MSI MEG Z390 ACE Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. Board Layout and Features4. UEFI5. Software6. Testing Methodology7. Tests: CPU Related8. Tests: Memory Related9. Tests: Gaming Related10. Tests: Motherboard Features Performance11. Overclocking & Power Consumption12. Closing Thoughts13. View All Pages

7-Zip

7-Zip is an open source Windows utility for manipulating archives. We measure the Total Rating performance using the built-in benchmark tool. The test stresses all CPU cores to 100% and shows an affinity for memory bandwidth.

Cinebench R15

Cinebench is an application which renders a photorealistic 3D scene to benchmark a computer’s rendering performance, on one CPU core, all CPU cores or using the GPU. We run the test using the all core CPU mode.

Sandra Processor Arithmetic

SiSoft Sandra 2018 is a multi-function utility program that supports remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, mobile devices and networks. We run the application’s processor arithmetic test to gauge the CPU performance on each tested motherboard.

CPU performance reflects the permanent 4.7GHz all-core turbo that MSI applies, which is outside of Intel's default Turbo specification.

The extra performance only shows up in SiSoft Sandra Processor Arithmetic as this is an extended duration (3~5 minutes) benchmark where CPUs that respect Intel's default Turbo specification fall behind after 30 seconds or so, when they drop back to 4.2~4.3GHz.

For a rough guide of how CPU performance compares to other platforms please see our most recent reviews for the following platforms:

B450/X470 (Ryzen 7 2700)
Z370 (Intel Core i7 8700K)
X299 (Intel Core i9 7900X)

Please note software and driver versions have changed hence why we caution that results are not directly comparable.

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