MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978)

Performance Results


Gaming 14% Tree trunk	Desktop 82% Aircraft carrier	Workstation 12% Tree trunk


PC Status	Overall this PC is performing above expectations (73rd percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 27 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 85.1%, this CPU's suitability for 3D gaming is very good.
Graphics	11.7% is a very low 3D score (RTX 2060S = 100%). This GPU can only handle very basic 3D games but it's fine for general computing tasks.
Boot Drive	67.2% 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.

High background CPU (27%). High background CPU reduces benchmark accuracy. How to reduce background CPU.

Run History

8 years ago, 8 years ago.

System	MSI MS-7978
Motherboard	MSI Z170A GAMING M3 (MS-7978) (all builds)
Memory	12.3 GB free of 16 GB @ 2.4 GHz
Display	1920 x 1080 - 32 Bit colors
OS	Windows 10
BIOS Date	20151218
Uptime	0 Days
Run Date	Feb 10 '16 at 19:55
Run Duration	222 Seconds
Run User	ROU-User
Background CPU	27%

PC Performing above expectations (73^rd 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 3.9 GHz (avg) Performing way above expectations (95^th percentile)	85.1% Excellent	Memory 90.7 1-Core 123 2-Core 237 85% 150 Pts	4-Core 461 8-Core 449 61% 455 Pts	64-Core 466 29% 466 Pts
Poor: 57% ↑ This bench: 85.1% Great: 85%

Graphics Card	Bench	3D DX9	3D DX10	3D DX11
Nvidia GTX 960-$198 440,282 User benchmarks, average bench 33% MSI(1462 3202) Driver: nvd3dumx.dll Ver. 10.18.13.6175 Relative performance (0^th percentile) - GPU OC Guide	11.7% Very poor	Lighting 12 Reflection 12.7 Parallax 12.8 10% 12.5 fps	MRender 10.9 Gravity 23.1 Splatting 21 15% 18.3 fps
Poor: 30% ↑ This bench: 11.7% Great: 36%

