MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978)

Performance Results


Gaming 85% Aircraft carrier	Desktop 97% Nuclear submarine	Workstation 74% Battleship


PC Status	Overall this PC is performing above expectations (80th percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 20 performed better. The overall PC percentile is the average of each of its individual components.
Processor	With an outstanding single core score, this CPU is the cat's whiskers: It demolishes everyday tasks such as web browsing, office apps and audio/video playback. Additionally this processor can handle moderate workstation, and even light server workloads. Finally, with a gaming score of 89.5%, this CPU's suitability for 3D gaming is very good.
Graphics	92% is a very good 3D score, it's the business. This GPU can handle recent 3D games at high resolutions and ultra detail levels.
Boot Drive	218% is an exceptional SSD score. This drive is suitable for heavy workstation use, it will facilitate fast boots, responsive applications and allow for fast transfers of multi-gigabyte files.
Memory	16GB is enough RAM to run any version of Windows and it's more than sufficient for nearly all games. 16GB also allows for very large file and system caches, software development and batch photo editing/processing.
OS Version	Although Windows 10 is not the most recent version of Windows, it remains a great option.

Very high background CPU (65%). High background CPU reduces benchmark accuracy. How to reduce background CPU.

System	MSI MS-7978
Motherboard	MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978) (all builds)
Memory	10.5 GB free of 16 GB @ 2.4 GHz
Display	1920 x 1080 - 32 Bit colors
OS	Windows 10
BIOS Date	20170424
Uptime	9.6 Days
Run Date	Oct 20 '19 at 11:34
Run Duration	162 Seconds
Run User	GBR-User
Background CPU	65%

Watch Gameplay: 2060 + 9600K How to compare your gameplay

PC Performing above expectations (80^th percentile)

Actual performance vs. expectations. The graphs show user score (x) vs user score frequency (y).

Processor	Bench	Normal	Heavy	Server
Intel Core i7-6700K-$180 588,978 User benchmarks, average bench 81% U3E1, 1 CPU, 4 cores, 8 threads Base clock 4 GHz, turbo 4.4 GHz (avg) Performing way above expectations (96^th percentile)	89.5% Excellent	Memory 93.9 1-Core 140 2-Core 269 93% 168 Pts	4-Core 458 8-Core 748 74% 603 Pts	64-Core 755 47% 755 Pts
Poor: 70% ↑ This bench: 89.5% Great: 90%

Graphics Card	Bench	3D DX9	3D DX10	3D DX11
Nvidia RTX 2060-$324 645,160 User benchmarks, average bench 90% Asus(1043 868E) CLim: 2130 MHz, MLim: 3500 MHz, Ram: 6GB, Driver: 436.48 Performing below potential (72^nd percentile) - GPU OC Guide	92% Outstanding	Lighting 118 Reflection 114 Parallax 106 96% 113 fps	MRender 133 Gravity 99 Splatting 84.8 84% 106 fps
Poor: 80% ↑ This bench: 92% Great: 97%

