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Can someone clear up misinformation on the Z390 XI Hero's power phasing?

jackflynn
Level 7
Greetings,

There's a buzz currently on Youtube and Reddit regarding some comments made by Steve from techtuber channel Hardware Unboxed, surrounding comments he made about what he called "fake 8-phase that's really a 4-phase VRM" power phasing on the Maximus XI Hero.

Initially in his video he doesn't reference the Maximus XI Hero by name but shows a slide of it describing it as a motherboard packing a "measly 4 phase VRM"

https://youtu.be/NGHiRrQ2AAo?t=213

Bizzarely enough, he then makes comparisons of the XI Hero to the 4 phase Z370 PC Pro and infers that the problems with the XI Hero are due to it's inferior VRM's - so somehow making an equivalency between the Z370 PC Pro and the Z390 XI Hero. but there's more ....

Further below in the comment section he describes the XI Hero as having "fake 8-phase that's really a 4-phase VRM" basically implying both incompetence and deception on Asus's part. He later apologized for that in the comment section but as you can imagine the damage was done.

The Reddit threads lit up and further picked up on this and a slew of impressionables are rushing to cancel or return their XI Hero's and XI Code's..

Can someone please link me to info regarding the power phasing on the board?

I have this from overclock.net
https://www.overclock.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=223640&d=1539304287

which led to this description of the Vishay SiC639 power phasing
https://www.vishay.com/docs/76585/sic639.pdf

but it kind of conflicts with this info from Dutch site Hardwareluxx.de
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f12/lga-1151-mainboard-vrm-liste-1175784.html#z390

which describes it as 4 +2

So ... which is it? And what info is the correct info to clear this up?

Thanks
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162 REPLIES 162

tostitobandito
Level 7
I'm 99% sure based on multiple hands-on sources I've seen that it's effectively an 8+2 phase board. I believe the 8 core phases are a 4x2 config with doublers. This is similar to what Asus has used on previous gens, although the actual components are slightly upgraded in the Z390 boards. Each phase in the Maximus XI Hero/Code/Formula is rated for 50 amps, which will be plenty of power for any amount of overclocking you could possibly do on water or even beyond into some extreme OC.

Here is one of those sources if you open up their big table of VRM info. It has the correct chip info (SiC639) and states that it is a 4x2 config on core.
https://hwtips.tistory.com/2458

Also, https://imgur.com/a/E5zLNZJ has some close-up pics from a Maximus XI Code showing the VRM's. You can count the 10 SiC639's, among other things.

I'll have my board tomorrow and can post more info regarding the power delivery if that helps.

tostitobandito wrote:
I'm 99% sure based on multiple hands-on sources I've seen that it's effectively an 8+2 phase board. I believe the 8 core phases are a 4x2 config with doublers. This is similar to what Asus has used on previous gens, although the actual components are slightly upgraded in the Z390 boards. Each phase in the Maximus XI Hero/Code/Formula is rated for 50 amps, which will be plenty of power for any amount of overclocking you could possibly do on water or even beyond into some extreme OC.

Here is one of those sources if you open up their big table of VRM info. It has the correct chip info (SiC639) and states that it is a 4x2 config on core.
https://hwtips.tistory.com/2458

I'll have my board tomorrow and can post pics and info on the power delivery.


Interesting info, thanks,

I literally have a Z390 XI Hero unopened here still in the shipping box. I won't have my 9900K until probably Nov 6th or 7th. I don't plan on overclocking. Enable MCE and that 's it. I'm using it mainly as an editing rig. I'm just going with a Noctua NHD15. Should be fine for stock - what do you think?

EDIT: Just noticed on that chart you linked to, I believe it's showing the XI Hero as 8+4?

jackflynn wrote:
EDIT: Just noticed on that chart you linked to, I believe it's showing the XI Hero as 8+4?


Wrong column, not that you'd know due to the language. The "8+4" is referring to the power connectors. The earlier column that says "4x2" is referring to the vcore config, and then there's another two phases for other things that you can see on the board.

Basically, don't worry. The board OC's fine. Steve at GamersNexus had it running the 9900K at 5.3GHz all cores on his stream Friday. I would suggest finding your own lowest stable voltage at whatever frequency you choose though. If you just enable MCE it usually gives it way more voltage than it needs, which means more heat than you need as well.

If you could report back on what you see when you get it, that'd be great.

Interesting that someone posted this pic in response to a comment that it's more than likely 4x with doublers.

He said "ain't no doublers on the XI hero sir, and only a single voltage controller, its a 4 phase mate."

and posting this picture

76461

what do you make of that?

