The MSI Z170A SLI PLUS Review: Redefining the Base Line at $130
by Ian Cutress on April 13, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- Skylake
- Z170
CPU Performance, Short Form
For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We leave the BIOS settings at default and memory at JEDEC (DDR4-2133 C15) for these tests, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.
Video Conversion – Handbrake v0.9.9: link
Handbrake is a media conversion tool that was initially designed to help DVD ISOs and Video CDs into more common video formats. For HandBrake, we take two videos (a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short) and convert them to x264 format in an MP4 container. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.
Compression – WinRAR 5.0.1: link
Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second 720p videos.
Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link
3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.
Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7: link
The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high end platforms.
Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link
As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.
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Tchamber - Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - link
What ever came of the PCIE communication discrepancy? Is it still running slower than it's supposed to?MrSpadge - Thursday, April 14, 2016 - link
Usually not. There's a section on this before the gaming benchmarks.Visual - Thursday, April 14, 2016 - link
It is sad that we consider $130 "the baseline" today... My current computer was bought at a time when $50 mobos were normal and this one would be considered quite high end. And don't even get me started on those $500 scams.Major_Kusanagi - Thursday, April 14, 2016 - link
Yeah, that $600 MSI X99A Godlike Carbon is so over the top. :-PLuxZg - Sunday, April 17, 2016 - link
First off thanks for a review. Nice board as well. But looking at local prices here in EU, this board is about the price of Gigabyte's Z170X Gaming 3, and some similar boards. I'm pointing out Gigabyte's as I've just ordered one, and it seems to have comparable features and comparable price, yet GA board also features 2x M.2 slots, few extra USB ports, including 2x of what they call 16Gbps USB 3.1 port (Type A + Type C), and just as rich software and BIOS. Oh and Dual BIOS as well.So from my point of view, by the local prices - MSI has some hard competition, and I haven't even mentioned some AsRock and ASUS boards I was considering as well,all in similar price range.
random2 - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link
You lost me at "cost-down". More fashionista journalist terminology? Is anyone still using "moving forward"?SLI PLUS this, SLI Plus that.....So does this do Crossfire? Of course it does. Lets not get too wrapped up in the MSI/Nvidia hype.
thesmith - Sunday, April 24, 2016 - link
LOL. Any team players wishing to get with the program could check the take home message here:http://www.hobotraveler.com/wankwordbingo.htm
thebeansoldier - Sunday, April 24, 2016 - link
Picked this up for my gf a few days ago and paired it with an 6600k @4.4ghz, corsair LPX 16gb, and an asus GTX 970. Bios will take some getting used to as I'm more comfortable with Asrock's bios, but she's happily playing Division is happily at 60fps @ 1080p so I can't complain. Can't wait to finally experiment with SLI by adding my own 970 and see what it can do.thesmith - Sunday, April 24, 2016 - link
My two IBM Model M's agree.Motherboard manufacturers in 2056 will be including PS/2 connectors to satisfy the new resurgence in demand as tomb raiders unearth the coveted vintage (but still functional) IBM Model M keyboards from the cold, dead hands of a generation of geeks like me after we're finally laid to rest.
thesmith - Sunday, April 24, 2016 - link
(This was in reply to Major_Kusanagi way up above...)