Drives	Bench	Sequential	Random 4k	Deep queue 4k
Corsair Force MP500 NVMe PCIe M.2 480GB-$194 3,881 User benchmarks, average bench 158% 285GB free (System drive) Firmware: E7FM04.C Max speed: PCIe 16,000 MB/s SusWrite @10s intervals: 1061 1118 974 1155 1208 1265 MB/s Performing way above expectations (98^th percentile)	218% Outstanding	Read 1,172 Write 987 Mixed 789 SusWrite 1,130 229% 1,019 MB/s	4K Read 44.2 4K Write 136 4K Mixed 60.1 216% 80.2 MB/s	DQ Read 842 DQ Write 750 DQ Mixed 568 488% 720 MB/s
Poor: 105% ↑ This bench: 218% Great: 211%
Kingston A400 240GB-$28 424,288 User benchmarks, average bench 66% 125GB free Firmware: SBFK71B1 SusWrite @10s intervals: 215 54 51 51 51 51 MB/s Performing above expectations (68^th percentile)	76.7% Very good	Read 447 Write 163 Mixed 298 SusWrite 78.8 54% 247 MB/s	4K Read 30.5 4K Write 100 4K Mixed 30.6 138% 53.7 MB/s	DQ Read 234 DQ Write 328 DQ Mixed 173 161% 245 MB/s
Poor: 33% ↑ This bench: 76.7% Great: 100%
Sandisk PLUS 120 GB 120GB 14,313 User benchmarks, average bench 42% 60GB free Firmware: UE4500RL SusWrite @10s intervals: 121 23 117 77 62 69 MB/s Performing way above expectations (93^rd percentile)	52.8% Above average	Read 455 Write 206 Mixed 237 SusWrite 78.1 54% 244 MB/s	4K Read 23.8 4K Write 42.2 4K Mixed 20.1 84% 28.7 MB/s	DQ Read 117 DQ Write 80.3 DQ Mixed 40.7 46% 79.3 MB/s
Poor: 28% ↑ This bench: 52.8% Great: 55%
Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB-$50 815,515 User benchmarks, average bench 88% 1.5TB free Firmware: CC26 SusWrite @10s intervals: 183 185 188 188 188 186 MB/s Performing way above expectations (88^th percentile)	110% Outstanding	Read 196 Write 161 Mixed 88.8 SusWrite 186 116% 158 MB/s	4K Read 0.7 4K Write 1.5 4K Mixed 0.7 135% 0.97 MB/s
Poor: 51% ↑ This bench: 110% Great: 114%

Memory Kit	Bench	Multi core	Single core	Latency
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2400 C16 2x8GB-$42 105,447 User benchmarks, average bench 76% 2 of 4 slots used 16GB DIMM DDR4 clocked @ 2400 MHz Performing as expected (42^nd percentile)	74.6% Very good	MC Read 28 MC Write 28.2 MC Mixed 21.5 74% 25.9 GB/s	SC Read 16.5 SC Write 29.7 SC Mixed 24.6 67% 23.6 GB/s	Latency 60.1 66% 60.1 ns
Poor: 50% ↑ This bench: 74.6% Great: 88%

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System Memory Latency Ladder

L1/L2/L3 CPU cache and main memory (DIMM) access latencies in nano seconds

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HDD

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MBD

Typical Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978) Builds (Compare 2,313 builds) See popular component choices, score breakdowns and rankings

Gaming 51%

Yacht

Desktop 87%

Aircraft carrier

Workstation 44%

Speed boat

Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978) - $150

CPU
Core i7-6700KIntel $180Bench 81%, 588,978 samples	818x
Core i5-6600KIntel $81Bench 72%, 342,244 samples	631x
Core i7-6700Intel $180Bench 72%, 282,363 samples	227x

GPU
GTX 1060-6GBNvidia $117Bench 56%, 1,368,019 samples	316x
GTX 1070Nvidia $132Bench 80%, 1,459,281 samples	305x
GTX 970Nvidia $200Bench 49%, 834,238 samples	223x

SSD
850 Evo 250GBSamsung $100Bench 103%, 951,591 samples	117x
850 Evo 500GBSamsung $94Bench 112%, 695,664 samples	74x
970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 1TBSamsung $90Bench 310%, 455,997 samples	55x

RAM
Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GBCorsair $43Bench 82%, 606,405 samples	98x
Ripjaws V DDR4 2400 C15 2x8GBG.SKILL $31Bench 71%, 98,777 samples	83x
Fury DDR4 2133 C14 2x8GBHyperX $125Bench 73%, 59,072 samples	71x

EDIT WITH CUSTOM PC BUILDER

Value: 86% - Excellent

Total price: $589

CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-13600K $273	Nvidia RTX 4060 $300	Crucial MX500 250GB $40
Intel Core i5-12400F $133	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $80
Intel Core i5-12600K $177	Nvidia RTX 4070 $539	Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $39	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $45	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $37	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $43	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $51	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $351	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16