Overclock.net › Forums › AMD › AMD Motherboards › 4 + 1 + 1 Phase Power Design - What does this mean?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

4 + 1 + 1 Phase Power Design - What does this mean?

post #1 of 10
6/14/12 at 4:46am
Thread Starter 
Hi!

Been looking at some mobos for a build I have been asked to do for a friend of mine. All though I am an AMD guy, Intel was the order of the day.

I came across this mobo at my local CompUSA store: ASUS P8Z77-V LK. It mentiones that is has "Industry leading 4 + 1 + 1 Phase Power Design". What does this mean and how does it compare with an 8+2 Phase Power type motherboard? The build will only have a 2500K, GTX 560 Ti, Recon 3D sound card and thats about it. Some overclocking may be done all though I do not think it will be in the extreme. Maybe up to 4.5-4.7 on an H100 that I will give him for his build once my RX240 kit arrives.

Thanks for clarifying this for me.
Wife's Nut's and Bolt's @ 4.2Ghz
(16 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD FX-8120 Crosshair V Formula NVIDIA GeForce GT 210  Samsung  
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" 120 Gb SSD WD Caviar Black 640 Gb Liteon DVD RW Atapi iHAS324 Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid C... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 64-bit VIEWSONIC 22" LED 1080 HD Logitech K360 Thermaltake 800W, single rail, 60 Amps 
CaseMouseAudioOther
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Logitech M510  Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional 4 x Cougar Vortex 120mm PWM Fans mounted in pus... 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
Wife's Nut's and Bolt's @ 4.2Ghz
(16 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD FX-8120 Crosshair V Formula NVIDIA GeForce GT 210  Samsung  
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" 120 Gb SSD WD Caviar Black 640 Gb Liteon DVD RW Atapi iHAS324 Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid C... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 64-bit VIEWSONIC 22" LED 1080 HD Logitech K360 Thermaltake 800W, single rail, 60 Amps 
CaseMouseAudioOther
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Logitech M510  Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional 4 x Cougar Vortex 120mm PWM Fans mounted in pus... 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
post #2 of 10
6/14/12 at 6:17am
More phases in the VRM circuit --- which is what powers the CPU, means that it is possible to reduce the voltage ripple (fluctuation) with changes in load.

More phases does NOT mean the VRM circuit has more current capacity or is always better as the circuit design and components determine if a 4+1 or 6+2 or 8+2 or 12+2 is any better than a 4+1 design. While the VRM components may run cooler with increased phases, again this is not guaranteed just by the numer of phases used.

The VRM phase deal is primarily marketing where if 4+1 is good then 6+2 must be better and 8+2 is heaven... or so the Marketeers would like you to beleive.

As a very general statement... mobos with more phases tend to have a little more VRM circuit power reserve for CPU overclocking - though this is NOT guaranteed simply by how many phases exist.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 10
6/14/12 at 6:28am
Thread Starter 
Ok. That is in line with what I basically understood. Now... what does that last "+ 1" play in the equation? I am used to 4+1, 6+2, 8+2, etc. Now we have a 4+1+1.

BTW... Thanks for the quick answer!
Wife's Nut's and Bolt's @ 4.2Ghz
(16 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD FX-8120 Crosshair V Formula NVIDIA GeForce GT 210  Samsung  
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" 120 Gb SSD WD Caviar Black 640 Gb Liteon DVD RW Atapi iHAS324 Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid C... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 64-bit VIEWSONIC 22" LED 1080 HD Logitech K360 Thermaltake 800W, single rail, 60 Amps 
CaseMouseAudioOther
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Logitech M510  Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional 4 x Cougar Vortex 120mm PWM Fans mounted in pus... 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
Wife's Nut's and Bolt's @ 4.2Ghz
(16 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD FX-8120 Crosshair V Formula NVIDIA GeForce GT 210  Samsung  
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" 120 Gb SSD WD Caviar Black 640 Gb Liteon DVD RW Atapi iHAS324 Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid C... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 64-bit VIEWSONIC 22" LED 1080 HD Logitech K360 Thermaltake 800W, single rail, 60 Amps 
CaseMouseAudioOther
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Logitech M510  Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional 4 x Cougar Vortex 120mm PWM Fans mounted in pus... 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
post #4 of 10
6/14/12 at 6:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kahbrohn View Post

Ok. That is in line with what I basically understood. Now... what does that last "+ 1" play in the equation? I am used to 4+1, 6+2, 8+2, etc. Now we have a 4+1+1.
BTW... Thanks for the quick answer!

PCH + Memory
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 10
6/14/12 at 9:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kahbrohn View Post

Ok. That is in line with what I basically understood. Now... what does that last "+ 1" play in the equation? I am used to 4+1, 6+2, 8+2, etc. Now we have a 4+1+1.
BTW... Thanks for the quick answer!

