Msi x470 gaming plus motherboard review: Only 4-Phase VRM, Not 11-Phase as Advertised

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MSI X470 Gaming Plus OverviewVisual InspectionBIOS And SoftwareBoard Features, Test Bed and SetupSystem PerformanceCPU Performance, Short FormGaming PerformanceRyzen OverclockingMSI X470 Gaming Plus Conclusion

The MSI X470 Gaming Plus is designed for gamers and users looking for an entry-level and good value X470 motherboard as the foundation for a Ryzen powered system. This particular ATX motherboard has a black and red synonymous with MSI’s gaming dragon clad theme, but with customizable RGB backlighting. While some users may not agree with the design implementation of boards with RGB backlighting integrated and set bright accented components on the board, but design preference is a matter of perspective and I quite like it.

The crux of any motherboard review boils down to performance and the X470 Gaming Plus is a good performer for the price point it currently sits at. The overall performance was competitive within our benchmarking suite with the biggest positives coming in power consumption with this board showing some of the lowest and most efficient results from an AM4 motherboard so far. This is no doubt down to the reduction in power from the first generation of AM4 chipsets (B350/X370) with the newer B450 and X470 chipsets having an idle wattage of around 2 W. Compute and gaming performance triggered no concerns with the poorest result coming when booting into Windows. Just like we experienced on our test bench with the MSI MEG X399 Creation TR4 motherboard, the non-UEFI POST time was absurdly higher than the other boards on test. Audio performance was as expected as can be when equipped with a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec and the overclocking experience was painless as our Ryzen 7 1700 managed to hit its apex of 4.0 GHz very easily indeed.

Buy MSI X470 Gaming Plus on Newegg

With MSI actively advertising the board as an 11-phase power delivery, it comes as a bit of an issue. What’s actually underneath the red and black colored heatsinks paints a different picture with a Richtek RT8894A PWM controller only capable of running a 4+2 configuration. MSI hasn’t used any phase doublers, but is using a pair of fets/chokes per phase, which isn’t proper ‘doubling’. It gives the illusion it’s beefier than it actually is.

From the MSI Website, and we’ve crossed it out

That being said, this isn’t a new practice, but if MSI is to be one of the vendors to continue doing more and more like this, it sets a worrying precedent. Since we started cataloguing this issue, here are our results.

With overclocking, the heatsinks are actually good and although a little warm (like most) under maximum load, there was no concerns running this board at 4. 0 GHz with 1.4 V under maximum load.

What MSI feel is worth $120 packs quite a punch with eight USB ports including two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports giving users access to the limited devices which can make use of the 10 Gbps throughput, with a total of four internal headers giving expandability up to a maximum of eight additional USB ports (four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0). The inclusion of a DVI-D and HDMI 2.0 port will be a big hit with users looking to build an ATX sized value gaming system with one of the Ryzen 2000 series APUs such as a Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G. The single LAN port takes its orders from a Realtek RTL8118H networking controller which gives users wired gigabit connectivity.

The top full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot has a coating of MSI’s Steel Slot armor protection while the other PCIe slots which consists of a second full-length PCIe 3.0 x8, a full-length PCIe 2.0 x4 and three PCIe 2.0 x1 slots do not. The X470 Gaming Plus offers up to three-way CrossFire multi-graphics support but SLI isn’t supported which incidentally is one of the biggest reasons to choose the X470 chipset over the more value for money B450 chipset — MSI saves money by not going after the SLI license. A key difference which sets this board apart from a B450 chipset board is the inclusion of six SATA ports which IS a benefit of X470. Finishing off the storage is a pair of M.2 slots which unfortunately comes without heatsinks with the top M.2 slot having support for PCIe 3.0 x4 for NVMe capable drives, whereas the second slot only has support for PCIe 2.0 x4 drives; both slots are compatible with SATA drives and the second slot shares bandwidth with either the bottom full-length PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, or SATA port number one, dependent on what type of drive is installed.

