Home / Tech News / Featured Announcement / MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard Review

MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard Review

We measured the power consumption with the system resting at the Windows 7 desktop, representing idle values.

The power consumption of our entire test system (at the wall) is measured while loading only the CPU using Prime95′s in-place large FFTs setting. The rest of the system’s components were operating in their idle states, hence the increased power consumption values (in comparison to the idle figures) are largely related to the load on the CPU and motherboard power delivery components.

power consumption

Power consumption is a strength for the low-cost MSI gaming motherboard. Relying largely upon features already incorporated onto the chipset, not provided via add-on controllers, the Z97 Gaming 5 delivers low idle power consumption.

Load power consumption numbers increase to levels set by the controller-heavy Gigabyte and Asus Z97 motherboards.

Given the comparably larger increase in power consumption from idle to load conditions, data would suggest that MSI's Z97 Gaming 5 is either using a low average core voltage at idle, or the power delivery components are not as efficient under load as those used on Asus and Gigabyte higher-end parts.

We do not have the measurement equipment to certify those claims, so treat them as an analysis of data that provides a possible interpretation of the motherboard's operating states and power delivery components.

Become a Patron!

Check Also

Xbox Developer Direct

“A few other surprises” to be announced during Xbox Direct, according to insider

Tomorrow, Microsoft will be going live with its Xbox Developer Direct, in which the console maker is said to be showing off 4 titles in total – including DOOM: The Dark Ages and South of Midnight. According to one insider, Microsoft is keeping its cards close to its chest, with “a few other surprises” said to be announced during the event...

9 comments

  1. GOod looking board but MSI do need to work on their bioses, my Z87 was very flaky on some settings too. I ended up getting rid of the board and going for an ASUS Sabretooth Z87 board – bios was much better laid out and some of the settings worked the way they should to.

  2. I dont think this board is as nice looking as some of their Z87 boards. Some good information Luke on the bios and the heatsinks – always come here first for reviews on motherboards as you go into much more detail than other sites I visit.

  3. Couple of questions, but first a type-o, 1156 was before Sandy Bridge.

    Really good to know about the voltage accuracy with the control centre, and the discrepancy with the bios settings, this is an issue with my current MSI LGA1156 board. Good work on that!

    It looks to me as if the overclocked Bioshock results are exactly the same as the stock speed results. Maybe it’s worth testing a game that would actually see the benefit?

    I don’t suppose you had the chance to check whether the surround upmix mode in the creative settings would allow you to cleanly upmix a stereo source to all the channels or whether it has to apply a pseudo surround effect?

  4. Deders,

    Thanks for pointing out the mistake – I have updated it. And thanks for the feedback.

    You’re right – the Bioshock results do not change when CPU frequency is scaled up. I used Metro: Last Light in our Z87 motherboard reviews, but that game did not scale with increased frequency either.

    I am currently looking into a game which is more sensitive to CPU frequencies and which is consistent with its results. Many of the popular games are GPU-limited at 1920×1080 (above a certain CPU performance level). And I don’t want to drop the resolution to emphasise CPU performance because I think that 1920×1080 is FAR too popular to justify that. For now, it’s the performance differences (if any) between each motherboard that are important for the gaming results.

    I did not have chance to test the surround upmix mode unfortunately. I do not currently have access to my surround sound speakers, either, but audio performance of the motherboards is something that I would like to look into in more depth in the future. It will take a large amount of planning first though.

    Luke

  5. Hi. First of all a very good review. It is very interesting for to read this article. Especially the part with the performance of Plextor M6e SSD. I’ve a similar system. It’s a MSI Z97 Gaming 7 and the Plextor M6e SSD m.2. I’ve never reached an performance like in your article. Have you installed the standard msahci driver (Windows 7) or the Intel iastor (RST) driver? I belive my m.2 connector is the problem. Have you special settings in BIOS. Perhaps you some ideas for me.

    Thanks in advanced.

    Marcel

  6. Can i install my windows in M.2 drive will it boot from there, i found not post over internet but just one unsuccesssful one.

  7. Vicken Boghossian

    Guys might i add that the MSI additional power that is fed to the molex adapter IS for the rear audio ports and not the USB ports (which already get power ONLY thru the mobo and get a constant 5v). It might make a difference but who knows. Its made that way so it gets a constant clean power feed thru the psu directly instead of thru the 24pin mobo connector.

We've noticed that you are using an ad blocker.

Thank you for visiting KitGuru. Our news and reviews teams work hard to bring you the latest stories and finest, in-depth analysis.

We want to be as informative as possible – and to help our readers make the best buying decisions. The mechanism we use to run our business and pay some of the best journalists in the world, is advertising.

If you want to support KitGuru, then please add www.kitguru.net to your ad blocking whitelist or disable your adblocking software. It really makes a difference and allows us to continue creating the kind of content you really want to read.

It is important you know that we don’t run pop ups, pop unders, audio ads, code tracking ads or anything else that would interfere with the KitGuru experience. Adblockers can actually block some of our free content, such as galleries!