The +1, +2 indicates that the VRM provides "split power" to the CPU, i.e. different voltages to control different areas of the CPU such as the Northbridge/IMC vs. CPU cores. This allows a CPU maker to use the lowest possible voltage for different areas of the CPU to reduce power consumption and heat.

A +1 VRM design offers the basic CPU core voltage +1 other voltage for CPU use. A +2 VRM design offers the basic CPU core voltage plus 2 other voltages for use by the CPU.

The additional voltage levels are not used for the RAM slots or other mobo components, they are used exclusively by the different areas of the CPU.

Glad to help. thumb.gif
Edited by AMD4ME - 6/14/12 at 10:17am
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 10
6/14/12 at 10:30am
  • xd_1771
  • Mess with the goat, get the horns
  • Forum Moderator
To answer your question about this board, 4+1+1 means that:
4 phases dedicated to CPU portion
1 phase dedicated to IMC
1 phase dedicated to GPU portion
LGA1155, unlike FM1, has a separate voltage for the GPU portion which is why the platform (except on P67 boards) has X+X+X phase count.
Hexagonal
(16 items)
 
Voyager [XT875]
(11 items)
  		 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD Phenom II x6 1055T [4GHz, 300x13.5, 1.42V] Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ [NB 3ghz 1.35v] MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II 1GB 8GB [4x2GB] G.Skill ECO DDR3 [1600 6-8-6-20-24-1T] 
Hard DriveHard DriveHard DriveCooling
80GB Intel X25M SSD WD 1TB Caviar Black (WD1001FALS) WD 1TB Caviar Black (WD1002FAEX) Noctua NH-D14 
CoolingOSMonitorPower
Scythe GT-15 Gentle Typhoon 1500RPM fans (2x, o... Windows 8 Pro 64-bit ASUS PA238QR 23.6" 1920x1080 IPS LED monitor [x2] Corsair HX520 Modular PSU [520W] 
CaseAudioAudio
Antec P182 SE ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Headphone Amp Audio Technica ATH-d40fs 
View all
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
ARM Cortex A9 dual core [1.2Ghz]  TI OMAP 4430 PowerVR SGX 540 1GB low power DDR2 
Hard DriveHard DriveOSMonitor
16GB on board storage 32GB Class 10 MicroSDHC card Android 4.0.4 "Ice Cream Sandwich" (LiquidSmoot... 4.3" 960x540 TFT capacitive multi-touch screen 
KeyboardPowerCase
Swiftkey 3 Battery Motorola DROID BIONIC 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
Hexagonal
(16 items)
 
Voyager [XT875]
(11 items)
  		 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD Phenom II x6 1055T [4GHz, 300x13.5, 1.42V] Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ [NB 3ghz 1.35v] MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II 1GB 8GB [4x2GB] G.Skill ECO DDR3 [1600 6-8-6-20-24-1T] 
Hard DriveHard DriveHard DriveCooling
80GB Intel X25M SSD WD 1TB Caviar Black (WD1001FALS) WD 1TB Caviar Black (WD1002FAEX) Noctua NH-D14 
CoolingOSMonitorPower
Scythe GT-15 Gentle Typhoon 1500RPM fans (2x, o... Windows 8 Pro 64-bit ASUS PA238QR 23.6" 1920x1080 IPS LED monitor [x2] Corsair HX520 Modular PSU [520W] 
CaseAudioAudio
Antec P182 SE ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Headphone Amp Audio Technica ATH-d40fs 
View all
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
ARM Cortex A9 dual core [1.2Ghz]  TI OMAP 4430 PowerVR SGX 540 1GB low power DDR2 
Hard DriveHard DriveOSMonitor
16GB on board storage 32GB Class 10 MicroSDHC card Android 4.0.4 "Ice Cream Sandwich" (LiquidSmoot... 4.3" 960x540 TFT capacitive multi-touch screen 
KeyboardPowerCase
Swiftkey 3 Battery Motorola DROID BIONIC 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
post #7 of 10
6/14/12 at 11:30am
Thread Starter 
@ AMD4ME & XD_1771:

Thanks to both... I guess that this third number is referring to the integrated graphics on the CPU then? (Is this the correct way of looking at this?)
Wife's Nut's and Bolt's @ 4.2Ghz
(16 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD FX-8120 Crosshair V Formula NVIDIA GeForce GT 210  Samsung  
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" 120 Gb SSD WD Caviar Black 640 Gb Liteon DVD RW Atapi iHAS324 Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid C... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 64-bit VIEWSONIC 22" LED 1080 HD Logitech K360 Thermaltake 800W, single rail, 60 Amps 
CaseMouseAudioOther
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Logitech M510  Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional 4 x Cougar Vortex 120mm PWM Fans mounted in pus... 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
Wife's Nut's and Bolt's @ 4.2Ghz
(16 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD FX-8120 Crosshair V Formula NVIDIA GeForce GT 210  Samsung  
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" 120 Gb SSD WD Caviar Black 640 Gb Liteon DVD RW Atapi iHAS324 Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid C... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 64-bit VIEWSONIC 22" LED 1080 HD Logitech K360 Thermaltake 800W, single rail, 60 Amps 
CaseMouseAudioOther
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Logitech M510  Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional 4 x Cougar Vortex 120mm PWM Fans mounted in pus... 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
post #8 of 10
6/15/12 at 10:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kahbrohn View Post