Buy MSI X470 Gaming Plus on Amazon.com

Despite the issue with MSI’s marketing, for $120 it’s hard to go wrong and what MSI has equipped the X470 Gaming Plus with is more than acceptable. Some may grumble that there is no USB Type-C port featured and others may think that the exclusion of SLI support is too much to cope with, but this is an entry-level motherboard with a competent, yet overstated power delivery and has plenty of good points going for it including the MSI Click BIOS 5 UEFI firmware and the usual MSI gaming-focused software package to compliment it. Besides users looking to run an SLI gaming system is most likely going to be looking at options such as the MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC ($210). The MSI X470 Gaming Plus is a formidable option in the low to mid-range motherboard market and as such should be popular with gamers, system builders and users looking to make use of the multi-core and multi-threaded power of the Ryzen desktop processors while keeping within the remit of a reasonable price budget.

Buy MSI X470 Gaming Plus on Amazon.com

Ryzen Overclocking

MSI X470 Gaming Plus OverviewVisual InspectionBIOS And SoftwareBoard Features, Test Bed and SetupSystem PerformanceCPU Performance, Short FormGaming PerformanceRyzen OverclockingMSI X470 Gaming Plus Conclusion

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MSI X470 Gaming Plus Review

Written by

Antony Leather

June 15, 2018 | 09:15

Tags: #am4 #motherboard #ryzen #wifi #x470

Companies: #amd #msi

1 — MSI X470 Gaming Plus Review2 — Test Setup3 — Content Creation4 — Gaming Performance5 — M. 2 and SATA 6Gbps Performance6 — Audio Performance7 — Power Consumption8 — Overclocking, Performance Analysis, and Conclusion

Manufacturer: MSI

UK price (as reviewed): £119.99 (inc. VAT)

US price (as reviewed): $135.06 (exc. tax)

There are plenty of premium X470 boards out there if you need some of the additional testing and overclocking tools or features such as Wi-Fi, but if you just want to get up and running quickly for as little cash as possible, then some of the cheaper X470 boards such as the MSI X470 Gaming Plus are definitely worth a look.

At £120, you’re getting many of the basics — eight-channel audio with an optical output, decent-size VRM heatsinks, RGB LED headers, and enough fan headers to power up to six fans including one dedicated for AIO liquid-cooler pumps. It’s fairly low-key as far as lighting and aesthetics go, and unlike its more expensive siblings there’s no I/O port cover either.

The low price does see cutbacks in other areas, though. The onboard audio has been reigned in to ALC892, although thankfully you do still get the usual six audio outputs instead of three as we’ve seen on some cheaper boards. There’s also no support for USB 3.1 Type-C either on the rear panel or via an internal header, with just a pair of Type-A ports dishing out USB 3.1 speeds at the back.

Surprisingly, though, MSI has managed to cram in an 11-phase power design, and there’s even a CMOS clear switch at the base of the board, which is arguably one of the more useful overclocking and testing tools, especially if you’re pushing the limits of memory speed and overclocking on AMD motherboards. We’re not too keen on the textured finish on the heatsinks, though, as this picks up dust and marks very readily, and thermal paste is nearly impossible to remove without using gallons of paste cleaner.

The lack of M.2 heatsinks isn’t surprising, but you do get two M. 2 ports, and these are sensibly arranged so that the top port supports PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs, while the lower slot offers support for SATA-based models but is limited to PCIe 2.0, so you definitely don’t want to use that port for your PCIe SSD. The top slot is located above the graphics card but is sandwiched between the CPU socket, DIMM slots, and primary PCIe slot, although this shouldn’t matter too much.

The six SATA 6Gbps ports are fairly typical of boards in the £100-£200 price range and also matches the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming. However, even a glance will tell you that Gigabyte’s budget X470 board offers some stiff competition for MSI. It costs around £10 more, but you get an I/O port cover, M.2 heatsink, more fan headers, and a USB 3.1 Type-C header as well as a Type-C port on the I/O panel too.

With eight Type-A ports in total, admittedly one less than the Gigabyte board, the board is fairly well-equipped, though, and both boards obviously lack Wi-Fi too. The final trump card the Gigabyte board holds, though, is that it has an Intel-powered LAN port, whereas the one above is Realtek-based, although the differences these days between the two are extremely small.

