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 |