The MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium is marketed as a top of the range ATX offering and currently stands as MSI's flagship AM4 socket motherboard. The XPower branding over the years has been heavily associated with overclocking and enthusiast level performance, but due to a change in the direction MSI in terms of marketing, the XPowerbranding now correlates with gaming as well. As MSI's top dog, the silver design has hopes and dreams of standing out in a densely populated segment.

Other AnandTech Reviews for AMD’s Ryzen CPUs and X370/B350

The AMD Ryzen 3 1300X and Ryzen 3 1200 CPU Review: Zen on a Budget
The AMD Ryzen 5 1600X vs Core i5 Review: All Ryzen 5 CPUs Tested
The AMD Zen and Ryzen 7 Review: A Deep Dive on 1800X, 1700X and 1700

To read specifically about the X370/B350 chip/platform and the specifications therein, our deep dive into what it is can be found at this link.

Tested Motherboards

• $260 - ASRock X370 Professional Gaming
• $255 - MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium [this review]
• $230 - ASRock X370 Taichi
• $175 - GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming 5 [review]
• $160 - ASRock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac
• $110 - Biostar X370GTN [review]
• $98 - MSI B350 Tomahawk [review]
• $90 - ASRock B350 Gaming K4 [review]

The MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium Overview

With the XPower Gaming Titanium sitting among the most expensive X370 motherboards on the market, MSI has made aesthetic changes to make the XPower variant stand out from the rest of the crowd, with a titanium like silver PCB and similarly styled heatsinks on the chipset and power delivery. The titanium stylings and branding directional change of the XPower in 2016 - the X370 variant of the new XPower is the third such board to feature the ‘gaming titanium’ moniker and is primarily aimed towards gamers.

The XPower drops the overclocking focused features from previous generations(such as the voltage (V-check) monitoring points) for this version, but implements some other high-end features instead, such as the combination of storage: a single U.2 port, a block of six SATA 6Gb/s ports, and dual M.2 ports with both slots allowing for the installation of PCIe SSDs. There is some sharing with the M.2 and PCIe slots: equipping a PCIe SSD into the top M.2 slot reduces the PCIe 3.0 slots to x8/x4, while the bottom M.2 slot is switched with the bottom PCIe slot. This particular X370 model has full support for 2-way NVIDIA SLI and also 3-way AMD Crossfire, although this requires the PCIe 2.0 x4 chipset slot. 

Memory support is provided up to 64GB, and this motherboard is rated up to DDR4-3200 by MSI. The memory slots feature MSI’s Steel Armor, and similarly there is PCIe reinforcement for the two main slots that are powered by the CPU. 

The base performance of the X370 XPower was on par with the motherboards we have tested so far. In our gaming tests we found the XPower to be somewhat a little lackluster by a percentage point or two, although nothing majorly stood out as abnormal. A particular highlight was the performance of MSIs Audio Boost 4 onboard audio which is essentially a commonly found Realtek ALC1220 codec, but with a supplementary operational amplifier in the form of a Texas Instruments OPA1652. Audio is usually overlooked when purchasing a motherboard, but MSI seem to be on the right track. 

Overclocking

As we have found out through various B350/X370 motherboard reviews so far, our AMD Ryzen 7 1700 ($299) eight-core processor sample isn’t the greatest of silicon, but it does stretch out to 3.90 GHz at 1.375 V with full stability under OCCT and Prime95. The MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium features Click BIOS 5 which is easy to navigate around and is one of the visually more appealing UEFI BIOSes on the market. Achieving simple overclocks such as 3.8 GHz and 3.9 GHz on the Ryzen 7 1700 ($299) was as simple as it could be.

Without changing any other setting other than the CPU core ratio to the x39 multiplier and manually entering the voltage to 1.375 V, it booted into Windows first time and provided stability throughout the stress testing and actual testing. In the Windows 10 64-bit OS and with the CPU Loadline Calibration set to auto on our chip, CPU-Z was reading out a core voltage of 1.368 V when under full load.

