MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978)

Performance Results


Gaming 73% Battleship	Desktop 86% Aircraft carrier	Workstation 59% Gunboat


PC Status	Overall this PC is performing as expected (56th percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 44 performed better. The overall PC percentile is the average of each of its individual components.
Processor	With a brilliant single core score, this CPU is the business: It demolishes everyday tasks such as web browsing, office apps and audio/video playback. Additionally this processor can handle light workstation, and even some light server workloads. Finally, with a gaming score of 80.1%, this CPU's suitability for 3D gaming is very good.
Graphics	86.6% 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	116% 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	32GB is enough RAM to run any version of Windows and it's far more than any current game requires. 32GB will also allow for large file and system caches, virtual machine hosting, software development, video editing and batch multimedia processing.
OS Version	Although Windows 10 is not the most recent version of Windows, it remains a great option.

Very high background CPU (66%). High background CPU reduces benchmark accuracy. How to reduce background CPU.

Run History

7 years ago, 7 years ago, 7 years ago, 7 years ago.

System	MSI MS-7978
Motherboard	MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978) (all builds)
Memory	28.2 GB free of 32 GB @ 2.1 GHz
Display	3840 x 2160 - 32 Bit colors
OS	Windows 10
BIOS Date	20160724
Uptime	0.8 Days
Run Date	May 27 '17 at 12:36
Run Duration	130 Seconds
Run User	USA-User
Background CPU	66%

PC Performing as expected (56^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-$170 588,978 User benchmarks, average bench 81% U3E1, 1 CPU, 4 cores, 8 threads Base clock 4 GHz, turbo 4 GHz (avg) Performing as expected (42^nd percentile)	80.1% Excellent	Memory 91.6 1-Core 119 2-Core 195 80% 135 Pts	4-Core 371 8-Core 528 56% 450 Pts	64-Core 504 31% 504 Pts
Poor: 70% ↑ This bench: 80.1% Great: 90%

Graphics Card	Bench	3D DX9	3D DX10	3D DX11
Nvidia GTX 980-Ti-$560 214,030 User benchmarks, average bench 79% MSI(1462 3236) ≥ 4GB CLim: 1581 MHz, MLim: 1775 MHz, Ram: 6GB, Driver: 382.5 Performing way above expectations (95^th percentile)	86.6% Excellent	Lighting 112 Reflection 118 Parallax 107 92% 112 fps	MRender 97.8 Gravity 104 Splatting 85.1 77% 95.5 fps
Poor: 70% ↑ This bench: 86.6% Great: 87%

Drives	Bench	Sequential	Random 4k	Deep queue 4k
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB-$76 695,664 User benchmarks, average bench 112% 273GB free (System drive) Firmware: EMT01B6Q Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing as expected (58^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (09) Power-on hours count 99 99 4043 (0C) Power cycle count 98 98 1033 (B1) Unknown 99 99 13 (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 69 60 31 (C3) Hardware ECC recovered 200 200 0 (C7) UDMA CRC error rate 99 99 4 (EB) Unknown 99 99 25 (F1) Unknown 99 99 18180536115	116% Outstanding	Read 514 Write 402 Mixed 420 99% 445 MB/s	4K Read 45.8 4K Write 100 4K Mixed 50.4 187% 65.5 MB/s	DQ Read 342 DQ Write 257 DQ Mixed 120 138% 240 MB/s
Poor: 80% ↑ This bench: 116% Great: 134%
Toshiba DT01ACA200 2TB-$60 344,862 User benchmarks, average bench 86% 1.5TB free Firmware: MX4OABB0 Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing as expected (50^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 100 100 0 (02) Throughput performance 137 137 77 (03) Spinup time 126 126 25789464876 (04) Start/Stop count 100 100 992 (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (07) Seek error rate 100 100 0 (08) Seek timer performance 124 124 33 (09) Power-on hours count 100 100 3859 (0A) Spinup retry count 100 100 0 (0C) Power cycle count 100 100 992 (C0) Power-off retract count 96 96 5080 (C1) Load/Unload cycle count 96 96 5080 (C2) HDA temperature 214 214 163210067996 (C4) Reallocation count 100 100 0 (C5) Current pending sector count 100 100 0 (C6) Offline scan uncorrectable count 100 100 0 (C7) UDMA CRC error rate 200 200 0	88.9% Excellent	Read 161 Write 149 Mixed 168 120% 159 MB/s	4K Read 1.01 4K Write 1.85 4K Mixed 0.19 97% 1.01 MB/s
Poor: 49% ↑ This bench: 88.9% Great: 108%
Seagate ST2000NM0011 2TB-$54 4,076 User benchmarks, average bench 69% 156GB free Firmware: SN03 Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing way below expectations (18^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 83 63 233547124 (03) Spinup time 91 91 0 (04) Start/Stop count 100 100 323 (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (07) Seek error rate 100 253 8590167231 (09) Power-on hours count 99 99 1439 (0A) Spinup retry count 100 100 0 (0C) Power cycle count 100 100 323 (B8) Unknown 100 100 0 (BB) vendor-specific 100 100 0 (BC) Unknown 100 95 21475164165 (BD) vendor-specific 100 100 0 (BE) vendor-specific 71 55 487981085 (BF) G-sense error rate 100 100 0 (C0) Power-off retract count 100 100 13 (C1) Load/Unload cycle count 100 100 330 (C2) HDA temperature 29 45 81604378653 (C3) Hardware ECC recovered 119 99 233547124 (C5) Current pending sector count 100 100 0 (C6) Offline scan uncorrectable count 100 100 0 (C7) UDMA CRC error rate 200 200 0	55.7% Above average	Read 101 Write 93 Mixed 88.8 71% 94.3 MB/s	4K Read 0.53 4K Write 1.63 4K Mixed 0.37 94% 0.84 MB/s
Poor: 45% ↑ This bench: 55.7% Great: 86%

Memory Kit	Bench	Multi core	Single core	Latency
G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 2133 C15 4x8GB 1,159 User benchmarks, average bench 78% 4 of 4 slots used 32GB DIMM DDR4 clocked @ 2133 MHz Performing above expectations (71^st percentile)	75.3% Very good	MC Read 26.1 MC Write 28.5 MC Mixed 23.9 75% 26.2 GB/s	SC Read 18.5 SC Write 30.6 SC Mixed 24.7 70% 24.6 GB/s	Latency 64.8 62% 64.8 ns
Poor: 64% ↑ This bench: 75.3% Great: 134%

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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 2,332 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 $170Bench 81%, 588,978 samples	827x
Core i5-6600KIntel $113Bench 72%, 342,244 samples	634x
Core i7-6700Intel $170Bench 72%, 282,363 samples	227x

GPU
GTX 1060-6GBNvidia $117Bench 56%, 1,368,019 samples	318x
GTX 1070Nvidia $278Bench 80%, 1,459,281 samples	312x
GTX 970Nvidia $200Bench 49%, 834,238 samples	225x

SSD
850 Evo 250GBSamsung $100Bench 103%, 951,591 samples	117x
850 Evo 500GBSamsung $76Bench 112%, 695,664 samples	75x
970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 1TBSamsung $103Bench 310%, 455,997 samples	55x

RAM
Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GBCorsair $48Bench 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: 85% - Excellent

Total price: $584

CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-12600K $176	Nvidia RTX 4060 $293	Crucial MX500 250GB $39
Intel Core i5-12400F $120	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $80
Intel Core i5-13600K $260	Nvidia RTX 4070 $549	Samsung 870 Evo 250GB $44

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $37	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $40	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $28	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $48	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $62	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $351	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16