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Firmware
With X870, MSI has updated its BIOS, renaming it “Click X”, and improved the aesthetic and functionality. The company changed up the format with the headings on the left side, details in the middle, and system status information on the right side. Like most other board partners, it has an informational EZ Mode that allows for limited functionality, such as Game Boost, PBO, and more. Overall, I like the new layout, and maneuvering around is intuitive after a short time, though it does take some getting used to. The dark, fading purple background and white labeling are easy to read, and most of what you need is at your fingertips.
Software
MSI Center is a single utility that covers quite a bit of functionality. From hardware monitoring to RGB control with Mystic Light, the software has many applets and is a one-stop shop for downloading other utilities, including overclocking and fan control. Those looking to use the Gamebar feature, Super Charger, or any other utilities MSI offers will find them all in MSI Center.
Test System / Comparison Products
We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. Thanks goes out to Asus for providing the RTX 4080 TUF graphics card and Crucial for the 2TB T705 SSDs in our updated testbed. The hardware we used is as follows:
Test System Components
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | Row 0 - Cell 2 |
| Cooling | Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 | Row 1 - Cell 2 |
| Storage | Crucial 2TB T705 M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD | Row 2 - Cell 2 |
| RAM | Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 | (KF560C36BBEAK2-32) |
| RAM | Teamgroup T-Froce Delta DDR5-7200 CL34 | (FF3D518G7200HC34ABK) |
| RAM | Klevv Cras XR5 RGB DDR5-8000 | (KD5AGUA80-80R380S) |
| GPU | Asus TUF RTX 4080 16G | Row 6 - Cell 2 |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova 850W P6 | Row 7 - Cell 2 |
| OS | Windows 11 64-bit (23H2 - 22631.4169) | Row 8 - Cell 2 |
| Sound | Integrated HD audio | Row 9 - Cell 2 |
| Network | Integrated Networking (GbE to 10 GbE) | Row 10 - Cell 2 |
| Graphics Driver | NVIDIA Driver 561.09 | Row 11 - Cell 2 |
Benchmark Settings
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | Row 0 - Cell 1 |
| Procyon | Version 2.6.848 64 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Office Suite (Office 365), Video Editing (Premiere Pro 23.6), Photo Editing (Photoshop 25.0, Lightroom Classic 12.5) |
| 3DMark | Version 2.27.8177 64 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Firestrike Extreme (v1.1) and Time Spy (v1.2) Default Presets |
| Cinebench R24 | Version ‘build unknown’ |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Open GL Benchmark - Single and Multi-threaded |
| Blender | Version 3.6.0 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Full benchmark (all 3 tests) |
| Application Tests and Settings | Row 9 - Cell 1 |
| LAME MP3 | Version SSE2_2019 |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 1.2.2 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x264 (light AVX) and x265 (heavy AVX) |
| Corona 1.4 | Version 1.4 |
| Row 15 - Cell 0 | Custom benchmark |
| 7-Zip | Version 21.03-beta |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | Integrated benchmark (Command Line) |
| Game Tests and Settings | Row 18 - Cell 1 |
| Far Cry 6 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HD Textures ON |
| F1 2022 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, Ultra High (default) Bahrain (Clear/Dry), FPS Counter ON |
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