MSI includes a dedicated one-touch overclocking button called Game Boost, which can be adjusted physically and in the BIOS. Each of the seven different overclocking presets yield both multiplier changes and CPU voltage modifications. 

Note: Each setting applied by Game Boost disables the AMD Cool’n’Quiet feature and disables Smart Fan Control on the CPU 1 and PUMP header.

MSI XPower Gaming Titanium Game Boost Settings
Setting	Multipler	Core Voltage
1	x34.0	1.45 V
2	x35.5	1.50 V
4	x36.0	1.55 V
6	x36.5	1.55 V
8	x37.0	1.57 V
10	x37.5	1.57 V
11	x38.0	1.57 V

The maximum voltage we would consider to be 'safe' with an extreme cooling setup is around 1.45 volts. Above these levels is where AMD suggests that processor longevity could be affected. Automatic overclocking done by the motherboard manufacturers usually compensates extra for better stability on a wide range of silicon, however I would find it uncomprehensable to run a Ryzen 7 1700 CPU on even a 360mm premium cooler, like the one featured on our test bench, with anything more than 1.45 volts for a 24/7 system, let alone with 1.57 V for a run of the mill clock speed like 3800MHz.

On the one hand there is over compensation, and on the other there are extreme measures, and MSI with its Game Boost dialled it all. This is reckless, especially given that the temperatures, the power consumption, and the longevity of the chip is at stake.

Methodology

Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with POV-Ray and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.

For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Overclocking Results

Referencing back to the Biostar X370GTN review, our Ryzen 7 1700 CPU does have a limitation between 3.9 GHz and 4.0 GHz; at least on the boards we have tested thus far. This is down to silicon lottery and a combination of a sharp ramp of voltage to temperature when moving up each different step.

As with all of our other B350/X370 motherboard reviews, our manual overclocking results ended up with 3.9 GHz with 1.375 volts. For the MSI, the overall power consumption reading pushed just under 195W at peak; one of the highest recorded readings taken from a B350/X370 board so far.

 

Wait a Second, Why Test X370 if X470 is Just Around The Corner?
Section by Ian Cutress

A lot of discussion is about AMD's upcoming launch, which is set to include a new motherboard chipset known as X470. We have had emails about our last B350 review, stating what was the point given that this new AM4-based chipset was around the corner, and I fully expect more comments on this article about it as well. The reasons are multiple. 

One) X470 isn't replacing any of the current motherboard stack. X370, B350 and A320 are still going to be produced and sold alongside X470. There might be fewer new models compared to the latest and greatest, but motherboard vendors are still set to sell all of them side by side.

Two) All of these motherboards will have forwards/backwards compatibilty with the AM4 socket. Dropping in a Bristol Ridge or the latest mainstream Ryzen, with a sufficiently updated BIOS, will be possible. AMD has stated that the AM4 socket, and my extention the chipsets, will be on a long-term support structure. So the motherboard vendors are still set to run updates for the chipsets that exist.

Three) When we started our AM4 reviews, we tested a number of motherboards all at once, and have gone through the process of writing up our analysis one-by-one. The analysis, for current owners or to-be owners (of new or used), is a very important part of that process to help making purchasing decisions. Not everyone is buying the latest, and not everyone is buying new. We believe having that data on hand, especially when enabled through a Google search six months later down the line, is important.

We still have motherboard vendors asking if we can review their current-generation AM4 motherboards, regardless of what is coming around the corner. You might be amazed and how soon after recieving a sample we get emails asking 'when will it be published?'! But the bottom line is that sales do not stop just because something newer is about to come out, and we think that having our analysis online can act as a good reference for those that need it.

MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium Board Features

The X370 XPower Gaming Titanium as you would expect has a wide variety of features and as far as an ATX sized X370 offering goes, it ticks a vast majority of boxes. With a lot of proverbial tricks up its sleeve, the XPower combines a lot of controllers featured on many mid-high motherboards currently on the market such as the Intel I211AT Gigabit networking controller and the fabled Realtek ALC1220 audio codec. Only the boards at the higher end of the spectrum feature U.2 storage connectivity such as this one, but in addition MSI have included dual M.2 ports on top of the six SATA 6Gbps you would typically expect.

MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium ATX Motherboard
Warranty Period	2 Years
Product Page	Link
Price	$255
Size	ATX
CPU Interface	AM4
Chipset	AMD X370
Memory Slots (DDR4)	Four DDR4 Supporting 64GB Dual Channel Up to DDR4-3200
Video Outputs	HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort
Network Connectivity	Intel I211AT
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC1220
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU)	2 x PCIe 3.0  - x16 or x8/x8 with Ryzen  - x8 or x8/x0 with 7th Gen and Ryzen APU
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH)	1 x PCIe 2.0 (x4) 3 x PCIe 2.0 (x1)
Onboard SATA	Six, RAID 0/1/10
Onboard M.2	1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 - 22110 (top slot) 1 x PCIe 2.0 x4/SATA - 2280 (bottom slot)
USB 3.1 (10 Gbps)	1 x Type-A 1 x Type-C 1 x Type-C (via header)
USB 3.0 (5 Gbps)	4 x Type-A (Rear Panel) 4 via Header
USB 2.0	3 x Type-A (Rear Panel) 4 via Header
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin CPU
Fan Headers	1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Water Pump (4-pin) 4 x System (4-pin)
IO Panel	4 x USB 3.1 Type-A (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C (USB 3.1 Gen 2) 3 x USB 2.0 Type-A 1 x Network RJ-45 1 x HDMI 2.0 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Combo PS/2 5 x 3.5 mm Audio Jacks 1 x Optical S/PDIF 1 x Clear CMOS Button

Visual Inspection

The most striking aspect of the visuals on the XPower is the silver titanium finish across the PCB and the heatsinks. This dominates the aesthetics and allows MSI’s Steel Armor to blend in naturally, as opposed to sticking out on a background of all-black PCB. In addition to the entirety of the PCB (front and back), the rear panel also has a similarly colored panel as well as both the chipset and the power delivery heatsinks.

Another element associated with the aesthetics is the built in LED lighting. MSI has implemented basic white LEDs around the board, but the majority of them are featured on the underside of the board along the audio PCB isolation line. Although they can be controlled and adjusted via the MSI Mystic Light RGB software, they are simply white LEDs and offer little customization other than changing how the lights are displayed. For RGB users there is a single 4-pin RGB LED connector available. In the top right hand corner of the board is a two-digit LED debug display for POST codes.

The power delivery on the X370 XPower starts with an International Rectifier IR35201 8-phase PWM controller that operates in a split 6+4 design; six being dedicated to the CPU, and four which features an IR3598 MOSFET doubler being used for the SOC. The use of doublers on the power delivery motherboards in this day and age is very common and isn’t usually a sign of weakness when it comes overclocking performance; even the highest end of motherboards do use them. What is interesting though is MSIs use of Nikos PK616BA MOSFETs for the CPU and twelve PK632BA MOSFETs making up the SOC section of the power delivery. The Nikos PK616BA MOSFETs are found on a variety of motherboards including MSI’s own B350 Tomahawk which we previously reviewed. MSI has however added an additional 4-pin power connector in addition to the standard 8-pin to feed power to the CPU.

For storage, the board has dual M.2 slots, a single U.2 port, and a total of six SATA ports. The centrally located PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot features MSI’s M.2 Shield, but the second PCIe 2.0 x4 M.2 slot from the chipset does not. That first M.2 slot is switched with the U.2 slot, as shown in the block diagram below on the right, while the second M.2 slot is switched with the PCIe 2.0 x4 slot on the bottom of the motherboard.

The six SATA ports are on the right-hand side and support RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. Just above these is the single U.2 port and a USB 3.0 header.

