MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard Review: Five is Alive
by Ian Cutress on October 6, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- Z97
Gaming Benchmarks
F1 2013
First up is F1 2013 by Codemasters. I am a big Formula 1 fan in my spare time, and nothing makes me happier than carving up the field in a Caterham, waving to the Red Bulls as I drive by (because I play on easy and take shortcuts). F1 2013 uses the EGO Engine, and like other Codemasters games ends up being very playable on old hardware quite easily. In order to beef up the benchmark a bit, we devised the following scenario for the benchmark mode: one lap of Spa-Francorchamps in the heavy wet, the benchmark follows Jenson Button in the McLaren who starts on the grid in 22nd place, with the field made up of 11 Williams cars, 5 Marussia and 5 Caterham in that order. This puts emphasis on the CPU to handle the AI in the wet, and allows for a good amount of overtaking during the automated benchmark. We test at 1920x1080 on Ultra graphical settings.
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite was Zero Punctuation’s Game of the Year for 2013, uses the Unreal Engine 3, and is designed to scale with both cores and graphical prowess. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Tomb Raider
The next benchmark in our test is Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider is an AMD optimized game, lauded for its use of TressFX creating dynamic hair to increase the immersion in game. Tomb Raider uses a modified version of the Crystal Engine, and enjoys raw horsepower. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is a benchmarking wet dream – a highly complex benchmark that can bring the toughest setup and high resolutions down into single figures. Having an extreme SSAO setting can do that, but at the right settings Sleeping Dogs is highly playable and enjoyable. We run the basic benchmark program laid out in the Adrenaline benchmark tool, and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Battlefield 4
The EA/DICE series that has taken countless hours of my life away is back for another iteration, using the Frostbite 3 engine. AMD is also piling its resources into BF4 with the new Mantle API for developers, designed to cut the time required for the CPU to dispatch commands to the graphical sub-system. For our test we use the in-game benchmarking tools and record the frame time for the first ~70 seconds of the Tashgar single player mission, which is an on-rails generation of and rendering of objects and textures. We test at 1920x1080 at Ultra settings.
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gw74 - Monday, October 6, 2014 - link
also, who said anything about "mainstream"? anandtech is a website written by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, and noobs interested in future-proofing like me. your point is?Salvor - Monday, October 6, 2014 - link
While I am definitely an enthusiast, I'm also not rich, and could never justify wasting money on the x99 chipset. At this point DDR4 is still to expensive to make sense unless you have money to throw away.ruggia - Monday, October 6, 2014 - link
well, you asked why would someone want it instead of DDR4.So he replied: mainstream
Did you meant to say why would an enthusiast want it?
Teizo - Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - link
Enthusiast means educated. It doesn't necessarily mean wasting money on unnecessary parts.gw74 - Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - link
(a) There will be a time when DDR4 will be essential and value for money. that is not today. (b) There will be a time quite soon when DDR4 is more common and slightly cheaper than now but still not strictly necessary for today's games, but buying it will be cheaper than buying DDR3 now and replacing with DDR4 later. the rational buyer would buy at that point. My question is will that point ever come and when do you think it will come?Nite Owl - Monday, August 24, 2015 - link
I thought an enthusiast was some one that was enthusiastic about cool new stuff and likes to build. No where in "enthusiast" does it say you have to pay loads of money and get ripped off on bran spanking new tech. your 3k tower is going to cost me 1500 next year! Mean while my setting are just as high as yours and well above 30fps... lol @ suckers! =PC'DaleRider - Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - link
LOL at the future proof comment. The ONLY way to future proof yourself in computers is not to spend your money.gw74 - Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - link
it's not binary choice of futureproof or not futureproof. better futureproofing. parts which will play newest games at highest settings per dollar without needing replacement for longest time. perhaps futureproof is the wrong word. how about "maximum longevity per dollar". bootable PCIE SSD, DDR4, 1440p, 802.11ax, CPU pipeline, GPU pipeline, and choose when to buy based on release dates/cost curve of these.spidey81 - Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - link
It's been proven time and again that the best way to "future proof" a gaming rig in particular is spend up on the GPU. With the current crop of Intel CPU's you're only seeing minor performance improvements in compute capability. I know plenty of people still using sandy bridge processors for gaming and multipurpose systems. Also, the biggest benefit from DDR4 will be for rendering, transcoding, onboard graphics, and the like. Games show little benefit from increased RAM speeds. PCIE gen 3 is the best interface we'll see for some time to come and x8 speed will be enough bandwidth for decent dual GPU setups. Anything more than that you'll be spending enough to justify an X99 platform.niceyuk - Saturday, November 1, 2014 - link
Theres no such thing as future proofing.