PWM Doubler Shortage Causes Gigabyte Motherboard Redesign – Exclusive

Over the past few weeks, industry sources informed OC3D that there is a shortage of PWM Phase Doublers; and that this shortage has forced motherboard manufacturers to move away from so-called “doubled” PWM Phase designs. 

Today, we have confirmed that Gigabyte has created two new B550 V2 motherboard designs. These two motherboard variants are the B550 AORUS Elite V2 and the B550 AORUS Elite AX V2, both of which no longer include “PWM Doublers”, unlike their older counterparts.

We have contacted Gigabyte regarding the creation of these new V2 B550 motherboard designs, though their existence alone seemingly confirms what we have heard regarding the industry’s phase doubler chip shortage. 

What are Phase Doublers? 

Let’s start by explaining what your motherboard’s VRMs do. Today’s PC power supplies provide systems with specific voltages of power, which is 12V in the case of your PSU’s EPS/CPU power connector. Your CPU cannot handle 12V power, and that’s where your motherboard’s VRMs come in. They step down incoming 12V power into usable voltages, such as 1.1V or whatever your processor requires. 

The chip which controls your motherboard’s VRMs is called a PWM controller, and these chips are designed to handle a specific number of power phases. The more phases your controller can handle, the more expensive the controller gets. 

Typically, Multi-Phase VRMs perform better than power phase designs with fewer phases. These designs spread power loads across more components and enable increased power efficiency, lower heat production and boosted reliability over single-phase designs.

With PWM doublers, a chip is placed between a PWM controller and the connecting it to two times as many power phases. This allows a 6-phase PWM controller to control 12 phases, splitting the frequency of the controller between two separate parts. This induces a delay between the controller and the phases it controls, reducing the design’s efficiency over designs with a proper 12-phase PWM controller. 

Phase doubling allows motherboard manufacturers to create cost-effective designs, using PWM doublers to control more power phases without the same hardware costs. While these designs are not as efficient or responsive as a design without phase doublers, they offer consumers more value. Please bear in mind that this is a simplified summary of VRMs and Phase Doublers. 

How is the shortage affecting motherboard makers?

Like all shortages, having demand outstrip supply causes prices to increase, lowering the value proposition offered by PWM Phase Doublers. Beyond that, some manufacturers may be unable to access enough phase doubler chips to ship as many motherboards, or other products, as expected. 

Gigabyte appears to be the first major motherboard manufacturer to revise its B550 motherboard designs to remove phase doublers, creating V2 versions of their B550 AORUS Elite and B550 AORUS Elite AX. Other motherboard manufacturers are expected to follow suit, forcing them to revamp their value-oriented motherboard lineups. 

These new motherboard designs should all lack phase doublers, likely making them more efficient thanks to the use of new PWM controllers. As mentioned previously, we have contacted Gigabyte regarding the exact design changes within their new V2 B550 motherboards. 

If our sources are correct, PC builders should expect to see new revisions motherboards from multiple manufacturers in the near future. The “value” section of the market will be impacted most by these changes, with AMD’s B550 chipset being where most the changes are expected.