The MSI X370 XPower features a relatively 'standard' PCIe layout with a total of three full-length PCIe slots. The top two, which are connected to the CPU, feature MSI Steel Armor to bolster the strength of the slots whereas the bottom does not. 2-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD Crossfire are both openly supported with the lanes operating in x8/x8 when both the main slots are populated. There is also a single 6-pin PCIe connector for additional power when two high-powered cards in play. There is also three PCIe x1 slots for other peripherals.

The X370 XPower Gaming Titanium offers a total of four memory slots with a maximum of 64GB, and up to DDR4-3200 listed as the on-the-box rating in dual channel mode. The memory slots also have reinforcement, similar to the PCIe slots.

In regards to USB connectivity, the X370 XPower has a single internal header for USB 3.1 from the chipset, and uses an ASMedia ASM2142 controller to offer a single Type-C port and a single Type-A port on the rear panel.There is also four USB 3.0 ports and a set of three USB 2.0 ports in play. One of these ports is vertical rather than horizontal, and is earmarked for the BIOS Flashback+ utility.

BIOS Flashback+ allows users to update the BIOS without having a CPU, DRAM, or GPU, in play. It is enabled via the vertical USB 2.0 port when a USB stick with an updated BIOS (with a particular file name, details in the manual) is inserted and the button to the left of the USB port is pressed.

For video with the new APUs, the XPower has a HDMI 2.0 output as well as a DisplayPort output. The rear panel also has the integrated Intel I211-AT gigabit ethernet and the audio jack setup for the Realtek ALC1220 audio.

The onboard audio is driven by the Realtek ALC1220 codec which found on virtually all of the high-end motherboards in the market. What makes the XPower different from the rest is the addition of a Texas Instruments OPA1652 OP-AMP. While this isn’t an overly expensive OP-AMP for MSI to use, it did give a better result in our testing. Another element to consider is the PCB separation between the rest of the PCB and the audio PCB area, as well as the use of Nippon Chemi-Con audio capacitors.

BIOS

MSI uses the same styled Click BIOS 5 across all of its current motherboard models. For the XPower, it uses a red and black themed BIOS with white test throughout, in light of the gaming aspect in the name, rather than white/silver for the titanium. The BIOS easy to navigate, feels responsive, and there were no issues finding key and important settings.

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Click BIOS 5 has two selective modes with entry screen starting with EZ Mode. This is suited for novice users, with the more advanced settings being available in Advanced Mode. EZ Mode provides the base information for CPU clock speeds, memory speeds, memory timings, BIOS info, and one click entry to things like the M-Flash utility and hardware monitor.

After pressing F7 once, advanced mode appears and offers six different panels containing a wave of different options. From the left side is the settings panel which deep dives into the motherboards chipset options such as USB configuration, Windows OS configuration and integrated peripherals; the latter allows the user to turn off the onboard LAN controller as well as the onboard HD audio controller. Users can also enable a setting called ‘Above 4G memory/Crypto Currency Mining’ which is designed to bypass issues regarding system delay upon boot with Xeon Phi cards or mutliple graphics beyond four cards. 

For overclocking, MSI uses a list of CPU, RAM and voltage settings. Most of the voltage settings can generally be left at auto when overclocking, although in our testing we do adjust CPU Core Voltage and DRAM Voltage. Using XMP profiles on memory will automatically adjust the DRAM voltage to its required level based on the memories XMP specifications.

On the right-hand side throughout the advanced section of the BIOS is the help and information panel aimed at explaining the settings chosen on the motherboard. 

Overall the MSI CLICK BIOS works, is particularly responsive to use and combines an easy to navigate design with a clean and clear look. More of a nitpick would be the overall theme not matching the rest of the board such as the color scheme and XPower branding, but it doesn’t hinder any of the technological aspects of the BIOS.

Software

Software offerings include the MSI Command Center software, Live Update, the MSI Gaming App, MSI Gaming LAN Manager and the Nahimic audio software. The most up-to-date solution for drivers and software would be to install the MSI Live Update 6 software and update them all to the latest available versions. Alongside the usual software, an MSI Gaming themed CPU-Z is also provided.