@ AMD4ME & XD_1771:
Thanks to both... I guess that this third number is referring to the integrated graphics on the CPU then? (Is this the correct way of looking at this?)[/quote
its the PCI slot
half breed
(15 items)
 
For Sale: F/S or F/T GIGABYTE GA-A75-UD4H FM1 AMD A75 and AMD A6-3670K Unlocked Llano 2.7GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core
$1 (USD) or best offer
 
MotherboardGraphicsRAMRAM
Asus Sbertooth Asus GTX 570 G.SKILL Ares Series DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) G.SKILL Ares Series DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) 
Hard DriveOptical DriveOptical DriveCooling
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR180GB  SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW  Sony BDUx10 Ibuypower AMD AM3 CPU Watercooling All-in-one s... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 PRO 32 bit Dell ST2320LF 23-Inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD... GIGABYTE GK-K6800  OCZ OCZ850GXSSLI GameXStream 850W  
CaseMouseAudio
ENERMAX FULMO Advance ECA892AG-BL  GIGABYTE GM-M6800 Noble  Sony SRS-DB500 2.1 Portable Speakers 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
half breed
(15 items)
 
For Sale: F/S or F/T GIGABYTE GA-A75-UD4H FM1 AMD A75 and AMD A6-3670K Unlocked Llano 2.7GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core
$1 (USD) or best offer
 
MotherboardGraphicsRAMRAM
Asus Sbertooth Asus GTX 570 G.SKILL Ares Series DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) G.SKILL Ares Series DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) 
Hard DriveOptical DriveOptical DriveCooling
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR180GB  SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW  Sony BDUx10 Ibuypower AMD AM3 CPU Watercooling All-in-one s... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 PRO 32 bit Dell ST2320LF 23-Inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD... GIGABYTE GK-K6800  OCZ OCZ850GXSSLI GameXStream 850W  
CaseMouseAudio
ENERMAX FULMO Advance ECA892AG-BL  GIGABYTE GM-M6800 Noble  Sony SRS-DB500 2.1 Portable Speakers 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
post #9 of 10
6/15/12 at 10:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kahbrohn View Post

@ AMD4ME & XD_1771:
Thanks to both... I guess that this third number is referring to the integrated graphics on the CPU then? (Is this the correct way of looking at this?)
the last # refers to pci slot or slots for gpu
half breed
(15 items)
 
For Sale: F/S or F/T GIGABYTE GA-A75-UD4H FM1 AMD A75 and AMD A6-3670K Unlocked Llano 2.7GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core
$1 (USD) or best offer
 
MotherboardGraphicsRAMRAM
Asus Sbertooth Asus GTX 570 G.SKILL Ares Series DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) G.SKILL Ares Series DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) 
Hard DriveOptical DriveOptical DriveCooling
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR180GB  SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW  Sony BDUx10 Ibuypower AMD AM3 CPU Watercooling All-in-one s... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 PRO 32 bit Dell ST2320LF 23-Inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD... GIGABYTE GK-K6800  OCZ OCZ850GXSSLI GameXStream 850W  
CaseMouseAudio
ENERMAX FULMO Advance ECA892AG-BL  GIGABYTE GM-M6800 Noble  Sony SRS-DB500 2.1 Portable Speakers 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
half breed
(15 items)
 
For Sale: F/S or F/T GIGABYTE GA-A75-UD4H FM1 AMD A75 and AMD A6-3670K Unlocked Llano 2.7GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core
$1 (USD) or best offer
 
MotherboardGraphicsRAMRAM
Asus Sbertooth Asus GTX 570 G.SKILL Ares Series DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) G.SKILL Ares Series DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) 
Hard DriveOptical DriveOptical DriveCooling
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR180GB  SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW  Sony BDUx10 Ibuypower AMD AM3 CPU Watercooling All-in-one s... 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 PRO 32 bit Dell ST2320LF 23-Inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD... GIGABYTE GK-K6800  OCZ OCZ850GXSSLI GameXStream 850W  
CaseMouseAudio
ENERMAX FULMO Advance ECA892AG-BL  GIGABYTE GM-M6800 Noble  Sony SRS-DB500 2.1 Portable Speakers 
View all
  hide details  
Reply
post #10 of 10
6/16/12 at 2:19am
GTX 560 Ti, Recon 3D sound card and thats about it. Some overclocking may be done all though I do not think it will be in the extreme. Maybe up to 4.5-4.7 on an H100 that I will give him for his build once my RX240 kit arrives.
g.gif
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: AMD Motherboards
Overclock.net › Forums › AMD › AMD Motherboards › 4 + 1 + 1 Phase Power Design - What does this mean?