Methodology: How we measure power draw
The X670E Tomahawk WiFi motherboard is a combination of the highest-end AMD chipset and a relatively lower price. At least by X670E motherboard standards. In addition to broader connectivity (that’s first and foremost), there’s also PCI Express 5.0 support. The decent VRM is also well prepared to run efficiently with even the most powerful processors that can be used on the AM5 platform.
Methodology: How we measure power draw
In contrast to the Z690/B660 tests, we’ll simplify it a bit and measure only the CPU power draw on the EPS cables. This means that (also for the sake of best possible clarity) we omit the 24-pin measurements. We have already analysed it thoroughly and the power draw on it doesn’t change much across boards. Of the ten boards tested with an Alder Lake processor (Core i9-12900K), the power draw at 12 volts of the 24-pin connector ranges from 37.3–40.4 W (gaming load, graphics card power supply via PCI Express ×16 slot), at 5V (memory, ARGB LEDs and some external controllers) then between 13.9–22.3 W and finally at the weakest, 3.3-volt branch, the power draw of our test setup tends to be 2.2–3.6 W.
On top of the CPU power draw, which also takes into account the efficiency of the power delivery, this adds up to some 53–66 W under gaming/graphics load and only 15–25 W outside of it, with the graphics card idle. We already know all this from older tests, and it will be no different on the new boards, and as the number of measurements increases, reducing measurements that worsen orientation is beneficial. But from the text above, you know how much to add for the total power draw of the motherboard components to the CPU’s majority power draw
The situation will be a bit different on AMD platforms, for those we will deal with what is the power draw on which branch of the 24-pin, but already in a separate article that will better highlight this topic. In a large comprehensive motherboard test, these measurements disappear, they do not attract enough attention.
We measure the power draw of the CPU (and its VRM) on the power supply cables, with calibrated Prova 15 current clamps and a calibrated Keysight U1231A multimeter. The clamps measure the electric current, the multimeter measures the electric voltage. In the union of these two electrical quantities, we finally obtain the exact power draw. We measure this in different loads on the CPU. The maximum multithreaded load is represented by Cinebench R23.
Lower, gaming load by Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p@high), single-threaded load by audio encoding (reference encoder 1.3.2, FLAC with bitrate 200 kbps) and idle power draw is measured on the Windows 10 desktop when only basic operating system processes and launchers of some test applications are running in the background.
- Contents
- MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk WiFi in detail
- What it looks like in 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)encryption
- Numerical computing
- Simulations
- Memory and cache tests
- M.2 (SSD) slots speed
- USB ports speed
- Ethernet speed
- Power draw without power limits
- Power draw with power limits
- Achieved CPU clock speed
- CPU temperature
- VRM temperature – thermal imaging of Vcore and SOC
- SSD temperature
- Chipset temperature (south bridge)
- Conclusion
Could you highlight specific examples of the extra features on the MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk WiFi that contribute to its affordability compared to other motherboards in the market? Greeting : Telkom University
It is definitely the weaker feature set that makes this board more affordable compared to the more expensive X670E models. Those (more expensive X670E boards) tend to be built on E-ATX formats, so with a bigger PCB, and precisely to fit more stuff on it. Even among MSI boards, you can compare the features across different price ranges. For example with the X670E Ace tested last year, which costs twice as much (as the X670E Tomahawk WiFi), but is significantly better equipped. Not only in terms of interfaces and connectivity, but the VRM is also more robust. This all adds up to a higher price, but I can’t guess which and to what extent. That’s more a question for those in charge of pricing than for us reviewers. 🙂
PS: In this price class, of course, other manufacturers also have their models and the differences will be in the details according to who gave higher priority to what elements. We always try to discuss this in the technical details analysis in the first chapters of motherboard tests.