MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978)

Performance Results


Gaming 16% Surfboard	Desktop 46% Yacht	Workstation 13% Tree trunk


PC Status	Overall this PC is performing below expectations (36th percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 64 performed better. The overall PC percentile is the average of each of its individual components. Use the charts in the benchmark sections of this report to identify problem areas.
Processor	With a relatively low single core score, this CPU can handle email, light web browsing and basic audio/video playback, but it will struggle to handle CPU intensive tasks. Finally, with a gaming score of 32.6%, this CPU's suitability for 3D gaming is poor.
Graphics	36.1% is a below average 3D score (RTX 2060S = 100%). This GPU can handle older games but it will struggle to render recent games at resolutions greater than 1080p. (Note: general computing tasks don't require 3D graphics)
Boot Drive	74.2% is a good SSD score. This drive enables fast boots, responsive applications and ensures minimum system IO wait times.
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.

Run History

6 years ago, 6 years ago.

System	MSI MS-7978
Motherboard	MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978) (all builds)
Memory	13.4 GB free of 16 GB @ 2.8 GHz
Display	1920 x 1080 - 32 Bit colors
OS	Windows 10
BIOS Date	20160223
Uptime	3.8 Days
Run Date	Nov 11 '17 at 23:34
Run Duration	135 Seconds
Run User	CAN-User
Background CPU	4%

PC Performing below expectations (36^th percentile)

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

Processor	Bench	Normal	Heavy	Server
Intel Core i5-6500-$67 241,476 User benchmarks, average bench 64% U3E1, 1 CPU, 4 cores, 4 threads Base clock 3.2 GHz, turbo 0.8 GHz (avg) Performing way below expectations (3^rd percentile)	32.6% Below average	Memory 49.5 1-Core 25.8 2-Core 52 28% 42.4 Pts	4-Core 91.2 8-Core 103 13% 97.2 Pts	64-Core 94.2 6% 94.2 Pts
Poor: 43% ↑ This bench: 32.6% Great: 73%

Graphics Card	Bench	3D DX9	3D DX10	3D DX11
Nvidia GTX 960-$198 440,282 User benchmarks, average bench 33% Gigabyte(1458 368F) 2GB CLim: 1481 MHz, MLim: 1752 MHz, Ram: 2GB, Driver: 388.13 Performing way above expectations (97^th percentile)	36.1% Below average	Lighting 47.1 Reflection 43.9 Parallax 39.9 38% 43.6 fps	MRender 39.7 Gravity 41 Splatting 36 32% 38.9 fps
Poor: 30% ↑ This bench: 36.1% Great: 36%

Drives	Bench	Sequential	Random 4k	Deep queue 4k
Samsung 850 Evo 250GB-$100 951,591 User benchmarks, average bench 103% 148GB free (System drive) Firmware: EMT02B6Q Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing way below expectations (6^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (09) Power-on hours count 99 99 1654 (0C) Power cycle count 99 99 672 (B1) Unknown 99 99 16 (B3) Unknown 100 100 0 (B5) Unknown 100 100 0 (B6) Unknown 100 100 0 (B7) Unknown 100 100 0 (BB) vendor-specific 100 100 0 (BE) vendor-specific 76 60 24 (C3) Hardware ECC recovered 200 200 0 (C7) UDMA CRC error rate 100 100 0 (EB) Unknown 99 99 35 (F1) Unknown 99 99 9013007525	74.2% Very good	Read 493 Write 404 Mixed 416 98% 438 MB/s	4K Read 27.3 4K Write 37.8 4K Mixed 24.1 92% 29.7 MB/s	DQ Read 28.7 DQ Write 42.5 DQ Mixed 15.2 17% 28.8 MB/s
Poor: 72% ↑ This bench: 74.2% Great: 124%
WD Green 1.5TB (2011)-$51 6,566 User benchmarks, average bench 48% 730GB free Firmware: 80.00A80 Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing above expectations (70^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 200 200 0 (03) Spinup time 237 226 7108 (04) Start/Stop count 96 96 4274 (05) Reallocated sector count 200 200 0 (07) Seek error rate 200 200 0 (09) Power-on hours count 90 90 8017 (0A) Spinup retry count 100 100 0 (0B) Calibration retry count 100 100 0 (0C) Power cycle count 97 97 3030 (C0) Power-off retract count 200 200 60 (C1) Load/Unload cycle count 139 139 183175 (C2) HDA temperature 126 107 24 (C4) Reallocation count 200 200 0 (C5) Current pending sector count 200 200 0 (C6) Offline scan uncorrectable count 200 200 0 (C7) UDMA CRC error rate 200 200 0 (C8) Write error rate 200 200 0	53.1% Above average	Read 101 Write 84.4 Mixed 84.6 68% 89.8 MB/s	4K Read 0.55 4K Write 1.56 4K Mixed 0.21 75% 0.77 MB/s
Poor: 27% ↑ This bench: 53.1% Great: 65%

Memory Kit	Bench	Multi core	Single core	Latency
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 DDR4 2800 C16 2x8GB 1,384 User benchmarks, average bench 76% 2 of 4 slots used 16GB DIMM DDR4 clocked @ 2800 MHz Performing way below expectations (4^th percentile)	46.9% Average	MC Read 16.7 MC Write 16.5 MC Mixed 21.6 52% 18.3 GB/s	SC Read 6.6 SC Write 9.6 SC Mixed 8.5 24% 8.23 GB/s	Latency 163 25% 163 ns
Poor: 51% ↑ This bench: 46.9% Great: 95%

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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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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