Performance

I couldn’t just hook all of these motherboards up and not put them through our benchmark suite right? Full disclosure, in standard tests like these most motherboards perform nearly the same, these benchmarks mostly just confirm that there aren’t any glaring issues. The systems tests that I will get into later generally show the motherboards performance more than anything.

With that said I ran all four boards through the latest 3DMark, PCMark 8, Passmark 8, and a collection of games as well to see how they all perform. Oddly enough with 3DMark and PCMark there were a few oddity’s when compared to the boards I tested previously. Seeing how drivers have changed I couldn’t pinpoint why there were differences. The four MSI boards tested today all performed consistent with each other. The Mini ITX board and B85M both did come in a little lower in 3DMark though. The in game benchmarks prove that a motherboard alone won’t improve your gaming performance, the boards just help facilitate things like multiple video cards that DO help improve that performance though.

3DMark

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

Overall Score 8714

Graphics Score 9784

Physics Score 11082

Asus Z97-A

Overall Score 8715

Graphics Score 9777

Physics Score 11119

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

Overall Score 8578

Graphics Score 9744

Physics Score 10533

MSI B85M Gaming

Overall Score 8572

Graphics Score 9726

Physics Score 10556

MSI Z97M Gaming

Overall Score 8660

Graphics Score 9795

Physics Score 11089

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

Overall Score 8698

Graphics Score 9836

Physics Score 11128

PCMark 8

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

5133

Asus Z97-A

5287

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

4469

MSI B85M Gaming

4585

MSI Z97M Gaming

4712

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

4721

Passmark

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

5186.1

Asus Z97-A

5500.0

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

5057.8

MSI B85M Gaming

5117.8

MSI Z97M Gaming

5064.4

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

5373.8

Bioshock Infinite

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

106.54

Asus Z97-A

110.74

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

110.28

MSI B85M Gaming

111.36

MSI Z97M Gaming

108.35

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

110.28

Tomb Raider

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

57.1

Asus Z97-A

57.2

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

58.9

MSI B85M Gaming

57.3

MSI Z97M Gaming

56.8

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

57.1

Hitman: Absolution

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

45.8

Asus Z97-A

46.7

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

47.2

MSI B85M Gaming

45.6

MSI Z97M Gaming

47.3

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

47.1

Sleeping Dogs

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

62.4

Asus Z97-A

62

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

63.2

MSI B85M Gaming

62.4

MSI Z97M Gaming

62.3

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

61.3

 

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #35311 13 Aug 2014 17:31
Things have been a little quiet around here but that is because I have been busy with both the upcoming LAN and working on reviews like this that take a little more time than normal to put together. Check out this four motherboard review of most of MSI's current socket 1550 gaming boards!

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