can be a factor as well when buying a motherboard.