The MSI Command Center offers a range of CPU, memory, and integrated graphics options, and also provides overclocking options. The software itself isn’t dedicated to this specific board, as the base clock section has been greyed out mainly because the X370 XPower does not feature an external clock generator. However everything else, from CPU Core voltage, multiplier, DRAM voltage and even memory timings, are customizable.

On top of overclocking options, the Command Center also custom fan profiles for the four 4-pin SYS fan headers on the board. Options also include an automatic smart mode, or using user defined settings based on power levels. There is also a real-time onboard temperature monitoring screen which takes readings directly from the sensors on the motherboard, and displays it in a futuristic blueprint of the board. 

Within the MSI Gaming App software, on offer are three different modes: OC Mode, Gaming Mode, and Silent mode. Each relates to CPU and graphics performance, although the software did not have any effect on our Ryzen 7 1700.

Also inside the MSI Gaming App are all the options relating LED adjustments. Users can plug up to a maximum of two 5050 RGB LED strips to add to the LED capabilities. It is worth noting that for users that want to implement RGB lighting and customize the colors, the Mystic Light utility embedded into the Gaming App is the only way to do this as the BIOS doesn’t even contain any options to simply turn the LEDs on or off.

The X370 XPower utilizes a Realtek ALC1220 and is complimented by the Nahimic audio software.The Nahimic interface is designed to offer different options to tailor the sound, such as a bass boost, virtual surround sound, reverb and a smart loudness setting which is essentially volume stabilization to aid in the reduction of large audio spikes. On the face of it, the audio section comes across as no more than an EQ adjuster, however since the initial offering, Nahimic has expanded to streaming, allowing for an audio launchpad which allows the user to hotkey sound samples to the keyboard or gamepad. Also included is 'Sound Tracker', an FPS focused technology which captions 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound processed by the codec into an on-screen display.

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Test Bed

As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Test Setup
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 1700, 65W, $300, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo)
Motherboard	MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium (BIOS v19)
Cooling	Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB 360
Power Supply	Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Gold PSU
Memory	2x16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400
Video Card	ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1178/1279 Boost)
Hard Drive	Crucial MX300 1TB
Case	Open Test Bed
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

Many thanks to...

Thank you to ASUS for providing us with GTX 980 Strix GPUs. At the time of release, the STRIX brand from ASUS was aimed at silent running, or to use the marketing term: '0dB Silent Gaming'. This enables the card to disable the fans when the GPU is dealing with low loads well within temperature specifications. These cards equip the GTX 980 silicon with ASUS' Direct CU II cooler and 10-phase digital VRMs, aimed at high-efficiency conversion. Along with the card, ASUS bundles GPU Tweak software for overclocking and streaming assistance.

The GTX 980 uses NVIDIA's GM204 silicon die, built upon their Maxwell architecture. This die is 5.2 billion transistors for a die size of 298 mm2, built on TMSC's 28nm process. A GTX 980 uses the full GM204 core, with 2048 CUDA Cores and 64 ROPs with a 256-bit memory bus to GDDR5. The official power rating for the GTX 980 is 165W.

The ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB (or the full name of STRIX-GTX980-DC2OC-4GD5) runs a reasonable overclock over a reference GTX 980 card, with frequencies in the range of 1178-1279 MHz. The memory runs at stock, in this case 7010 MHz. Video outputs include three DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI 2.0 connector and a DVI-I.

Further Reading: AnandTech's NVIDIA GTX 980 Review

Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX200/MX300 SSDs. Crucial stepped up to the plate as our benchmark list grows larger with newer benchmarks and titles, and the 1TB units are strong performers. The MX200s are based on Marvell's 88SS9189 controller and using Micron's 16nm 128Gbit MLC flash, these are 7mm high, 2.5-inch drives rated for 100K random read IOPs and 555/500 MB/s sequential read and write speeds. The 1TB models we are using here support TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) encryption and have a 320TB rated endurance with a three-year warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Crucial MX200 (250 GB, 500 GB & 1TB) Review

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with Vengeance LPX DDR4 Memory

Corsair kindly sent a set of their Vengeance LPX low profile, high-performance memory. The heatsink is made of pure aluminum to help remove heat from the sticks and has an eight-layer PCB. The heatsink is a low profile design to help fit in spaces where there may not be room for a tall heat spreader; think a SFF case or using a large heatsink.

