The MSI Z370I Gaming Pro Carbon AC (mITX) Motherboard Review: Balanced Gaming Diet
by Joe Shields on August 23, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- Mini ITX
- Coffee Lake
- Z370
Gaming Performance
Ashes of The Singularity
Ashes of the Singularity is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any system differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system don't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph.
Our AOTSe results here on the Z370 platform are just as close together as our results on the X299 platform. The results can tell us AOTSe can do all of its work with a 6c/12t processor. The MSI Z370I Gaming Pro Carbon AC showed good results at 1080p reaching 44.9 FPS. When we upped the resolution to 4K, the system was able to produce 33.5 FPS. One FPS, even down here in the borderline playable range, doesn't seem to make much of a difference in playability of this genre.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.
One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 3 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.
Rise of the Tomb Raider results for the MSI board was 38.6 FPS in 4K UHD and 95.9 FPS in 1080p which was in close proximity to the other results. So far, most of these runs are within a typical run variance and for all intents and purposes, wouldn't notice a difference on the screen.
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eek2121 - Thursday, August 23, 2018 - link
I would like to know how many people actually have multiple m.2 drives. I typically just install a single drive and if I need additional storage, fallback to SATA.I might have to pick up one of these and a Node 202 case or something for a small, compact gaming PC.
AdditionalPylons - Thursday, August 23, 2018 - link
I bought the ASRock AB350M Pro4 specifically because it had two M.2 slots. (One supporting both PCIe and S-ATA and the other one only S-ATA.) This allows for one very fast system and application drive and one bigger and cheaper as video editing scratch disk. This keeps the number of cables lower. Airflow can probably be debated because on one hand M.2 drives may not get much air, but on the other hand S-ATA PCBs are enclosed and don't get much airflow either.Price-wise M.2 S-ATA drives are almost the same as 2.5" S-ATA drives. I wouldn't be surprised if M.2 got cheaper than S-ATA over time due to the size of the enclosure and packaging, but it's more likely mostly due to supply and demand.
katsetus - Thursday, August 23, 2018 - link
In case of Node 202, the other m.2 slot would come in handy for expansion. I have the Asus z370i strix in it, and with a large gpu and non-modular psu, the hdd bracket would be a nuisance, and I am unsure if it would even fit. With storage-oriented (as compared to performance-oriented) nvme drives coming down in price, I would consider buying another nvme drive for expanded storage rather than a 2.5 inch ssd. At least in case of Node 202, that is.Hxx - Thursday, August 23, 2018 - link
m.2 drives have come down in price especially if you're going for a SATA m.2. Much more elegant, no cable clutter, and generally faster for a small price premiumDanNeely - Thursday, August 23, 2018 - link
For people going with even smaller new SFF cases than you're co, there might not even be an HDD bay at all making it m.2 or MacGyver for solid state drives.Gothmoth - Friday, August 24, 2018 - link
i have 3 x 1TB drives. in my TR system.Dug - Sunday, August 26, 2018 - link
I use 2 m.2 drives and wish I could use three, but there would be a performance hit for doing so.1 for OS and all apps. 2nd for games and editing files. Sata drive for back up and photos.
NobodyYouKnow - Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - link
I currently use 3 M.2 cards (2x PCIe M.2 & 1x Sata M.2) on the MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon. Got 1 PCIe M.2 in the top slot, the sata M.2 in the bottom, and an older PCIe M.2 in a M.2 PCIe x4 add-in adapter card (Akasa AK-PCCM2P-01). The latter is in the bottom PCIe x8 slot.The plan is to buy a 1TB PCIe M.2 that will go in the bottom M.2 slot and move the sata M.2 in the Akasa adapter. The card currently in the adapter is not enough for my games but will work just fine in a htpc.
prateekprakash - Thursday, August 23, 2018 - link
One query: is it possible to connect multiple headphones using the back audio jacks? ( Without using any splitter or external DAC, just those 3.5mm ports)I just need stereo audio through each headphones, nothing fancy...
DanNeely - Thursday, August 23, 2018 - link
AFAIK no boards support this unless you've got a pair that can connect over the optical port (do these exist?). The various analog pins are to support separate location channels for surround sound, so if you plug in multiple headphones the audio controller will think you've got front, and center, or side, or etc speakers.