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
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 the manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.
For X570 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1903 update as per our Ryzen 3000 CPU review.
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.
The power consumption when compared with X470 and B450 motherboards, we need to be aware of the difference in the TDP of the chipsets; 11 W for the X570 against the 4.8 W of the X470 and B450. Despite this, the MSI MEG X570 Ace actually performed better than the GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 model in both idle, and long idle power states. When placed under full load, the X570 Ace as expected ploughed ahead in terms of power consumption with a total of 147 W in our Prime95 blend test.
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.)
In our POST time test, the MSI MEG X570 Ace took noticeably longer to boot into Windows 10 by a good 10 seconds which is slightly disappointing. Even disabling networking and audio controllers, we only managed to shave just under 2 seconds off the POST time compared with default settings applied.
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.
We test DPC at default settings, out of the box, and the MSI MEG X570 Ace performs marginally better than the GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7, while ASRock models do generally tend to do a little better in this test.
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rocky12345 - Monday, July 22, 2019 - link
Yes here in Canada the God like board goes for $950CAD to just over a grand depending on where you pick it up. Oh wait Newegg Canada has it on for a great sale price of $929.99CAD right now hurry everyone go out and get it while it is cheap....lolpavag - Saturday, July 20, 2019 - link
I want to buy an X570 mother, but I'm worried about the integrated fan.Can it be replaced if broken? I do not want to discard an expensive mother because of a fan failure.
Can you please attempt to replace the fan and report the results? Either a success or a fail will be very valuable, and something no other reviewer does. It would add a lot of value to Anantech.
Foeketijn - Sunday, July 21, 2019 - link
I read the reason for the expensive x570 motherboards everywhere, PCI 4, 16 core proc.The PCI 4 is hard to quantify. I can't imagen the BOM being that much more. A hundred euro/dollar buys you quite a bit more copper than fits in a motherboard.
And the 220W bulldosers where even more power hungry. And ran fine on 100 euro boards.
I think 2 things might explain things.
One AMD is presuring manufactors to push quality over price.
Or the manufactors saw AMD prices being lower than the equivalent Intel, and thought that price difference can be ours.
rocky12345 - Monday, July 22, 2019 - link
I heard the same thing this time around the board makers are putting on better VRM's to handle more load and the cost of the x570 is higher. They are also claiming because of PCIe 4.0 they have to do better pathways for better signalling. These are the claims anyway. I also think there is a huge greed factor involved as well driving the prices a bit higher. Oh and lets not forget that $1.50 chip set fan required to cool the x570 chip set.Rizen - Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - link
What is the point of all these comments complaining about price? It's one of the higher end boards in their X570 stack. If you want cheaper X570 boards they have them, this one is $169. https://www.anandtech.com/show/14161/the-amd-x570-...waja - Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - link
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I had this PBO problem... but faulty one is not ryzen 3000 but MSI Dragon Center.Dragon Center is messing with any PBO profile in the bios, stuck @3.6GHz on all core. Then PBO is only working if you activate it through RyzenMaster. Or else you uninstall Dragon Center, OneDC_SDK and forget about Mystic light! (found on reddit).
New version of Dragon Center today beta testers needed!
Daveteauk - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
ShadowLich - DC is a PoS. It hardly does anything it's supposed to, and each time there's Windoze update you have to get a new version from MSI or it falls over! These boards (MSI x570) are so buggy. BIOS will not update in DC. Live Update 6 is also a PoS - same issue with BIOS update there, it crashes the machine. As of April 2020, MSI are still asleep. DC and LU6 conflict with each other and the BIOS - it's a joke, on us. They know about these issues, but have done nothing! Tech support from MSI is really good, but their hands are tied by MSI 'engineers' being asleep. I'm on BIOS 1.70, and still everythings the same. And it's not just the ACE - I also have an x570 Gaming Edge Wi-Fi, which has all the same issues!rowellpark - Wednesday, July 24, 2019 - link
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