Benchmark Overview

For our testing, depending on the product, we attempt to tailor the presentation of our global benchmark suite down into what users who would buy this hardware might actually want to run. For CPUs, our full test suite is typically used to gather data and all the results are placed into Bench, our benchmark database for users that want to look at non-typical benchmarks or legacy data. For motherboards, we run our short form CPU tests and our system benchmark tests which focus on non-typical and non-obvious performance metrics that are the focal point for specific groups of users.

The benchmarks fall into several areas:

Short Form CPU

Our short form testing script uses a straight run through of a mixture of known apps or workloads, and requires about four hours. These are typically the CPU tests we run in our motherboard suite, to identify any performance anomalies.

CPU Short Form Benchmarks
Three Dimensional Particle Movement v2.1 (3DPM)	3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, derived from my academic research years looking at particle movement parallelism. The coding for this tool was rough, but emulates the real world in being non-CompSci trained code for a scientific endeavor. The code is unoptimized, but the test uses OpenMP to move particles around a field using one of six 3D movement algorithms in turn, each of which is found in the academic literature.
	The second version of this benchmark is similar to the first, however it has been re-written in VS2012 with one major difference: the code has been written to address the issue of false sharing. If data required by multiple threads, say four, is in the same cache line, the software cannot read the cache line once and split the data to each thread - instead it will read four times in a serial fashion. The new software splits the data to new cache lines so reads can be parallelized and stalls minimized.
WinRAR 5.4	WinRAR is a compression based software to reduce file size at the expense of CPU cycles. We use the version that has been a stable part of our benchmark database through 2015, and run the default settings on a 1.52GB directory containing over 2800 files representing a small website with around thirty half-minute videos. We take the average of several runs in this instance.
POV-Ray 3.7.1 b4	POV-Ray is a common ray-tracing tool used to generate realistic looking scenes. We've used POV-Ray in its various guises over the years as a good benchmark for performance, as well as a tool on the march to ray-tracing limited immersive environments. We use the built-in multithreaded benchmark.
HandBrake v1.0.2	HandBrake is a freeware video conversion tool. We use the tool in to process two different videos into x264 in an MP4 container - first a 'low quality' two-hour video at 640x388 resolution to x264, then a 'high quality' ten-minute video at 4320x3840, and finally the second video again but into HEVC. The low-quality video scales at lower performance hardware, whereas the buffers required for high-quality tests can stretch even the biggest processors. At current, this is a CPU only test.
7-Zip 9.2	7-Zip is a freeware compression/decompression tool that is widely deployed across the world. We run the included benchmark tool using a 50MB library and take the average of a set of fixed-time results.
DigiCortex v1.20	The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates the 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.

System Benchmarks

Our system benchmarks are designed to probe motherboard controller performance, particularly any additional USB controllers or the audio controller. As general platform tests we have DPC Latency measurements and system boot time, which can be difficult to optimize for on the board design and manufacturing level.

