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We will be outlining the MSI X99S MPower motherboard's performance with the Core i7 5820K CPU at its stock frequency (3.6GHz due to forced turbo). Overclocked performance will be outlined later in the review.
We opted for components representative of an X99-based system that would use a sub-£190 motherboard, which included 2400MHz DDR4 memory and the excellent Haswell-E 5820K processor.
By default, the MSI X99S MPower motherboard applies multi-core turbo (MCT) and forces the 5820K to a constant 3.6GHz when XMP is enabled. This will be displayed as the ‘stock’ setting.
The CPU VCore idles around 0.757V when idling, and increases to around 1.064V when loaded.
X99 Motherboard Test System:
- Processor: Intel Core i7 5820K Retail (3.6GHz forced turbo).
- Memory: 16GB (4x4GB) ADATA XPG Z1 2400MHz 16-16-16-39 DDR4 @ 1.20V.
- Graphics Card: Asus R9 280X Matrix Platinum 3GB.
- System Drive: 500GB Samsung 840.
- CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i.
- Case: NZXT Phantom 630.
- Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000W.
- Operating System: Windows 7 Professional with SP1 64-bit.
Compared X99 Motherboards:
- Asus X99-A (BIOS v0502 and Catalyst 14.4 drivers).
- Gigabyte X99-UD4 (BIOS F9c).
Software:
- MSI X99S MPower BIOS v22.3.
- Catalyst 14.9 VGA drivers.
Tests:
- 3DMark 1.3.708 – Fire Strike (System)
- SiSoft Sandra 2014 SP2 – Processor arithmetic, memory bandwidth (System)
- Cinebench R15 – All-core CPU benchmark (CPU)
- WinRAR 5.10 – Built-in benchmark (CPU)
- HandBrake 0.9.9 – Convert 4.36GB 720P MKV to MP4 (CPU)
- ATTO – SATA 6Gbps, USB 3.0, M.2 transfer rates (Motherboard)
- RightMark Audio Analyzer – General audio performance test (Motherboard)
- Bioshock Infinite – 1920 x 1080, ultra quality (Gaming)
- Metro: Last Light – 1920 x 1080, high quality (Gaming)
- Tomb Raider – 1920 x 1080, ultimate quality (Gaming)
So there’s a new bios out soon that handles high speed ram better then eh? Interesting as I’m running this mobo with 16GB of 3GHz Hyper X Predator ram and currently stuck running it @ 2666 so would be nice if theres a new bios out soon which’ll help take it to full speed…
As for those worried with tight dual GPU placement, I’m running SLI and have the cards in slots 1 & 3 instead with 2 empty, lots of room for cooling that way and works absolutely fine!