• Chipset AMD X470
• Form factor ATX
• CPU support AMD Socket AM4
• Memory support Dual-channel, four slots, max 64GB
• Sound Eight-channel Realtek ALC892
• Networking 1 x Realtek Gigabit Ethernet
• Ports 2 x M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 32Gbps (1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 up to 22110, 1 x PCIe 2.0 x4/SATA 6Gbps up to 2280), 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 2 x USB 3.1 Type-A,  8 x USB 3.0 (4 via headers), 6 x USB 2.0 (4 via headers), 1 x LAN, audio out, line in, mic, Optical S/PDIF out
• Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244
• Extras None

1 — MSI X470 Gaming Plus Review2 — Test Setup3 — Content Creation4 — Gaming Performance5 — M. 2 and SATA 6Gbps Performance6 — Audio Performance7 — Power Consumption8 — Overclocking, Performance Analysis, and Conclusion

MSI X470 GAMING PLUS price, specifications, video review, reviews

processor
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9000

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memory
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005

disk controllers
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Slots M. 2	2242/2260/2280/22110, 2242/2260/2280
Type of interface M.2	PCI-E/ SATA 3.0
slots m.2	2
sata	slots sata 6gb/s: 6, raid: 0, 1, 10 based on amd x470

expansion slots
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9
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sound

7. 1ch, hda, based on realtek alc892

network
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optional
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9000 9000 9000 9000

006 1095 days

* Check with the seller for exact specifications.

Review of MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC motherboard based on X470 chipset (AMD AM4)

We have already reviewed several boards for the AM4 platform based on chipsets of the new «400» series (X470 and B450), but they all belonged to the assortment of Asus or Gigabyte . Today we decided to see what MSI has to offer in this segment. Fortunately, it is not difficult to choose: this is the only model in the Enthusiast Gaming family based on the X470. And in general, in this (MSI’s top) product family for AM4 there are only three boards: X470 Gaming M7 AC and two older models based on X370. Thus, it is our today’s heroine that can be considered the best MSI offer for AMD Ryzen processors. nine0025

Board Configuration and Features functionality.

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digital lighting control systems

Processors supported	AMD Ryzen
Processor socket	AM4
Chipset	AMD X470
Memory	4 × DDR4 (up to 64 GB)
Audio subsystem	Realtek ALC1220
Network controller	1 × Killer E2500 1 × Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 (Wi-Fi 802. 11a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.2)
Expansion slots	1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x8 (in PCI Express x16 form factor) 1 × PCI Express 2.0 x4 (in PCI Express x16 form factor) 3 × PCI Express 2.0 x1 3 × M.2
SATA connectors	6 x SATA 6Gb/s
USB ports	8 x USB 3.0 3 x USB 3.1 6 x USB 2.0
Rear connectors	2 x USB 3.1 (1 x Type-C) 4 x USB 3.0 2 x USB 2.0 1 x RJ-45 1 x PS/2 1 x S/PDIF (optical out) 5 x audio minijack nine0007
Internal connectors	24-pin ATX power connector 2 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connectors 6 x SATA 6Gb/s 3 x M.2 5 x 4-pin fan headers 1 x CBO header 1 x header for connecting front USB 3.1 ports 2 x USB 3.0 connectors 2 x USB 2.0 connectors 2 x 12V RGB ribbon connector 1 x 5V digital RGB ribbon connector 1 socket for connecting Corsair
Form factor	ATX (304x244mm)
Average price	ask prices
Retail offers	ask price

Form factor

The board is made in the form factor ATX (304×244 mm), nine standard holes are provided for its mounting. nine0025

Chipset and processor socket

The board is based on the AMD X470 chipset and supports AMD Ryzen processors. According to AMD’s official information, it differs from the older X370 (you can get acquainted with the original line of chipsets for AM4 in the corresponding material) only by supporting the StoreMI storage system hybridization technology, but you need to deal with it in detail and separately.

Formally, the board is also compatible with APUs — both «old» (Bristol Ridge families) and «new» (Ryzen Raven Ridge) — which is true for all solutions for AM4. However, as has been said more than once, their use in conjunction with «full-size» motherboards based on top chipsets is inappropriate. Especially if we talk about older models of boards that lack video outputs, which is also true for our heroine. The latter in any case forces the use of a discrete graphics card, «losing» the ability to use the second PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (and limiting the first to only eight lines). In general, there is formal compatibility, but in practice it is not — it is better to focus on at least six-core Ryzen 5 processors, and not on APUs. nine0025

Memory

The board has four DIMM slots for installing memory modules. Unbuffered DDR4 (non-ECC) memory is supported up to a maximum of 64 GB (when using 16 GB modules). The maximum clock frequency, according to the specification, is 3600 MHz (in overclocking mode), but higher ones can be selected in the BIOS — up to 4200 MHz in 66 MHz increments.