System Benchmarks
Power Consumption	One of the primary differences between different motherboards is power consumption. Aside from the base defaults that every motherboard needs, things like power delivery, controller choice, routing, and firmware can all contribute to how much power a system can draw. This increases for features such as PLX chips and multi-gigabit ethernet.
Non-UEFI POST Time	The POST sequence of the motherboard becomes before loading the OS, and involves pre-testing of onboard controllers, the CPU, the DRAM and everything else to ensure base stability. The number of controllers, as well as firmware optimizations, affect the POST time a lot. We test the BIOS defaults as well as attempt a stripped POST.
Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5	Testing onboard audio is difficult, especially with the numerous amount of post-processing packages now being bundled with hardware. Nonetheless, manufacturers put time and effort into offering a 'cleaner' sound that is loud and of a high quality. RMAA, with version 6.2.5 (newer versions have issues), under the right settings can be used to test the signal-to-noise ratio, signal crossover, and harmonic distortion with noise.
USB Backup	USB ports can come from a variety of sources: chipsets, controllers or hubs. More often than not, the design of the traces can lead to direct impacts on USB performance as well as firmware level choices relating to signal integrity on the motherboard.
DPC Latency	Another element is deferred procedure call latency, or the ability to handle interrupt servicing. Depending on the motherboard firmware and controller selection, some motherboards handle these interrupts quicker than others. A poor result could lead to delays in performance, or for example with audio, a delayed request can manifest in distinctly audible pauses, pops or clicks.

System Performance

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS GTX 980 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Thermaltake 1200W power supply. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.

While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.

Power consumption on the XPower was around the expected levels, with it falling just below that of ASRock premium gaming motherboard under OCCT. Due to the high amount of controllers integrated onto the board and plenty of connections, the board at idle sits high among our previously tested AM4 boards.

Non-UEFI POST Time

Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.)

The XPower's POST time sits a couple of seconds slower when compared to the boards in the above graph, with the stripped boot being a good 3 seconds faster than with everything enabled at default.

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5

Rightmark:AA indicates how well the sound system is built and isolated from electrical interference (either internally or externally). For this test we connect the Line Out to the Line In using a short six inch 3.5mm to 3.5mm high-quality jack, turn the OS speaker volume to 100%, and run the Rightmark default test suite at 192 kHz, 24-bit. The OS is tuned to 192 kHz/24-bit input and output, and the Line-In volume is adjusted until we have the best RMAA value in the mini-pretest. We look specifically at the Dynamic Range of the audio codec used on the rear panel of the board.

Despite the OP-AMP and audio design, it didn't really translate much in our dynamic range testing. We're still having issues testing THD+N on our AMD boards, unfortunately.

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.

At present, none of the manufacturers of the boards tested so far have been optimized for DPC latency, but the XPower performed second best behind the ASRock boards.

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.

Video Conversion – Handbrake v1.0.2: link

Handbrake is a media conversion tool that was initially designed to help DVD ISOs and Video CDs into more common video formats. For HandBrake, we take two videos and convert them to x264 format in an MP4 container: a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short. We also take the third video and transcode it to HEVC. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.

Compression – WinRAR 5.4: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2017. 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.

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test v2.1: 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 wins 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. We are using the latest version of 3DPM, which has a significant number of tweaks over the original version to avoid issues with cache management and speeding up some of the algorithms.

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7.1b4: 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 2-3 minutes on high end platforms.

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

Gaming Performance

Ashes of the Singularity

Seen as the holy child of DirectX12, Ashes of the Singularity (AoTS, or just Ashes) has been the first title to actively go explore as many of DirectX12s features as it possibly can. Stardock, the developer behind the Nitrous engine which powers the game, has ensured that the real-time strategy title takes advantage of multiple cores and multiple graphics cards, in as many configurations as possible.

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.

Thief

Thief has been a long-standing title in PC gamers hearts since the introduction of the very first iteration which was released back in 1998 (Thief: The Dark Project). Thief as it is simply known rebooted the long-standing series and renowned publisher Square Enix took over the task from where Eidos Interactive left off back in 2004. The game itself utilises the fluid Unreal Engine 3 engine and is known for optimised and improved destructible environments, large crowd simulation and soft body dynamics.

Total War: WARHAMMER

Not only is the Total War franchise one of the most popular real-time tactical strategy titles of all time, but Sega delve into multiple worlds such as the Roman Empire, Napoleonic era and even Attila the Hun, but more recently they nosedived into the world of Games Workshop via the WARHAMMER series. Developers Creative Assembly have used their latest RTS battle title with the much talked about DirectX 12 API so that this title can benefit from all the associated features that comes with it. The game itself is very CPU intensive and is capable of pushing any top end system to their limits.

MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium Conclusion

The MSI X370 XPower is currently priced at $255 from Amazon US which puts it as one of the most expensive X370 motherboards on the market, alongside the likes of the ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Extreme ($350) and the ASRock X370 Fatal1ty Professional Gaming ($250). The board has one of the most unique stylings of any X370 motherboard (even moreso than the ASRock X370 Taichi at $220) which MSI does in fact include a fully silver colored PCB throughout its entirety.

The performance shown by the XPower was pretty average as far as synthetic benchmarks go, but in relation to our game testing, it sat consistently towards the bottom of our graphs, but not far enough away from the mark to signify an ‘anomaly’. Power consumption for such feature packed ATX board proved average as well, despite the additional controlelrs and features on board. As with the rest of the boards we have previously tested on the AM4 socket, none of them have been optimized for DPC latency, but this motherboard was 'best of the rest' behind the ASRock boards we have tested. 

There has been some negative feedback by some members of the press in regards to the quality of power delivery on the X370 XPower, as MSI uses the same Nikos PowerPAK PK616BA MOSFETs on this board, the same as the ones on the B350 Tomahawk ($98) which we previously reviewed. This board is nearly 3x of the price with similar power delivery components. Whether MSI felt the need to not overpower the ten-phase power delivery like some manufacturers do, or they were more than happy with the quality of the components, it’s hard for me to comprehend the decision. The design is actually, technically speaking, an eight-channel offering with it being a 6+2 phase with an International Rectifier IR3598 doubler on the SOC side; thus, giving us a 6+4 power phase design overall.

The direction that the XPower branding has gone from, from elite level extreme overclocking to being targeted directly at gamers, is a relatively smart option as far as business decisions go, and the obvious cost cutting on the phases could be attributed to it - gamers don’t really need expensive and overkill power delivery configuration and everything bar the most brutal and world leading overclocks will be more than achievable on this particular board.

While MSI has opted out of including onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, there is a single Gigabit LAN port which is powered by an Intel I211AT controller. A total of eight USB Type-A ports split between four USB 3.1 Gen1, three USB 2.0 ports and a single USB 3.1 Gen2 port are present on the rear panel, and an additional four USB 2.0 and a further four USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports can be used via internal headers. A single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port is featured on the rear panel with the option to add another via an onboard header. The new Ryzen APUs such as the Ryzen 5 2400G ($169) can make use of the included HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort inputs, although I do find it rather interesting that MSI hasn’t opted to save a little cost by not using HDMI 1.4 or spent the additional in another area of the board, given that this motherboard is screaming for discrete graphics card users.

The MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium is a very attractive offering to gamers willing to spend the money on unique aesthetics, baring in mind RGB isn’t bundled to this board without external LED strips. For a gaming system that needs a good NVMe drive, one or two GPUs, and few SATA storage drives, the system does offer pretty much everything a gamer could possibly use; barring the lack of built in Wi-Fi or 10 GbE/TB3.

It’s hard to differentiate the major characteristics on paper of the X370 XPower and MSI’s own X370 Gaming M7 ($200), aside from the aesthetics and a couple of differences in the choice of controllers used. If anything, the general change in direction of branding from overclocking performance to gaming could certainly be clearer as a few things extreme overclockers would be looking for, such as an external clock generator and a slightly beefier power delivery, are no longer part of this brand.

All that aside, the X370 XPower Gaming Titanium has a solid BIOS, a good software package, and with a solid price reduction it would be a much more attractive offering in today’s current market.

Motherboards Tested

• $260 - ASRock X370 Professional Gaming
• $255 - MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium [this review]
• $230 - ASRock X370 Taichi
• $175 - GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming 5 [review]
• $160 - ASRock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac
• $110 - Biostar X370GTN [review]
• $98 - MSI B350 Tomahawk [review]
• $90 - ASRock B350 Gaming K4 [review]