[section_title title=Overclocking]
Overclocking
Overclocking to some is a different kettle of fish to overclocking for others; some see it as a bit of fun pushing their rigs to the limits and others see it as a free way of gaining extra CPU and compute performance. To me, both aspects apply and sometimes the ability to overclock an extra 400-500MHz in cases can alleviate the need to upgrade to the next generation of processors without a hit in performance; whatever those advancements might be.
That is why potential overclocking ability is big money these days, although more people tend to leave things at stock than they do overclock; I guess it’s a case of picking your poison. Anyway, onto the main task at hand which is seeing how far the MSI Z170I Pro Gaming AC can go before it craps out at its limits. In recent times it has been a case of CPU limitation before motherboard limitation, but seeing as our chip has seen 5.1-5.2GHz posts on some boards, we know that any limitations today will be down to the motherboard; very useful to know for consumers.
So what did we manage to achieve today then? Well with a little bit of tweaking and effort, 5GHz was solidly achievable with an average voltage of 1.45v; Vdroop did put a tiny bit of extra voltage through for safety and stability, although you need to watch this as it still increases temperatures ever so slightly; this is mainly for those not using adequate enough cooling.
With this being an ITX board with 5 power phases, I wasn’t expecting ASUS VIII Impact levels of overclocking performance, but I think the main factors here are PCB space and how it’s utilised; the MSI board is £50 cheaper than the ASUS ITX performance counterpart so all in all, it’s a good showing overclocking wise from MSI. They clearly show their potential, although I feel this board does seem a little bare on overclocking features compared to some other boards we have tested. It just felt there wasn’t enough options in the BIOS and any kind of phase level stepping options might have gone a long way to alleviating my feelings here. It’s still a good performer, but how does it impress overall? Conclusion time…
Isn’t it just as good on average as the Asus Z170i, meaning partly clearly better, and in 3DMark and CPU tests of all things?
As an unconvinced buyer I hate both boards, which are kind of the only selection, but I don’t know why the MSI usually gets the worse average performance score and the Asus’ problems are often not even noticed. Asus shucks… Completely unreliable. But the others are not even trying, in mini ITX and humane prices, at least.
It’s horses for courses really. The overall difference in performance isn’t MASSIVE, but there is still a minute difference which is why we compare! 😀