How much it will turn out in practice will essentially depend on the specific processor and memory modules. We used the G.Skill Sniper X F4-3400C16D-16GSXW kit, and with a Ryzen 7 2700X processor, it ran fine at 3600 MHz. This is higher than expected by the memory specifications, but lower than on some other boards tested on the same chipset and the same processor. However, the «official capabilities» of the board exactly match. nine0025

Expansion slots

For installing video cards, expansion cards and drives, the board has three PCI Express x16 slots, three PCI Express 2. 0 x1 slots, and three M.2 connectors. The two M.2 slots are for 2242/2260/2280 SSDs, both support PCIe devices but in different ways. The «primary» connector raises no questions: it uses a PCIe 3.0 x4 controller built into the processor, designed specifically for connecting NVMe drives. The second connector is connected to the chipset, so it is limited to PCIe 2.0 x4 mode, and when a drive with a PCIe interface is installed in it, the “long” PCIe 2.0 x4 chipset slot (in x16 format) is disabled. If you install a drive with a SATA interface (of which there are also many in the M.2 format), the third SATA port on the board will be disabled. Thus, this connector only increases the convenience of installing the drive, representing, in fact, a «built-in» adapter, but does not add any new features. Note that (for a reason unknown to progressive science) the «processor» M.2 does not support SATA drives at all, although it could. nine0025

In addition, the presence of three PCIe x1 slots may be useful only for the convenience of installing expansion cards, but only two of them can be used at the same time: PCIE_3 and PCIE_5 slots share resources.

The third M.2 connector (E-Key) is for installing the Wi-Fi + Bluetooth module, which is included in the package. Traditionally for modern boards, it is made vertically and uses one PCIe 2.0 chipset port and one USB 2.0 port.

Video connectors

Although the first APUs for AM4 appeared almost two years ago, and the new Ryzen APUs turned out to be very successful, top boards for this platform often do without video connectors at all. The main reason is the APU’s focus on the budget segment, which is hardly compatible with the idea of ​​buying an expensive board. In addition, while Intel builds a GPU into all processors for LGA1151, AMD’s «with graphics» models are initially limited in terms of the number of cores and other technical parameters. In general, we will not criticize MSI engineers for the lack of video connectors on this board — as has been said more than once, it makes sense to use the APU with completely different boards. nine0025

SATA ports

To connect drives or optical drives, the board provides six SATA600 ports based on the controller integrated into the AMD X470 chipset. The latter supports up to eight ports, but the company did not take advantage of this. Moreover, as mentioned above, the use of a SATA drive in the second M.2 connector reduces the number of available ports to five, while the first M.2 connector does not support those at all. Thus, the total number of SATA devices that can be connected to the board is six. In practice, this will most likely be enough, but we still would prefer not to encounter restrictions in products of this level — especially since this is technically quite possible, and is implemented by many competitors («trimming» storage support from the SoC is not accepted even in cheaper boards). nine0025

USB and PS/2 connectors

The

USB support, on the other hand, is a strong point of the board compared to its competitors. In particular, it provides up to three USB 3.1 Gen2 ports (i.e. «real» ports with support for SuperSpeed10 mode), and two of them supported by the chipset are available right out of the box (they are installed on the rear panel), and one has modern version of Type-C. Owners of modern cases (or additional accessories) can bring another USB 3.1 Type-C port to the front panel — for this, an additional ASMedia ASM1143 controller and a standard internal connector of this type are used. nine0025

In addition, four more USB 3.0 ports and four USB 2.0 ports can be connected to the front panel, which provides excellent compatibility with cases of different releases and / or various additional accessories. In simpler cases, you can get by with eight ports installed on the rear panel: in addition to the mentioned pair of USB 3.1, the set includes four USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0. You can save one or two USB ports by connecting a mouse or keyboard to the PS/2 port if you prefer input devices with this interface. If you have two such devices, you can use a Y-splitter. At worst, you can connect an “old” KVM switch to the PS / 2 port, which can arouse interest in the board not only from “home” users. nine0025

In general, the implementation is close to ideal: the board supports up to 17 USB ports, ⅔ of which are high-speed, and is perfectly compatible with both new and old peripheral equipment. Everything would be like that.

