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We will be outlining the MSI B350 Tomahawk motherboard’s performance with the Ryzen 7 1800X CPU and 16GB of 3200MHz G.Skill Flare X DDR4 memory.
Stock voltage hovered around 1.3V under Cinebench load. This was using the latest v1.50 BIOS.
AM4 Motherboard Test System:
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X (3.6-4.0GHz + 4.1GHz XFR).
- Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) G.Skill Flare X 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 DDR4 @ 1.35V.
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition (custom fan curve to eliminate thermal throttling).
- System Drive: 525GB Crucial MX300 SATA 6Gbps SSD.
- Games Drive: 960GB SK Hynix SE3010 SATA 6Gbps SSD.
- CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15.
- Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 760W.
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Creators' Edition).
Comparison AM4 Motherboards:
- ASRock Fatal1ty AB350-Gaming K4.
Software:
- MSI B350 Tomahawk BIOS v1.50 (latest).
- GeForce 381.89 VGA drivers.
Tests:
- Cinebench R15 – All-core CPU benchmark (CPU)
- HandBrake 1.0.7 – Convert 6.27GB 4K video recording using the Normal Profile setting and MP4 container (CPU)
- SiSoft Sandra 2017 – Processor Arithmetic Test (CPU).
- AIDA64 Engineer 5.90 – Memory read, write, copy, and latency tests (Memory)
- 7-Zip 16.04 – Built-in 7-Zip benchmark test (CPU & Memory)
- 3DMark Time Spy – CPU score (Gaming)
- Ashes of the Singularity Escalation – Built-in benchmark tool CPU-Focused test, 1920 x 1080, Extreme quality preset, DX12 version (Gaming)
- Metro: Last Light Redux – Built-in benchmark tool, 1920 x 1080, Very High quality, SSAA, AF 16X, Tessellation: High (Gaming)
- ATTO – M.2, USB 3.0, USB 3.1, and SATA 6Gbps transfer rates (Motherboard)
- RightMark Audio Analyzer – Record and playback test using a line-in to line-out loopback with a 3.5mm audio cable (Motherboard)
Thanks!
Hey Kitguru did you run into any issues with main board thermal sensor during your testing or rather do you know what the main board thermal sensor is actually measuring because I’m running the main board with a r5 1600 at 4ghz 1.4v and Main board sensor is reporting 98°C after 15min of prime95. Which seems stupidly hot given that I’ve got 4Nidec Servo GentleTyphoon 120 mm 2150 RPM fan’s in the case. I kinda just wanna know first of all if that thing is the VRM sensor or “chipset” because which ever one it is guess I’ll add to the custom loop. Because 98°C during stress test just doesn’t sit well with me.
“MSI’s RGB lighting control tool is sub-par on the Tomahawk SKU as MSI is clearly trying to push RGB aficionados towards ‘Gaming’ branded models.”
What kills me about this is that you can only “push me” into a higher priced model IF YOU TELL ME about the shortcomings of the cheaper model! Granted, this many fan headers and an LED header on a $90 board were all a major win but come on. If MSI made it clear I’d only have 7 colors I would have happily sprung the extra $25 for a better featured board. Instead, they called it “RBG” and make mentions of Mystic Light and its16.8 million colors on the product page. Not only misleading, but they fouled up the whole strategy of driving me to a more expensive board.
I know they fixed a few of the Tomahawk’s issues with the PLUS model, which has no legacy PCI slots and more colors than just red for the on-board LEDs. I wonder if they made the LED header full RGB, too. Hard to find an answer on this.