MSI MEG Z390 ACE Motherboard Review

We will be outlining the MSI MEG Z390 ACE motherboard's performance with the Intel Core i9 9900K CPU, 32GB* of 3,200MHz** G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 memory and a Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming.

*16GB for mini-ITX motherboards, 32GB for all other motherboards.

**B365 chipset is limited to 2,666MHz memory

Motherboard Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i9 9900K with Default Intel Turbo Behaviour where supported (varies depending on thermal and power conditions)
• Memory: 32GB (4x8GB*) G.Skill Trident Z XMP/DOCP/AMP (3,200MHz** 16-18-18-38 @ 1.35V), *2x8GB for mini-ITX motherboards
• Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming.
• System Drive: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 with Two ML120 Pro Fans.
• Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 760W SS-760XP.
• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Comparison Motherboards:

• ASRock B365M Phantom Gaming 4
• ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9
• ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming
• ASUS ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming
• EVGA Z390 FTW
• MSI MEG Z390 ACE
• Supermicro SuperO C9Z390-CG-IW

Drivers and UEFI:

• Intel 10.1.17695.8086 chipset drivers
• Nvidia GeForce 416.34 VGA drivers
• MSI UEFI v1.40 (25th February 2019)

Tests:

• Cinebench R15 – All-core CPU benchmark (CPU)
• SiSoft Sandra 2018.9.28.28 – Processor Arithmetic Test (CPU) and Memory Bandwidth Test (Memory)
• 7-Zip 18.05 x64 – Built-in 7-Zip benchmark test (CPU)
• AIDA64 Engineer 5.98.4800 – System cache & memory benchmark and stress test (Memory and Power Consumption)
• 3DMark v2.5.5029 64 & TimeSpy v1.1 – Time Spy (1440p) test (Gaming)
• Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation – Built-in benchmark tool CPU-Focused test, 1920 x 1080, Extreme quality preset, DX12 mode (Gaming)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Built-in benchmark tool, 1920 x 1080, Ultra quality preset, DX12 mode (Gaming)
• ATTO 3.05 – M.2, USB 3.0, USB 3.1, and SATA 6Gbps transfer rates (Motherboard)
• Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.4.5 – Record and playback test using a line-in to line-out loopback with a 3.5mm audio cable (Motherboard)
• HWiNFO 5.91.3560 – System sensor monitoring during stress test (Power Consumption)
• Cybenetics Powenetics v2.2.0.0 – 12v EPS monitoring during stress test (Power Consumption)

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