Methodology: Temperature and frequency measurements
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).
Methodology: Temperature and frequency measurements
By far the most critical part in terms of temperatures on the motherboard is the power delivery (VRM) for the CPU. This is where we return to the Fluke Ti125 thermal imager, which produces temperature maps that can be used to locate the average temperature, as well as the hottest point. We record both these values (average and maximum temperature on the Vcore) in graphs, and we will later evaluate the efficiency of the VRM heatsinks based on the maximum one. However, we lack a suitable thermometer for that yet. Of course, the thermovision is implemented without a heatsink, and a thermocouple needs to be installed on the hottest MOSFET to detect the reduction of temperature with a heatsink. This will be added soon.
Thermovision always relates to operating with the more powerful of the pair of test processors. With it, the differences and possible limitations or impending risks (for example, even from thermal throttling) become more apparent. In order to have a good view of the VRM, we use an Alphacool Eisbaer 360 liquid cooler with the fans fixed at full power (12 V) instead of a tower cooler (from the CPU tests). The temperature tests also include CPU temperatures for completeness, and we also test the efficiency of the supplied SSD heatsinks as part of the motherboard tests. These are already included with virtually all better motherboards, and so the question naturally arises whether to use them or replace them with other, more finned ones. We will test these heatsinks on a Samsung 980 Pro SSD during ten minutes of intense load in CrystalDiskMark. Finally, the temperature of the chipset’s southbridge and the cooling efficiency in this direction is noteworthy as well.
All tests are conducted in a wind tunnel, so full system cooling is provided. This consists of three Noctua NF-S12A PWMs@5V (~550 rpm) . Two of which are intake, one is exhaust. But the three fast AIO fans also function as exhaust fans, so there is a vacuum in the case.
The temperature at the entrance to the tunnel is properly controlled and ranges between 21-21.3 °C. Maintaining a constant temperature at all times during testing is important not only for the accuracy of the temperature measurements, but also because a higher or lower ambient temperature also affects the eventual behaviour of the processors’ boost. And we also properly monitor and compare the frequencies, whether under all-core load or even single-threaded tasks. We use the HWiNFO application to record the frequencies and temperatures of the cores (sampling is set to two seconds).
Maintaining a constant temperature at the intake is necessary not only for a proper comparison of processor temperatures, but especially for objective performance comparisons. The frequency development, and specially the single core boost, is precisely based on the temperature. Typically in summer, at higher temperatures than is normal in living quarters in winter, processors can be slower.
Temperatures are always read as maximum (both from the VRM thermovision and average, but still from the local maximum values at the end of Cinebench R23). For Intel processors, for each test we read the maximum temperature of the cores, usually all of them. These maxima are then averaged and the result represents the final value in the graph. From the single-threaded workload outputs, we extract only the recorded values from the active cores (there are usually two of these, and they alternate between each other during the test). For AMD processors it is a bit different. They don’t have temperature sensors for each core. In order to make the procedure methodically as similar as possible to the one we apply on Intel processors, we define the average temperature of all cores by the highest value reported by the CPU Tdie (average) sensor. However, for single-core workloads we already use the CPU sensor (Tctl/Tdie), which usually reports a slightly higher value that better corresponds to hotspots of one or two cores. However, these values as well as the values from all internal sensors should be taken with a grain of salt, the accuracy of sensors across CPUs varies.
Frequency evaluation is more accurate, each core has its own sensor even on AMD processors. However, unlike the temperatures, we write the average values of the frequencies during the tests in the graphs. We monitor the temperatures and frequencies of the CPU cores in the same tests in which we also measure power draw. Thus, sequentially from the lowest desktop idle load in Windows 10, through audio encoding (single-threaded load), gaming load in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to Cinebench R23.
- Contents
- MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4 in detail
- What it looks like in the BIOS
- Methodology: Performance tests
- Methodology: How we measure power draw
- Methodology: Temperature and frequency measurements
- Test setup
- 3DMark
- Borderlands 3
- F1 2020
- Metro Exodus
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Total War Saga: Troy
- PCMark and Geekbench
- Web performance
- 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
- Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
- Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
- Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects
- Video encoding
- Audio encoding
- Photos: Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, ...
- (De)compression
- (De)cryption
- Numerical computing
- Simulations
- Memory and cache tests
- M.2 (SSD) slots speed
- USB ports speed
- Ethernet speed
- Power draw curve (EPS + ATX connector) w/o power limits
- Power draw curve (EPS + ATX connector) with Intel’s power limits
- Total power draw (EPS + ATX connector)
- Achieved CPU clock speed
- CPU temperatures
- VRM temperatures – thermovision of Vcore and SOC
- SSD temperatures
- Chipset temperatures (south bridge)
- Conclusion
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?
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.
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 ?
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.
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?
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.