Better than on paper. Low-cost “OC” mobo MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4

Extra tests, Motherboards | | Ľubomír Samák

MSI’s second cheapest motherboard with the Intel Z690 chipset costs significantly less compared to the higher-end Tomahawk DDR4. The difference in features is small. And perhaps too small, as the specifications artificially downgrade some components. The power delivery is less efficient and the heatsinks are more modest, but the roughly 80 EUR saved is almost as much as the cost of upgrading from a Core i5-12600K to a Core i7-12700K(F).

HandBrake

Test environment: For video conversion we’re using a 4K video LG Demo Snowboard with a 43,9 Mb/s bitrate. AVC (x264) and HEVC (x265) profiles are set for high quality and encoder profiles are “slow”. HandBrake version is 1.3.3 (2020061300).

x264 and x265 benchmarks




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Comments (6) Add comment

  1. Do you guys think this board would handle the 13900K? With power limits and decent air cooling (Noctua NH-D15, U14S, Dark Rock Pro 4, AK62, or Thermalright PA 120SE?

    Reply

    1. With a power limit of 253 W? The Pro Z690-A DDR4 is up to the task for such a load, although you have to expect lower power efficiency. But that’s only natural in this class.

      Reply

  2. Hey guys, I have a Gigabyte 750h psu that i bought back in 2020, thing is.. it only has 1x 8pin CPU power connector, this motherboard required 2x 8pin CPU power connectors, i want to purchase this motherboard along with a i5 13600k (im not gonna do overclocking at least until i change the psu) am I gonna be ok with just 1x 8pin CPU power cable connected ?

    Reply

    1. Yes, a single 8-pin EPS connector (or a pair of two 4-pin connectors) will be sufficient with the Core i5-13600K, and by a wide margin. It’s capable of 336 W, and your processor’s power draw won’t be more than 180 W.

      Reply

  3. First of all, congratulations for the work done, I have never seen such complete tests for motherboards. There are so many information that I didn’t even think about, now I’m confused. Before, I didn’t think about the consumption or the achieved CPU clock speed.

    MSI MAG B660M Mortar WiFi (128 USD) it consumes less energy and at the same time keeps the CPU at a higher frequency!
    MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4 (170 USD): I thought it was a clear winner, I thought I’d put a 12600k on it and then in a few years upgrade to a 13900k or maybe even the 14 series. More lanes.
    At the same time, there are chances that I will not upgrade to a CPU on the same platform. Hard to chose, or not?

    Reply

    1. I wouldn’t be put off by the difference in achieved clock speeds. This is just the sort of thing that can be well controlled by a simple manual adjustment of the settings. The Pro Z690-A DDR4 board obviously has a more aggressive minus offset setting for AVX instructions and therefore achieves lower CPU clock speeds in Cinebench. But in games and at lower load they are already the same as with the B660M Mortar. To a certain extent, until the limits of the VRM (in)efficiency are reached, the power draw can be tuned. It’s possible that what makes a bigger difference in the power draw than VRM efficiency (the components on the Pro Z690-A DDR4 don’t look that much worse on paper…) on the hardware side is that the Pro Z690-A DDR4 has a significantly more aggressive power supply, which can be adjusted. But that’s all a matter for detailed manual tweaking and fine-tuning.

      Reply

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