MSI Z97 MPower Max AC Review: Overclocking for $260
by Ian Cutress on May 20, 2014 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- Z97
Real World CPU Benchmarks
Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things – better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal), at the expense of heat and temperature, but also gives in essence an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, memory subtimings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk which is clearly visible, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the purchase.
Rendering – Adobe After Effects CS6: link
Published by Adobe, After Effects is a digital motion graphics, visual effects and compositing software package used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. For our benchmark we downloaded a common scene in use on the AE forums for benchmarks and placed it under our own circumstances for a repeatable benchmark. We generate 152 frames of the scene and present the time to do so based purely on CPU calculations.
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.
Image Manipulation – FastStone Image Viewer 4.9: link
Similarly to WinRAR, the FastStone test us updated for 2014 to the latest version. FastStone is the program I use to perform quick or bulk actions on images, such as resizing, adjusting for color and cropping. In our test we take a series of 170 images in various sizes and formats and convert them all into 640x480 .gif files, maintaining the aspect ratio. FastStone does not use multithreading for this test, and thus single threaded performance is often the winner.
Video Conversion – Xilisoft Video Converter 7: link
The XVC test I normally do is updated to the full version of the software, and this time a different test as well. Here we take two different videos: a double UHD (3840x4320) clip of 10 minutes and a 640x266 DVD rip of a 2h20 film and convert both to iPod suitable formats. The reasoning here is simple – when frames are small enough to fit into memory, the algorithm has more chance to apply work between threads and process the video quicker. Results shown are in seconds and time taken to encode.
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. The principle today is still the same, primarily as an output for H.264 + AAC/MP3 audio within an MKV container. In our test we use the same videos as in the Xilisoft test, and results are given in frames per second.
Rendering – PovRay 3.7: link
The Persistence of Vision RayTracer, or PovRay, 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.
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Haravikk - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I think the choices made here are pretty sensible; I mean, while I do hope that SATA Express does take off, it's not as if PCIe card type storage is going to just disappear, and this motherboard has plenty of room for one or two of those, so if you do want the best speeds it's not like you're forced to adopt SATAe.In fact, personally I prefer drives mounted in or near the PCIe slots now anyway, particularly for air-cooled systems, as it means more space for front fans blasting air back onto the PCIe cards, especially for cases with removable drive cages (and even on those that don't, an electric drill can soon make them removable too ;).
That said, I think they've still gone a bit too overboard on connectivity; anyone using more than four USB ports really should be considering what they're actually using them for and whether they need them, so four on the back plus headers for front ports is IMO plenty. Also, the addition of two external wireless aerials is ugly; anyone serious about performance shouldn't be using wireless networking to connect a system, not when ethernet is easy to setup, or you can use 500mbps PowerLine networking instead. And who actually uses a PS/2 port anymore? Personally I'd rather see systems cut down on the number of ports and use the saved space as extra room for rear airflow, maybe even orient the RAM to take advantage of that, though it might be a bit tight on a memory slot board, unless they gave up a PCIe slot. But then that said, who actually uses seven PCIe slots?
I think there's still a lot that performance motherboards could sacrifice in order to really focus on performance.
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I've actually received emails in the past week about a review where I didn't mention the *lack* of a PS/2 port. It offers some advantages for keyboard enthusiasts over USB, hence why a lot of mechanical keyboards come with PS/2 or USB options depending on what system it is for or who is using it.I think I'm using at least 7 USB ports on my system right now. A USB stick, two charging cables, a mouse, a keyboard that requires two (one for function, another for power) and a webcam. I've also had reasons to use multiple PCIe slots.
The reason why motherboard manufacturers include all of this is so the number of people who can use the product increases. If you limit the number of a certain feature, then you lose potential sales. It is a delicate balance between focus and inclusion. Focus may be fun, but without sales that line will die off pretty quickly.
Achaios - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Why isn't the ASUS Maximus VI Hero ROG motherboard included in the comparison? I am a membger at Overclock.net, and it seems that almost everyone who owns a 4770k pairs it with a Maximus VI Hero.alhopper - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
It's great to see innovation is still alive and kicking with this motherboard. Why didn't they include the Z97 chipset in the water cooling loop? Does the z97 run cooler than previous Intel chipsets?magnusmundus - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Is there any way to remove the barbs so you could add your own water cooling fittings? Looking at the photos I don't see any wrench flats.C.C. - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
Sadly, these are "fixed" barbs, meaning they are soldered in place to the most likely aluminum tubing that runs through the VRM heatsink. This is bad since I don't know anyone building custom loops that use tiny 3/8" barbs anymore (this isn't 2006). I personally use 7/16" Compression fittings myself..The other issue is that of mixed metals. I run an all copper block loop, and if MSI opted to cheapen out and use aluminum instead of copper for the water tubing (much like Asus and Gigabyte have done in the past) then there is a very real issue of corrosion issues cropping up. Ian, can you please get ahold of MSI and find out if they are using aluminum or copper?
AnnihilatorX - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
Page 1: "The manual overclocking was very conservative, with OC Genie boosting the CPU to 4.0 GHz only. I would have preferred a 4.2 GHz minimum overclock here at least."I think you meant the automatic overclocking!
mkygod - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - link
Anyone here looked at the motherboard box cover and automatically thought of the Metro: Last Light box cover?eanazag - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
Being that is has an Intel WiFi card, would I be correct to assume it supports WiDi (wireless display)?