MSI X299 XPower Gaming AC Motherboard Review
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Test Configuration
Additional cores create additional thermal and power loads that can push other hardware to its limits, yet the parts we’re hoping to push to the limit are all on the motherboards. Intel’s 10-core, 20-thread Core i9-7900X CPU is a great product for stressing the voltage regulators of various X299 motherboards, particularly under our full-AVX-load overclocking stability test.
Test Hardware
Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
Graphics Driver | GeForce 382.53 |
The tremendous heat produced by the Core i9-7900X required us to use nothing less than our award-winning Fractal Design S24 liquid cooler system sample. Getting its fans to blow sufficiently over each motherboard’s voltage regulator required additional design consideration: Of our leftover case review samples, Cooler Master’s HAF-XB had the best layout.
Benchmark Settings
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
PCMark 8 | Version 2.7.613Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft) |
3DMark 13 | Version 4.47.597.0Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets |
SiSoftware Sandra | Version 2016.03.22.21CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth |
DiskSPD | 4k Random Read, 4k Random Write128k Sequential Read, 128k Sequential Write |
Cinebench R15 | Build RC83328DEMOOpenGL Benchmark |
CompuBench | Version 1.5.8Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing |
Application Tests and Settings | |
LAME MP3 | Version 3.98.3Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.9.9Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19 GB 4k mkv to x265 mp4 |
Blender | Version 2.68aBMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark |
7-Zip | Version 16.02THG-Workload (7.6 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9" |
Adobe After Effects CC | Release 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144PCMark driven routine |
Adobe Photoshop CC | Release 2015.5.0. 20160603.r.88 x64PCMark driven routine (light and heavy) |
Adobe InDesign CC | Release 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64PCMark driven routine |
Adobe Illustrator | Release 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit)PCMark driven routine |
Game Tests and Settings | |
Ashes of Singularity | Version 1.31.21360High Preset - 1920x1080, Mid Shadow Quality, 1x MSAACrazy Preset - 1920x1090, High Shadow Quality, 2x MSAA |
F1 2015 | 2015 Season, Abu Dhabi Track, RainMedium Preset, No AFxUltra High Preset, 16x AF |
Metro Last Light Redux | Version 3.00 x64High Quality, 1920x1080, High Tesselation, 16x AFVery High Quality, 1920x1080, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF |
The Talos Principle | Version 267252Medium Preset, High Quality, High Tesselation, 4x AFUltra Preset, VeryHigh Quality, VeryHigh Tesselation, 16x AF |
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Scott_123 With z370 due out in 3 days and cool new processors who will buy a x299 or z270 at this point in time? Add in the fact you can't boot ssd raid and have to buy the most expensive processor to get the most pcie lanes and this board makes no sense at all.Reply -
karma77police There is one problem with this board, for that money there should be 2x8 pin connectors. Only Gigabyte got it right with their 9 series.Reply -
Kenneth_72 I've seen many examples in the last several months where benchmarks, Firestrike etc, showed lower numbers but in actual games the hardware performed better.Reply
Opinion of the validity of these existing benchmarks to actual game performance. -
Crashman
LOL, Z370 is Z270 rehashed. It makes no sense to scale back to dual channel and 16 CPU lanes if you really need 28 or 44 lanes or quad-channel.20231288 said:With z370 due out in 3 days and cool new processors who will buy a x299 or z270 at this point in time? Add in the fact you can't boot ssd raid and have to buy the most expensive processor to get the most pcie lanes and this board makes no sense at all.
The only people your analysis SHOULD make sense to are Kaby Lake X buyers, but we've already established that most of that market wasn't making sense anyway :)
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Crashman
X299 is paired with LGA 2011, an interface that supports 44 CPU PCIe lanes and four memory channels. Z370 is paired with LGA 1151, which has only 16 CPU PCIe lanes and two memory channels.20236444 said:???
So who would buy X299 after Z370 is out? Someone who needs more than 16 CPU lanes or more than two memory channels.
Kaby Lake X is a 16-lane processor that, when placed on an X299 platform, cripples half its features. It was always a bad idea for most users, but there are a few elite overclockers who love it just for overclocking.