System Performance

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS GTX 980 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Thermaltake 1200W power supply. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.

While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.

Power Long Idle (w/GTX 980)Power OS Idle (w/GTX 980)Power OCCT (w/GTX 980)

The power consumption in both in a long idle and idle states are pretty good considering for an ATX option and it's clear that the power reduced nature of the second generation of AM4 boards chipsets (B450/X470) seems to have done the trick, at least for MSI on the X470 Gaming Plus. Power at load under OCCT managed to achieve one of the lowest power draws from an AM4 motherboard to date.

Non-UEFI POST Time

Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.)

Non UEFI POST Time

While normally average in terms, MSI's AM4 boards usually achieve some level of consistency within the boards previously tested, so it seems strange that the MSI X470 Gaming Plus completely falls behind the rest of the pack. Even with a re-install the times remained quite long with around 26 seconds under both default and stripped. While this could have been down to an anomaly, a fresh Windows 10 install was installed, the SATA port was changed but still the time taken to boot failed to improve.

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5

Rightmark:AA indicates how well the sound system is built and isolated from electrical interference (either internally or externally). For this test we connect the Line Out to the Line In using a short six inch 3.5mm to 3.5mm high-quality jack, turn the OS speaker volume to 100%, and run the Rightmark default test suite at 192 kHz, 24-bit. The OS is tuned to 192 kHz/24-bit input and output, and the Line-In volume is adjusted until we have the best RMAA value in the mini-pretest. We look specifically at the Dynamic Range of the audio codec used on the rear panel of the board.

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5: Dynamic Range

Our Rightmark Audio Analyzer dynamic range testing remains consistent with the Realtek ALC892 clad X470 Gaming Plus sits directly below MSI's own B350 Tomahawk in terms of audio performance.

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.

Deferred Procedure Call Latency

None of the manufacturers AM4 offerings so far have been optimized for DPC latency but despite this, the MSI X470 Gaming Plus puts in a good showing compared to most of the other options previously tested.

Board Features, Test Bed and Setup CPU Performance, Short Form
Comments Locked

27 Comments

View All Comments

  • jeremyshaw - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    Is there any reduction in performance from the (3?) potential configurations of VRMs you mentioned?
    Ganged together (like this MSI board?)
    Doubled up
    More Phases

    It looks like MSI put a lot of components on the board, surely it was not all for waste?
  • gavbon - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    Not really figuratively speaking, not in real-world scenarios at stock settings at least. Example - Looking at it from a different perspective, say in the engine of a car. It would be like a car maker putting a 6-cylinder engine in a car, but the 6-cylinders are operating in pairs meaning each cylinder is doubled with the same capacity of a 3-cylinder engine. The manufacturer is advertising it has 6-cylinders because in theory and on the engine, there is 6...and the car might still do 70mph (UK), but if you tried to go 100mph for whatever reason, it might not give you the expected results as a 'true' 6-cylinder might.

    I hope this makes sense, I've not had much sleep and my brain is in overload :D
  • casperes1996 - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    In that case, what's the benefit of the doubled setup? In your engine analogy; What's the advantage to have 6 cylinders operate is if they were 3 compared to just having 3 and cutting costs?
  • Scabies - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    Less thermal load on each cylinder, and you can get away with cheaper... spark plugs...
    That doesn't work. But if need a switching frequency of 600mhz on one chip or 300mhz on two chips staggered by a half cycle to SIMULATE 600mhz, you can get the job done cheaper.
    (for VRMs your actual power efficiency/noise performance can be sensitive to heat, and indeed all ICs die sooner when ran hotter)
  • Spoelie - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IjWCOXSuKU

    This one explains it thoroughly
  • Oxford Guy - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

    But useless car analogies are so much better, right?
  • uibo - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    Why are the overclocked POV-Ray scores at 4000MHz lower than for the ASRock X470 Taichi Ultimate in your review?
    https://www.anandtech.com/show/12666/the-asrock-x4...
  • gavbon - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    Sometimes the variation can give different results in POV-Ray when overclocked. This has been the case over multiple boards (on the majority of chipsets). I might look further into this when things settle back down in the next couple of weeks and I might add a second overclocked test on top of POV-Ray in future reviews.
  • Oxford Guy - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

    Thermal throttling? Also, although it may not impact POV-Ray, different boards will set RAM settings differently. Also, is the same set of RAM used in both tests (this board and Taichi)?
  • Soybean0 - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    I think B450 Gaming ITX/ac is not 6+2 but 3+2 phrases. From the data sheet of ISL95712, it can only handle 4+3 max.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now