Drives	Bench	Sequential	Random 4k	Deep queue 4k
Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB-$35 176,713 User benchmarks, average bench 64% 53GB free (System drive) Firmware: 603ABBF0 Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing as expected (56^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 95 95 52124276 (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (09) Power-on hours count 100 100 7155415515682 (0C) Power cycle count 100 100 100 (AB) Unknown 100 100 0 (AC) Unknown 100 100 0 (AE) Unknown 0 0 31 (B1) Unknown 0 0 0 (B5) Unknown 100 100 0 (B6) Unknown 100 100 0 (BB) vendor-specific 100 100 0 (BD) vendor-specific 30 35 77311705118 (C2) HDA temperature 30 35 77311705118 (C3) Hardware ECC recovered 120 120 52124276 (C4) Reallocation count 100 100 0 (C9) Soft read error rate 120 120 52124276 (CC) Soft ECC correction 120 120 52124276 (E6) GMR head amplitude 100 100 100 (E7) Temperature 100 100 4294967296 (E9) Unknown 0 0 1616 (EA) Unknown 0 0 1730 (F1) Unknown 0 0 1730 (F2) Unknown 0 0 2483 (F4) Unknown 100 100 2490389	67.2% Good	Read 510 Write 182 Mixed 258 69% 317 MB/s	4K Read 22.9 4K Write 97.1 4K Mixed 12.3 102% 44.1 MB/s	DQ Read 98.7 DQ Write 201 DQ Mixed 49.3 66% 116 MB/s
Poor: 41% ↑ This bench: 67.2% Great: 85%
Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB-$35 176,713 User benchmarks, average bench 64% 36GB free Firmware: 520ABBF0 Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing way above expectations (94^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 95 95 5466799 (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (09) Power-on hours count 95 95 4045859197524 (0C) Power cycle count 100 100 978 (AB) Unknown 0 0 0 (AC) Unknown 0 0 0 (AE) Unknown 0 0 107 (B1) Unknown 0 0 2 (B5) Unknown 0 0 0 (B6) Unknown 0 0 0 (BB) vendor-specific 1 1 174 (BD) vendor-specific 29 52 60132950045 (C2) HDA temperature 29 52 60132950045 (C3) Hardware ECC recovered 120 120 5466799 (C4) Reallocation count 100 100 0 (C9) Soft read error rate 120 120 5466799 (CC) Soft ECC correction 120 120 5466799 (E6) GMR head amplitude 100 100 100 (E7) Temperature 100 100 0 (E9) Unknown 0 0 7290 (EA) Unknown 0 0 7009 (F1) Unknown 0 0 7009 (F2) Unknown 0 0 10889	83% Excellent	Read 513 Write 244 Mixed 317 79% 358 MB/s	4K Read 30.7 4K Write 98.5 4K Mixed 22.2 127% 50.4 MB/s	DQ Read 267 DQ Write 199 DQ Mixed 72.1 98% 179 MB/s
Poor: 41% ↑ This bench: 83% Great: 85%
Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB-$35 176,713 User benchmarks, average bench 64% 34GB free Firmware: 603ABBF0 Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing above expectations (72^nd percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 95 95 4464713 (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (09) Power-on hours count 100 100 51170240364756 (0C) Power cycle count 100 100 31 (AB) Unknown 100 100 0 (AC) Unknown 100 100 0 (AE) Unknown 0 0 7 (B1) Unknown 0 0 0 (B5) Unknown 100 100 0 (B6) Unknown 100 100 0 (BB) vendor-specific 100 100 0 (BD) vendor-specific 29 38 77311901725 (C2) HDA temperature 29 38 77311901725 (C3) Hardware ECC recovered 120 120 4464713 (C4) Reallocation count 100 100 0 (C9) Soft read error rate 120 120 4464713 (CC) Soft ECC correction 120 120 4464713 (E6) GMR head amplitude 100 100 100 (E7) Temperature 100 100 4294967296 (E9) Unknown 0 0 4294963556 (EA) Unknown 0 0 115 (F1) Unknown 0 0 115 (F2) Unknown 0 0 206 (F4) Unknown 100 100 1769490	72.3% Very good	Read 509 Write 199 Mixed 244 69% 317 MB/s	4K Read 21.8 4K Write 101 4K Mixed 17.4 109% 46.7 MB/s	DQ Read 152 DQ Write 213 DQ Mixed 50.8 75% 139 MB/s
Poor: 41% ↑ This bench: 72.3% Great: 85%
Seagate Desktop SSHD 1TB-$68 105,708 User benchmarks, average bench 83% 931GB free Firmware: CC41 Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s Performing way above expectations (95^th percentile) (ID) Attribute Now Worst Value (01) Raw read error rate 99 99 2519384 (03) Spinup time 99 99 0 (04) Start/Stop count 100 100 2 (05) Reallocated sector count 100 100 0 (07) Seek error rate 100 253 7071 (09) Power-on hours count 100 100 1 (0A) Spinup retry count 100 100 0 (0C) Power cycle count 100 100 7 (B7) Unknown 100 100 0 (B8) Unknown 100 100 0 (BB) vendor-specific 100 100 0 (BC) Unknown 100 100 0 (BD) vendor-specific 100 100 0 (BE) vendor-specific 70 69 521797662 (BF) G-sense error rate 100 100 0 (C0) Power-off retract count 100 100 3 (C1) Load/Unload cycle count 100 100 7 (C2) HDA temperature 30 40 107374182430 (C5) Current pending sector count 100 100 0 (C6) Offline scan uncorrectable count 100 100 0 (C7) UDMA CRC error rate 200 200 0 (F0) Head flying hours 100 253 -43735651975168 (F1) Unknown 100 253 27833625 (F2) Unknown 100 253 1696474	112% Outstanding	Read 196 Write 193 Mixed 146 133% 178 MB/s	4K Read 0.83 4K Write 5.32 4K Mixed 1.04 249% 2.4 MB/s
Poor: 48% ↑ This bench: 112% Great: 112%
WD My Passport 0827 1TB 5,337 User benchmarks, average bench 30% 931GB free, PID 0827 Operating at USB 3.0 Speed Performing way above expectations (92^nd percentile)	42.7% Average	Read 110 Write 91.8 Mixed 81.6 117% 94.6 MB/s	4K Read 0.54 4K Write 2.14 4K Mixed 0.24 83% 0.97 MB/s
Poor: 14% ↑ This bench: 42.7% Great: 45%

Memory Kit	Bench	Multi core	Single core	Latency
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400 C16 2x8GB-$170 3,887 User benchmarks, average bench 77% 2 of 4 slots used 16GB DIMM DDR4 clocked @ 2400 MHz Performing below potential (5^th percentile) - ensure that a dual+ channel XMP BIOS profile is enabled: How to enable XMP	44.5% Average	MC Read 14.9 MC Write 15.4 MC Mixed 13.7 42% 14.7 GB/s	SC Read 13.1 SC Write 15.8 SC Mixed 14.5 41% 14.5 GB/s	Latency 66.2 60% 66.2 ns
Poor: 46% ↑ This bench: 44.5% Great: 89%

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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 $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 $90Bench 112%, 695,664 samples	74x
970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 1TBSamsung $95Bench 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 $269	Nvidia RTX 4060 $295	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