Here is a comparison to the C7H where you can clearly see the IR3599 doublers. Is Asus doing something different this time around and removing the doublers?

76463

EDIT: Added additional photo for comparison

mdzcpa
Level 12
Add me in to the interested group.

My Hero XI is sitting here as well unopened. The large temp differences observed between some of these review sites is alarming. From what I am hearing is that unless you allow the mobo to provide more than 95W the chip will throttle and affect performance. Reviewers that saw better temps used boards that had the 95W limit kept in place and resulted in much cooler 9900k chips....and lesser performance. 7% lower in cinebench for example. That in itself is not a big concern as you can adjust that wattage cap. However, the REAL concern was that you have some folks saying that removing the 95w cap was going to overwork certain boards with "lessor" power delivery set ups. The Hero XI was singled out as an example. I believe the Hero XI is a 4 x 2 +2 set up using doublers but the photo above does seem to indicate a different layout??


Edit - Steve from HU is sticking to his claim even 19 hours after his initial comments about the Hero XI and getting backlash
76464


He points to a Reddit comment that says:

"Sorry, he's bang on correct about it. Proof of phase count. Controller is an ASP1400CTB (rebranded IR35203 or 35201, an 8+0 phase controller) , there is only one voltage controller on the board, and there are "10" total phases, there are also no doublers on the board, which makes it a fake 8 phase, aka a 4 phase. mosfets are SIC639's (50 amp phases). (https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/9qdemh/masssive_psa_if_you_want_full_stock_performance/e88fj...)

Pretty much what Jackflynn is showing above with the pics.

Asus needs to step in here and add some clarity. I would find it hard to believe Asus would put out a board without ample power delivery in the ROG line so I suspect this is no concern. But the hubbub on the net about the Hero XI (and it's siblings) is somewhat alarming. The 9900k is a power hog for sure and I want something bullet proof.

tostitobandito
Level 7
Quote from hardware unboxed, updating his comments in the video:

We've just been notified me that the ROG Maximus XI Hero does indeed feature doublers, so the 4-phases from the ASP1400BT controller are doubled, creating 8-phases. So, I’m not sure why it’s limited to 95 watts or why it was for Linus Tech Tips. We’ll keep digging into this, if the boards not limited by default it means the team over at Linus manually limited the board. That said Gamers Nexus states the following: "We have noticed that ASUS’ Maximus XI Hero we used follows Intel’s spec for boosting and power behaviour, unlike some other boards."


I'm not sure why there's doubt here. All the Z370 non-apex Maximus boards were 4x2 for 8 core phases with doublers, and these are the same (using different components). Why would they all of the sudden go to a 4 phase without doublers for Z390 which has steeper power requirements, and why would they still have 8 phases of components on the board if they did go down that road? Then, why would these Z390 boards still overclock fantastically after all that? It makes zero sense.

I'll have my board in hand tomorrow to look personally, but I have no reason to doubt it based on the overclocking results already demonstrated with the board plus all the other information I've seen stating that it's a 4x2 config. It's done extreme OC's in excess of 6.5 GHz on a 9900K (with LN2) already without the VRM's being an issue. If for some reason it is only a 4 phase, Asus must have stumbled onto some novel design because it overclocks a 9900K just as well as any of the competing boards.

https://youtu.be/zN7VwAmp-_s
For those wanting direct evidence, the guy doing LN2 overclocking at the Intel launch event was using the Maximus XI Hero and he got it to 6.8 GHz.

Hi all.
If there is VRM, then I would have a question. Not a hero, I'm sorry.
I'll see the Strix Z390F motherboard and see the SIC 639 and the NCP302045 chip, what is true?
http://home.coolpc.com.tw/fb/ASUS/Z390-I-F-GAMING/coolpc-Z390-ROG-61.jpg
https://www.overclock.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=223882&d=1539435907
Because this is very important!
I want this motherboard and 9900K, the target is 5 Ghz, is it a good idea or is it a hero?
Thanks!

https://www.overclock.net/forum/6-intel-motherboards/1638955-z370-z390-vrm-discussion-thread-64.html...

I believe there are boards available with either SIC 639 or NCP302045 due to supply constraints. The performance difference between the two is negligible.

elmor wrote:
https://www.overclock.net/forum/6-intel-motherboards/1638955-z370-z390-vrm-discussion-thread-64.html...

I believe there are boards available with either SIC 639 or NCP302045 due to supply constraints. The performance difference between the two is negligible.


Thanks,but the Strix Z390 F works fine with 9900K/5Ghz ? 😮