VRM
The other key area to look at is VRMs because this is where things get pretty interesting. To start with, it’s worth noting that even after a prolonged Prime95 run, which is worst case scenario, none of the boards peaked above 65 degrees, which is a huge step up from X570 which in comparison ran fairly hot. As we look at the results, at idle, everything was very similar, with the mini-ITX board as expected coming out as the warmest, while at load, things shifted about a bit, with the higher-end boards coming in with the best VRM temperatures. The only outlier here was the MSI ACE board which while was warmer than the likes of the two extreme boards from ASUS And Gigabyte, was still at a very respectable 56 degrees. The Gigabyte AORUS XTREME did come in the best though, at 41 degrees celsius followed closely, at 42 degrees by the Crosshair Extreme.
Also as expected, the hottest board was the mini-ITX board from ASUS, but even at 65 degrees, it’s well within safe limits and would encounter no thermal throttling across your system anyway, and is only higher due to the smaller form factor that it encompasses.
Either way, I think it’s clear to see what whatever board you choose to go with, you’re going to have no problem with thermals, even when pushing your CPU to the limits through overclocking, as every brand has done a great job of keeping things under control, even when looking at the likes of Prime95, which does paint a picture well beyond what the average user is likely to experience anyway.
