MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978)

Performance Results

Benchmarks - missing SSD
Gaming 57% Gunboat	Desktop 92% Nuclear submarine	Workstation 46% Yacht


PC Status	Overall this PC is performing above expectations (71st percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 29 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 88.8%, this CPU's suitability for 3D gaming is very good.
Graphics	63.5% is a good 3D score. This GPU can handle the majority of recent games at high resolutions and ultra detail levels.
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, 6 years ago, 6 years ago, 6 years ago, 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 @ 3.6 GHz
Display	1920 x 1080 - 32 Bit colors
OS	Windows 10
BIOS Date	20160122
Uptime	2 Days
Run Date	Jul 02 '17 at 06:26
Run Duration	116 Seconds
Run User	USA-User
Background CPU	9%

PC Performing above expectations (71^st percentile)

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

Processor	Bench	Normal	Heavy	Server
Intel Core i5-6600K-$130 342,244 User benchmarks, average bench 72% U3E1, 1 CPU, 4 cores, 4 threads Base clock 3.5 GHz, turbo 4.4 GHz (avg) Performing way above expectations (99^th percentile)	88.8% Excellent	Memory 96.4 1-Core 143 2-Core 286 97% 175 Pts	4-Core 450 8-Core 566 65% 508 Pts	64-Core 567 35% 567 Pts
Poor: 57% ↑ This bench: 88.8% Great: 85%

Graphics Card	Bench	3D DX9	3D DX10	3D DX11
Nvidia GTX 980-$500 167,107 User benchmarks, average bench 59% MSI(1462 3176) ≥ 4GB CLim: 1543 MHz, MLim: 1852 MHz, Ram: 4GB, Driver: 382.33 Performing way above expectations (90^th percentile)	63.5% Good	Lighting 78.6 Reflection 74.5 Parallax 61.4 64% 71.5 fps	MRender 82.5 Gravity 78.9 Splatting 70.2 62% 77.2 fps
Poor: 53% ↑ This bench: 63.5% Great: 66%

Drives	Bench	Sequential	Random 4k
Adata Premier SP550 120GB-$45 22,057 User benchmarks, average bench 76% 14GB free (System drive) Firmware: O1015A Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Relative performance n/a - RAM cached drive detected (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 100 100 0 (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (09) Power-on hours count 100 100 782 (0C) Power cycle count 100 100 801 (A0) Unknown 100 100 0 (A1) Unknown 100 100 102 (A3) Unknown 100 100 23 (A4) Unknown 100 100 132389 (A5) Unknown 100 100 147 (A6) Unknown 100 100 46 (A7) Unknown 100 100 102 (A8) Unknown 100 100 1000 (A9) Unknown 100 100 90 (AF) Unknown 100 100 0 (B0) Unknown 100 100 0 (B1) Unknown 100 100 544 (B2) Unknown 100 100 0 (B5) Unknown 100 100 0 (B6) Unknown 100 100 0 (C0) Power-off retract count 100 100 77 (C2) HDA temperature 100 100 32 (C3) Hardware ECC recovered 100 100 0 (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 100 100 9 (E8) Unknown 100 100 100 (F1) Unknown 100 100 405299 (F2) Unknown 100 100 168897 (F5) Unknown 100 100 264778
Poor: 51% Great: 91%
WD Blue 2TB (2015)-$60 253,816 User benchmarks, average bench 65% 1TB free Firmware: 80.00A80 Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing above expectations (75^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 200 200 0 (03) Spinup time 174 172 4266 (04) Start/Stop count 100 100 198 (05) Reallocated sector count 200 200 0 (07) Seek error rate 200 200 0 (09) Power-on hours count 100 100 595 (0A) Spinup retry count 100 100 0 (0B) Calibration retry count 100 100 0 (0C) Power cycle count 100 100 198 (C0) Power-off retract count 200 200 52 (C1) Load/Unload cycle count 197 197 10924 (C2) HDA temperature 119 105 28 (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	74.9% Very good	Read 131 Write 130 Mixed 127 97% 129 MB/s	4K Read 0.54 4K Write 2.04 4K Mixed 0.26 89% 0.95 MB/s
Poor: 40% ↑ This bench: 74.9% Great: 84%

Memory Kit	Bench	Multi core	Single core	Latency
G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB-$36 287,720 User benchmarks, average bench 84% 2 of 4 slots used 16GB DIMM DDR4 clocked @ 3600 MHz Performing below potential (21^st percentile) - ensure that a dual+ channel XMP BIOS profile is enabled: How to enable XMP	68.1% Good	MC Read 23.7 MC Write 23.9 MC Mixed 21.5 66% 23 GB/s	SC Read 17.9 SC Write 25.1 SC Mixed 23.1 63% 22 GB/s	Latency 52.4 76% 52.4 ns
Poor: 63% ↑ This bench: 68.1% Great: 109%

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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 2,315 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	820x
Core i5-6600KIntel $130Bench 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 $98Bench 310%, 455,997 samples	55x

RAM
Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GBCorsair $37Bench 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: 87% - Excellent

Total price: $583

CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-13600K $254	Nvidia RTX 4060 $300	Crucial MX500 250GB $39
Intel Core i5-12400F $133	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $80
Intel Core i5-12600K $163	Nvidia RTX 4070 $539	Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $39	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $40	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $37	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $37	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $79	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $351	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16