Network interface

To connect to the network, the board has a rather exotic (though not bad) Killer E2500 gigabit network controller oriented towards gaming use. Accordingly, like other Rivet Networks products, the E2500 implements an adaptive traffic prioritization and latency reduction system, in addition to which it also supports traffic management through the MSI Gaming LAN Manager utility. nine0025

In addition, the board also has an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 with support for dual-band Wi-Fi at speeds up to 866 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.2. How much this is in demand on a full-sized board, where (if necessary) the possibilities for connecting various peripherals are maximum, is still a subject for discussion. In any case, it won’t make things worse, so lately Wi-Fi support has become more and more standard, at least for top-end boards. What it’s time to just get used to 🙂

Backlight

The number of luminous elements in today’s times can be called minimal: these are the lines of LEDs on the back of the RAM zone, as well as on the rear panel cover (plus a few more slot/connector busy LEDs, but most of them are not striking at all ). The company focused on additional lighting sources: there are connectors for connecting LED strips, and in the amount of three pieces. Two four-pin connectors (12V/G/R/B) are designed to connect LED strips powered by 12V 2A type 5050 RGB LED, and another three-pin (5V3A) connector is for connecting a WS2812B digital strip with individually addressable LEDs. In addition, the long-standing collaboration between MSI and Corsair has resulted in a special interface on the board for connecting Corsair’s digital backlight control systems, which is quite possible to use. Fortunately, everything connected to the board is perfectly controlled through the proprietary MSI Mystic Light 2 application, which can also control RGB lighting on many modern memory kits (such as Corsair Vengeance RGB and not only). nine0025

Power System

Most boards for the AM4 platform have 24-pin and 8-pin power supply connectors. This one too: although there are two 8-pin connectors, the second one can be omitted. Generally speaking, even systems based on the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX in the normal mode perfectly manage 24-pin and 4 -pin connectors, despite the consumption of 350 W, so dancing around the quality of the power system for simpler platforms is purely aesthetic value 🙂

The processor power system is based on the International Rectifier IR35201 PWM controller and includes 14 phases. Naturally, such a number is obtained with the help of IR3598 doublers, so it is more correct to speak of a 6 + 1 power scheme than 12 + 2. On Semiconductor NTMFS4C024N and NTMFS4C029N mosfets are used as power elements. In principle, in practice this is quite enough — only the use of conventional field devices, and not integrated assemblies in the board of the upper price range, looks, to put it mildly, strange. nine0025

Cooling system

The board’s cooling system consists of three heatsinks. Two are located on two adjacent sides of the processor socket and are designed to remove heat from the elements of the processor voltage regulator. This time they are not connected by a heat pipe.

Another composite heatsink is designed to cool the chipset as well as the SSDs installed in both M.2 slots. A small part of it is rigidly fixed to the chipset, and the top plate for cooling the drive is made leaning back and fastened with two screws. By the way, when using a 2280 format SSD (i.e., most devices on the market), they are fixed with the same screws, which is convenient. For shorter cards, you will have to use additional racks and screws, but cooling is carried out anyway. nine0025

In addition, six four-pin connectors are provided on the board to create an efficient heat dissipation system. It is assumed that one of them will be connected to a processor cooler, another one supports current up to 3 A, so it is great for connecting powerful water cooling systems, and four more can be connected to «abstract» additional fans. An important (and useful) feature of the board is support for fan speed control on all connectors, both ways — PWM or voltage (Nuvoton 39 controllers are used). 47S). For three-pin fans, only voltage regulation is possible, and recently manufacturers have begun to «score» on their owners — but in vain.

Audio subsystem

The board’s audio subsystem (like all top modern models) is based on the Realtek ALC1220 HDA audio codec. All elements of the audio path are isolated at the level of PCB layers from other components of the board and allocated to a separate zone. In addition to the audio codec, the board’s audio subsystem includes Nichicon filter capacitors, as well as an OPA O1652 operational amplifier. nine0025

The back panel of the board has five minijack audio connectors (3.5 mm) and one optical S/PDIF connector (output).

Total

It is difficult to evaluate the fee unambiguously. As mentioned at the beginning, this is MSI’s best solution based on the X470 chipset, but a lot of things in the X470 Gaming M7 AC are implemented at the level of mid-range (or even junior) competitor models. You can’t say the same about the price — it just corresponds to the positioning, not the equipment.