Performance
Unlike with most other reviews when I’m doing performance testing on a motherboard it is less about what board performs faster and more about spotting any glaring issues. The reason for that is because all of these boards are using the same chipset, CPU, RAM, and video card. So the gap between each board isn’t very much typically. We typically see more of a gap due to things like some boards automatically overclocking your CPU a little and driver changes than anything. In the Physics test on 3DMark for example the Gaming 5 came in a little lower than the rest but this was due to me having trouble getting our memory set to the exact same setting causing a little drop there. Surprisingly though that same issue didn’t seem to show on any of the other benchmarks. All in all the benchmarks prove that if you pair the Z170 Gaming 5 with a good CPU and even a decent GPU you are going to see great benchmark numbers, numbers no different than the full ATX boards.
3DMark | |||
Motherboard | Overall Score | Graphics Score | Physics Score |
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 8653 | 9635 | 12451 |
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 8849 | 9783 | 13622 |
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 8693 | 9524 | 13694 |
Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 | 8730 | 9803 | 11785 |
PCMark 8 Home Accelerated Score | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 4712 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 4798 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 4906 | ||
Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 | 4782 | ||
Passmark Overall Score | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 5507.6 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 5669.8 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 5831.3 | ||
Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 | 5442.5 | ||
Bioshock Infinite Average FPS | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 108.28 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 108.96 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 108.05 | ||
Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 | 105.68 | ||
Tomb Raider Average FPS | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 57.8 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 57.9 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 55.5 | ||
Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 | 55.0 | ||
Hitman: Absolution Average FPS | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 46.8 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 46.3 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 46.5 | ||
Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 | 44.7 | ||
Sleeping Dogs Average FPS | |||
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 | 60.3 | ||
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 | 61.1 | ||
MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC | 59.6 | ||
Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 | 59.5 |