The MSI MEG X570 Ace Motherboard Review: Ace in the Hole at $369
by Gavin Bonshor on July 18, 2019 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- MSI
- AM4
- Zen 2
- Ryzen 3000
- X570
- MEG
- X570 Ace
- 3700X
- Ryzen 3700X
CPU Performance, Short Form
For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We put the memory settings at the CPU manufacturers suggested frequency, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.
For X570 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1903 update as per our Ryzen 3000 CPU review.
Rendering - Blender 2.7b: 3D Creation Suite - link
A high profile rendering tool, Blender is open-source allowing for massive amounts of configurability, and is used by a number of high-profile animation studios worldwide. The organization recently released a Blender benchmark package, a couple of weeks after we had narrowed our Blender test for our new suite, however their test can take over an hour. For our results, we run one of the sub-tests in that suite through the command line - a standard ‘bmw27’ scene in CPU only mode, and measure the time to complete the render.
Streaming and Archival Video Transcoding - Handbrake 1.1.0
A popular open source tool, Handbrake is the anything-to-anything video conversion software that a number of people use as a reference point. The danger is always on version numbers and optimization, for example the latest versions of the software can take advantage of AVX-512 and OpenCL to accelerate certain types of transcoding and algorithms. The version we use here is a pure CPU play, with common transcoding variations.
We have split Handbrake up into several tests, using a Logitech C920 1080p60 native webcam recording (essentially a streamer recording), and convert them into two types of streaming formats and one for archival. The output settings used are:
- 720p60 at 6000 kbps constant bit rate, fast setting, high profile
- 1080p60 at 3500 kbps constant bit rate, faster setting, main profile
- 1080p60 HEVC at 3500 kbps variable bit rate, fast setting, main profile
Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7.1: Ray Tracing - link
The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 1-2 minutes on high-end platforms.
Compression – WinRAR 5.60b3: link
Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30-second 720p videos.
Synthetic – 7-Zip v1805: link
Out of our compression/decompression tool tests, 7-zip is the most requested and comes with a built-in benchmark. For our test suite, we’ve pulled the latest version of the software and we run the benchmark from the command line, reporting the compression, decompression, and a combined score.
It is noted in this benchmark that the latest multi-die processors have very bi-modal performance between compression and decompression, performing well in one and badly in the other. There are also discussions around how the Windows Scheduler is implementing every thread. As we get more results, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link
3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz, and IPC win in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.
Neuron Simulation - DigiCortex v1.20: link
The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up. Results are taken during the steady-state period in a 32k neuron simulation and represented as a function of the ability to simulate in real time (1.000x equals real-time).
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Peter2k - Thursday, July 18, 2019 - link
FirstOne could connect the board with the front USB ports of the case
It's rare to find a case that has no frontal USB
If you're attaching some new usb thingy more permanently to the back, you could turn the case a little or something
Second
Its clear comes button is next to the wifi cable
The layout should make it clear you're not next to USB at all
Third
Those buttons are not sticking out of the I/O cover, and an USB plug is too wide to accidentally be pushed into them
Lastly, I'm not aware of any complaints from users about such buttons
It's not a new or unique feature at all
Peter2k - Thursday, July 18, 2019 - link
BtwYou could also save your current settings and even if you do wipe them by accident, you can load them again
DanNeely - Thursday, July 18, 2019 - link
Anything semi-permanently attached gets plugged in the rear to keep the cabling mess out of the way. Front ports are for thumb drives and the like.If the system's awkwardly placed such that I can't see it, I'm probably looking for ports by touch and the buttons are finger sized. A year after the last time I've seen the back I have no idea how the ports are arranged, and am generally starting from the top and working my way down, top ports are easier to access from above so I normally fill the bottom ones first and leave the top USB open for later. The cable plug isn't going back until I've found the right location. Starting by scraping a plug around until you find something big enough for it to fit into is a good way to end up with a USB plug stuck in the second ethernet socket by accident.
Mr Perfect - Thursday, July 18, 2019 - link
No, it's not just you. My mobotherboard has a rear panel BIOS reset and I've only pressed it twice in five years. Both times where accidental.I probably shouldn't admit to that...
FreckledTrout - Thursday, July 18, 2019 - link
Yeah. I always wished they would put some type of flip cover on these so you don't mess up and hit them by accident.12345 - Friday, July 19, 2019 - link
Just save a profile to local storage.peevee - Friday, July 19, 2019 - link
Way too expensive. For comparison, for that price you can buy a basic laptop with a motherboard and WiFi, but also:1) CPU with iGPU
2) Memory
3) Display
4) Battery
5) Disk
6) Case
7) Charger
Oh the times when I could buy a microATX MB for $50 and spend money on what actually matters...
HighTech4US - Sunday, July 21, 2019 - link
Agree way too expensive.I just purchased a ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard for only $74.99 from NewEgg and an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 for $199.99 and Team T-Force Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) 3200 (PC4 25600) for $39.99. Total $314.97
So I got an entire CPU/Motherboard/Memory for less than this motherboard alone.
regsEx - Thursday, August 1, 2019 - link
Agreed. The red price is $280, yet only if had 10 GbE controller and 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 controllers. If no, the $250.Daveteauk - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
Dan Neely - Yes, you are the only person who thinks that - it's a great help and addition to an IO plate - REALLY helpful. If you're too clumsy, or lazy to pull your case, then you shouldn't be playing around with PCs!