Performance
While performance is the goal, in the context of this review the numbers between the different Z170 boards don’t really mean much. I test the boards and document the performance to get an overall idea of performance with a good GPU and CPU and also to pinpoint if there are any glaring performance issues. For the most part there is a lot of parity between the boards because they share the same chipset, CPU, and GPU. It’s more important to focus on the subsystems where there can be more of a variance. Not to mention the performance numbers change more from updates in the graphics card drivers than anything else.
That said how did the MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC Perform? Well our benchmark includes synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark and Passmark and then moves on to real world testing in PCMark 8 and in a few in game benchmarks. In most of the tests the numbers were spot on with the previous MSI board as well as the Gigabyte board. In 3Dmark the Gigabyte board did outperform both MSI boards by 200 points that can’t be accounted for with driver updates. In PCMark and Passmark the ITX board pulled ahead from the other two slighting. All in all the MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC showed that you aren’t going to see a difference in performance going from a full ATX setup with one card to a single card ITX build, something a lot of people seem to think when they see the small ITX boards.
3DMark | |||
Motherboard | Overall Score | Graphics Score | Physics Score |
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 8653 | 9635 | 12451 |
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 8849 | 9783 | 13622 |
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 8693 | 9524 | 13694 |
PCMark 8 Home Accelerated Score | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 4712 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 4798 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 4906 | ||
Passmark Overall Score | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 5507.6 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 5669.8 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 5831.3 | ||
Bioshock Infinite Average FPS | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 108.28 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 108.96 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 108.05 | ||
Tomb Raider Average FPS | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 57.8 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 57.9 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 55.5 | ||
Hitman: Absolution Average FPS | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 46.8 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 46.3 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 46.5 | ||
Sleeping Dogs Average FPS | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 60.3 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 61.1 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 59.6 |