Network

To test the NIC on the Z170I Gaming Pro AC I use Passmark’s Advanced Network tool. I connect to another PC on the network and I run the benchmark at default settings then document the average network speed. Of all of the tests I do this one tends to have the biggest range. This is because a lot of the boards use different NICs. The Gigabyte for example actually came with two, a Killer NIC and an Intel. The full sized MSI board I tested at launch had a Killer NIC as well but the MSI Z170I didn’t have room for that and is using an Intel I219-V NIC. In the past I have had performance issues with the I218V NIC, the older brother to the I219V and I was hoping they had worked them out for the new model. Sadly it doesn’t look like they have as the Z170I came in considerably lower than the other boards tested. The issue isn’t across the board, it seems to be specific to just some network switches and the Trendnet TEG-S24Dg that we use in the office. From past experience I can say that some switches won’t have any performance issues, but it’s always concerning when some switches end up with half the transfer speed than expected.