5 motherboard features that sound premium but are usually pointless

I feel bad for motherboard makers. Short of your power supply, it’s probably the most mundane component in your PC, and with stiff competition in the market, brands like MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, and ASRock need to pack in more features to separate their offerings from the rest of the market. Some of those extras are good, but there are plenty of motherboard features that just aren’t worth the money.

Although you can find a purpose for just about any PC component, here are a few motherboard features that, for most PC builders, are completely pointless.

5

Premium audio chipsets

If you’re worried about audio quality, best not let your motherboard handle it in the first place

One feature that separates the wheat from the chaff among motherboards is a premium audio chipset. On a midrange board like the Asus Tuf Gaming B860-Plus, you’ll typically a 7.1 Realtek chip built into the board, while the flagship Maximus Z890 Extreme comes with the ROG SupremeFX chip. A high-quality DAC built into your motherboard may deliver slightly better sound quality, but that assumes you’re using your motherboard’s audio in the first place. More importantly, a high-quality DAC isn’t worth the money if you’re even remotely interested in an external DAC.

Audiophiles are well aware how deep the DAC rabbit hole goes. Digital to analog audio conversion is expensive if you’re after peak quality, requiring high-quality source material, plus thousands of dollars on high-quality headphones and a DAC. If you’re heavily invested in the quality of your audio, your motherboard shouldn’t be handling the digital conversion in the first place.

Asus PRIME B650-PLUS ATX AM5 Motherboard

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The Asus Prime B650 Plus is an ATX AM5 motherboard for the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs, featuring PCIe 5.0 M.2 connectivity, USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and BIOS flashback.

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4

Extreme overclocking features

Do you have a tank of LN2 laying around? If not, don’t worry about extreme overclocking

20+ VRM phases, dual BIOS support, LN2 mode, physical BCLK buttons; the highest-end motherboards go all out for extreme overclocking. And that’s a great thing. If we don’t have motherboards that support these kinds of extreme overclocking features, we won’t get any new world records or the endless stream of (frankly incredible) LN2 overclocking demos. A robust power design and components designed for extreme temperatures inherently make these high-end motherboards higher quality than most midrange offerings. It’s just that the extra quality goes to waste for all but the most extreme enthusiasts.

The thermal design you should go with ultimately comes down to how intense you want to be when overclocking your components, and how reputable the brand you’re buying from is. For the vast majority of people, midrange chipsets from brands like Asus, ASRock, Gigabyte, and MSI will perform as well as even the most expensive motherboards you can buy. Unless you have a tank of LN2 lying around and plan on chasing world records, try to cut through the overclocking-angled marketing as much as you can.

3

Physical power and reset buttons

On high-end motherboards, you’ll usually find a physical power button, potentially a reset button, and a serial display that can spit out error codes if something goes awry. As someone who benchmarks PC hardware regularly, I can appreciate a physical power button. But I wouldn’t spend extra on one, and most people don’t need them.

Let’s deal with the power button first. As an extra for a motherboard you’re already interested in, a physical power button is great. Just don’t spend extra on one. Even if you have an open-air build that necessitates powering your PC on from the motherboard, you can pick up a $5 pack of jumper caps that will power your PC with the front panel headers. And, if you can’t be bothered, the old screwdriver trick for your front panel headers always works.

As for the LED readout, it can be helpful for troubleshooting. It’s not always helpful, though. The LED readout works best when you’re overclocking, helping you chase down what went from if you fail to POST. It can help in troubleshooting other issues, as well, but if you’re able to get into your PC, you’ll be able to get far more information that way. Similar to a physical power button, an LED readout is sometimes handy, but it’s usually not worth spending up for alone.

MSI MEG Z790 ACE MAX Gaming Motherboard

The MSI MEG Z790 ACE MAX is a premium E-ATX motherboard with a striking design, featuring prominent MSI iconography and gold accents. Its exceptional build quality is bolstered by the massive integrated M.2 heatsink, metal backplate, and reinforced PCIe slots. It excels in CPU overclocking, thanks to the 24+1+2 phase VRM design coupled with exceptional VRM cooling. High-end features like convenient diagnostics, along with outstanding connectivity options like five M.2 slots and Thunderbolt 4, make it a top choice for premium builds.

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2

An AI badge on regular features

Sorry, AI isn’t making your one-click overclocking better

This is something I’ve seen a lot more of over the past couple of years. Every brand is a bit different in how judiciously they apply “AI” to features that have existed on motherboards for years, but all the major motherboard brands engage in the practice at least a bit. Gigabyte has its AI Top range of products, MSI has Frozr AI cooling and AI Boost for NPUs, and Asus boasts AI overclocking and automatic AI cooling. A lot of brands shoehorn an AI badge into features that aren’t all that impressive, and motherboards certainly fall into that camp.

It’s similar to buying a motherboard for gaming, or a motherboard for creators. A high-quality PC will generally be a good option for gaming, creation, or AI, and usually all three. You don’t need a motherboard specifically for AI, nor one-click solutions for overclocking and cooling that have existed for years. There may be some niche applications where you need a specific motherboard for AI workloads, but that probably involves power delivery and PCIe lanes more than “AI” being slapped on other features.

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Get the most from your motherboard

They aren’t going to save you from GPU sag

Easily topping the list here is a truly worthless feature: PCIe slots reinforced with metal. Most major motherboard brands have a reinforced top PCIe slot on higher-end boards, and Gigabyte even went as far as to claim that its PCIe UD Slot X can withstand up to 128 pounds. These reinforced slots won’t do anything for you in the vast majority of cases. The proliferation of reinforced PCIe slots has come up over the past couple of years as GPUs have gotten larger and heavier, and therefore, have begun sagging when inserted. A reinforced slot won’t actually prevent GPU sag on its own, though, and if it does, it could actually damage your GPU.

A couple of years back, a series of Gigabyte RTX 4090s made the rounds with cracked PCBs, which was blamed on the weight of the card. It turns out that there was a fault in the PCB design; it had nothing to do with the PCIe slot. If the slot is able to support the weight of the GPU on its own, you’re still putting pressure on both the slot itself and the PCB of your graphics card. If the pressure is high enough, one of them has to give, and with a heavy-duty PCIe slot, the PCB of your GPU is what’s going to give out first.

GPU sag is a real problem, but it’s a problem you should solve with a support bracket. PCIe slots generally won’t warp over time, or at the very least, the PCB on your graphics card will warp before the PCIe bracket does. PCIe slots can break off, but that normally only happens during transportation when a sudden burst of weight on the slot causes it to snap off. Regardless, the majority of weight pulling on the PCIe slot with GPU sag is on the outer edge of your graphics card, and that’s the area that needs support. That’s assuming the reinforced PCIe slot is actually reinforced, too; Gigabyte is the only brand I’m aware of that has actually put a number on the weight its slot design can support.

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Premium for some, but not for most

There aren’t a ton of motherboard features that are truly worthless. There’s a reason motherboard brands pack in a ton of VRM phases, reinforced PCIe slots, and high-end audio chipsets. There are some people that need those features. If you don’t, however, you’re wasting money. It’s much better to shop for a motherboard with a purpose, so consider what you need your PC for and start shopping for a motherboard from there.