Page 15 - Computer Power User - February 2017
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MSI Z270
                                                                               Benchmark Results  GAMING PRO
                                                                                                CARBON
                                                                               3DMark Fire Strike
                                                                                                9899
                                                                               Extreme
                                                                               Graphics Score   10788
                                                                               Physics Score    14036
                                                                               PCMark 8

                                                                               Creative Score   5957
                                                                               SiSoftware Sandra 2016

                                                                               Dhrystone AVX2 (GIPS)  207.15
                                                                               Whetstone AVX    121.51
                                                                               (GFLOPS)
                                                                               Multi-Media Integer AVX2   588.79
                                                                               x32 (Mpixels/s)

                                                                               Multi-Media Long-int   213.27
                                                                               AVX2 x16 (Mpixels/s)
           Onboard audio is taken care of by   MSI’s GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING   Multi-Media Quad ALU x1   2.39
                                                                               (Mpixels/s)
         Realtek’s new ALC 1220 audio processor.   X 8G and enjoyed better than 100fps
         MSI surrounds the chip with its Audio   in Metro: Last Light (104.66fps)   Floating B/F AVX/128   35.9
         Boost 4 technology, which helps to   and Dying Light (112fps). Results in   (GBps, mem bandwidth)
         ensure a quality signal path to your sound   the processor-intensive tests were   CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2
         devices with dedicated audio capacitors   comparable to our previous testing with   (MBps)
         and de-pop protection circuitry. Nahimic   Intel’s Core i7-7700K.     Sequential Read
         2 sound processing software is included,   MSI makes good use of the Z270   (Q32T1)    2776
         too, so you can adapt board audio to your   chipset and provides several useful
                                                                               Sequential Write (Q32T1)  1484
         personnel preferences. One of the new   hardware and software additions with the
         features in Nahimic 2 is a Sound Tracker   Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON, such   Random 4K Read   757.6
                                                                               (Q32T1)
         feature that provides a visual indication of   as the ASMedia 3.1 Gen 2 controller
         in-game sounds via a mini-map overlay.   and VR Boost ports. The performance   Random 4K Write   614.3
         Networking is covered by Intel’s I219V,   enhancements make it a good choice for   (Q32T1)
         and you can control network bandwidth   gamers and early adopters. The Mystic Light   POV-Ray 3.7 (Pixels/s)  2021.78
         using MSI’s GAMING LAN utility.    illumination is flashy without blinding you
                                                                               Cinebench 15 (Points)  942
           The Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON       to other parts of a build. Overall, it bears a
         did well in our benchmark tests and,   level of sophistication that you don’t see in   Games  (2,560 x 1,440)
         most notably, the board’s M.2 heat   many mid-range motherboards. ■   Metro: Last Light (Very
         spreader appeared to improve the read                                 High, 16xAF; SSAA off)  104.66fps
         and write speeds of Patriot’s 480GB                   BY NATHAN LAKE
         Hellfire in CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2.                                    Dying Light (High, AO   112fps
                                                                               On, AA On, Vsync Off)
         The PCIe SSD delivered 4K (Q32T1)              Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON
         reads of 757.6MBps and 4K random                             $174.99  Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
         writes hit 614.3MBps. We paired the                            MSI    (Vsync Off, Unl. FPS,   88.4fps
                                                                               Ultra)
         Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON with                                us.msi.com

           Specs: Max memory: 64GB DDR4 (DDR4-2400; Max OC: DDR4-3800); Slots: 3 PCIe 3.0 x16, 3 PCIe x1; Storage: 2 M.2 (slot 1 supports 2242/2260/2280/22110,
           slot 2 supports 2242/2260/2280), 6 6Gbps SATA; Rear I/O: 1 HDMI, 1 DVI-D, 2 USB 3.1 (1 Type-C, 1 Type-A), 4 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, 1 PS/2, 1 Ethernet, 1 S/PDIF,
           audio I/O; Form factor: ATX; Warranty: 3 years
           Test System Specs: Processor: Intel Core i7-7700K; GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G; Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB DDR4-3200MHz;
           Storage: Patriot Hellfire 480GB; OS: Windows 10 Enterprise


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