The MSI Creator TRX40 Motherboard Review: The $700 Flagship for Threadripper
by Gavin Bonshor on February 26, 2020 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- MSI
- Ryzen
- TRX40
- Threadripper 3000
- Creator TRX40
- 3970X
- sTRX4
Gaming Performance
For TRX40 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1909 update as per our Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X CPU review. (Ed - we also use a GTX 1080 for our gaming tests because that's all we have to hand on location; our motherboard editor is ca.5000 miles away from our GPU editor.)
World of Tanks enCore
Albeit different to most of the other commonly played MMO or massively multiplayer online games, World of Tanks is set in the mid-20th century and allows players to take control of a range of military based armored vehicles. World of Tanks (WoT) is developed and published by Wargaming who are based in Belarus, with the game’s soundtrack being primarily composed by Belarusian composer Sergey Khmelevsky. The game offers multiple entry points including a free-to-play element as well as allowing players to pay a fee to open up more features. One of the most interesting things about this tank based MMO is that it achieved eSports status when it debuted at the World Cyber Games back in 2012.
World of Tanks enCore is a demo application for a new and unreleased graphics engine penned by the Wargaming development team. Over time the new core engine will implemented into the full game upgrading the games visuals with key elements such as improved water, flora, shadows, lighting as well as other objects such as buildings. The World of Tanks enCore demo app not only offers up insight into the impending game engine changes, but allows users to check system performance to see if the new engine run optimally on their system.
Grand Theft Auto V
The highly anticipated iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise hit the shelves on April 14th 2015, with both AMD and NVIDIA in tow to help optimize the title. GTA doesn’t provide graphical presets, but opens up the options to users and extends the boundaries by pushing even the hardest systems to the limit using Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine under DirectX 11. Whether the user is flying high in the mountains with long draw distances or dealing with assorted trash in the city, when cranked up to maximum it creates stunning visuals but hard work for both the CPU and the GPU.
For our test we have scripted a version of the in-game benchmark. The in-game benchmark consists of five scenarios: four short panning shots with varying lighting and weather effects, and a fifth action sequence that lasts around 90 seconds. We use only the final part of the benchmark, which combines a flight scene in a jet followed by an inner city drive-by through several intersections followed by ramming a tanker that explodes, causing other cars to explode as well. This is a mix of distance rendering followed by a detailed near-rendering action sequence, and the title thankfully spits out frame time data.
F1 2018
Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained; otherwise, we should see any newer versions of Codemasters' EGO engine find its way into F1. Graphically demanding in its own right, F1 2018 keeps a useful racing-type graphics workload in our benchmarks.
Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained. We use the in-game benchmark, set to run on the Montreal track in the wet, driving as Lewis Hamilton from last place on the grid. Data is taken over a one-lap race.
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Korguz - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
then i guess this board is not for you :-)FreckledTrout - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
This is how you do motherboard testing. I just read a motherboard review on TomsHardware and it was horrible. They didn't even use probes for checking temps jump a thermal image which we all know can be misleading for actual temperatures especially if VRM's are short. Nice job Gavin!p1esk - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
I don't know, the proper way to test it would be to load it with GPUs, given it's "Creator" model, then run all cards with realistic loads (either compute or video content creation). But for those use cases I'd go with ASRock Creator, since it has 4 GPU slots (so that you can actually install four GPUs in it, unlike this one), and costs $450.Dug - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
Except you know nothing on performance of the board except cpu overclocking.There's absolutely no subsystem testing at all which is very important, such as USB speed tests, multiple hard drives, network, sound, etc. This is what makes or breaks a motherboard. Overclocking is not really the top consideration for people that buy threadrippers.
dan82 - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
I'm currently looking into the parts for a TRX40 machine. I'd like to maximize the number of Type C ports on the front and back, and wow that is quite difficult. Most of the boards (including this one) only have a single port. Same thing with PC cases. Many cases have zero, if you're lucky you'll find one (the only exception is that dubious "Fake Mac Pro Case" on Indiegogo).Either I am the only person to care about these things or motherboard (and PC case builders) are completely blind to see the opportunity.
Pessimist9 - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
Who's willing to spend 700$ on something from MSI? This must be a paid review. MSI is a terrible company with a terrible warranty service. Just recently, I purchased a 2080 TI Seahawk EK X from them. Card was bad. I call customer service, and the guy tells me it's my fault, that it'll take 6 weeks to process the RMA, and if I really cared about reliability, I'd have a duplicate card for redundancy.Attempting some sort of compromise, I suggested MSI place a hold on my card and immediately send me the (refurbished) replacement. Nope. "Sorry, sir; we treat everyone the same."
Alright. So there you have it, everyone. Pay the premium price (1450$) on an MSI product and I hope you've got a spare for redundancy's sake. After all, a real enthusiast would.
^ yep, that's what the rep told me. So... buy a MSI motherboard for 700$?
TheWereCat - Thursday, February 27, 2020 - link
I had bad experience with all brands, so should I stop buying from them and make my own HW?Lord of the Bored - Thursday, February 27, 2020 - link
Yes. Yes, you should. That is the one true way.Droekath - Thursday, February 27, 2020 - link
You having a bad experience makes it a paid review? If MSI was truly as terrible with their product design and manufacturing as you say they were, they would have gone out of business long ago, not become a major player in the market.Your experience is completely valid. There are plenty of people who have bad experiences with plenty of companies. But that doesn't make every single company a terrible company. It just means you had a bad experience with them.
As for your experience, they're required to adhere to internal protocols. They can't automatically treat a customer specially and ignore the protocol for you.
Lord of the Bored - Thursday, February 27, 2020 - link
Well, what did you do to make him say it is your fault? Inquiring minds want to know.