A late upgrade to MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon & Ryzen 5 2600X

[ah_khoo]

Dear all,

Had the pleasure to do a small upgrade to X470 Gaming Pro Carbon + R5 2600X (from B350 Tomahawk + R3 1300X) lately hence the thought of sharing it with fellow bros here. Some mite ask why bothered to upgrade now since X570 + Ryzen 3000 series are near (Q3 from speculations), well I'm kinda like a random hardware tester + recycler, so whenever there is chance to upgrade with the price i can afford, I'll go for it. Beside, if there's any bro here going for d 50th Anniversary chip & need a mid-high range board, this board will definitely be one of the recommended boards I'd suggest.

I'd skip the product details since bro Roy already did a very nice review here: https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/hardware-clinic-2/%5Breview%5Dmsi-x470-gaming-pro-carbon-fanciful-rgb-motherboard-amd-r7-2700x-5826726.html. I'll just add a lil on the power delivery (VRM) side & onboard cooling solution, since that's one of the few criteria one should look into when purchasing AM4 board, to me at least.

Power delivery:

The board in naked mode. (pardon me for the lousy pic). At 1st glance it looks like the board is on 10 (vcore) + 2 (vsoc) phase vrm, but if we further check it's actually on 5 + 2 phase. From my understanding a vrm phase consist of

1. Mosfets (with driver)
2. Choke(s)
3. Capacitor(s)

The heart of a good power delivery of a motherboard starts with a good VRM controller, spotted here is an Infenion IR35201, which usually found on flagship boards. As a result, we get top notch voltage stability, control and regulation (no longer in fixed switching frequency like lower end boards) - perhaps better mileage too...

4 of the 5 phase vrm for vcore, where each phase driven by ChiLL CHL8510 mosfet driver (at the back of the board, as shown in 2nd pic). MSI doubled up the components for each phase with:

1. 2x choke (no details since no label, but look solid)
2. 2x YEHRON 4C029 highside (46A) and 4C024 lowside (78A) by On Semiconductor, one of the best in market.

The 5th phase of vcore vrm + 2 phase of vsoc vrm, again with doubled up components (mosfets).

1 phase of vdimm vrm with same 2x YEHRON 4C029 highside (46A) and 4C024 lowside (78A)...

 

[ah_khoo]

On-board cooling:

The vrm coolers really have lotsa volume in them, but a bit lacking in the surface area. More fins would be most welcome. I'd love to see MSI improve on this area but one can only wish. Instead of focusing on RGB, some thoughts can be shared on improving the load temp on vrm cooler. I did a quick test & get around 70 plus 'C load temp (not really too bad considering some boards even hit significantly higher) on open case @ 3.9GHz with untweaked voltage , so imagine it's in a close case + the use of AIO (without air pushed by top down coolers like AMD stock cooler or others which help a lil' in cooling the vrm cooler), thing will get pretty toasty especially on weather nowadays. Thinner plus higher number of fins, maybe coupled with 50/60mm RGB fan will definitely be the best of both world.

Very good contact made between the vrm cooler and the mosfets, slightly thicker plus less greasy thermal pad would be icing on the cake.


BIOS (highlight):

Advance setting main page. One of the tidiest BIOS I ever use. Even someone whose new to it can roughly guess the whereabouts of the option(s) that they are looking for. One click action to enabled Game Boost & A-XMP making things easier for those who don't wish to play around with other options.

The presence of Base clock (Bclk) adjustment, not really a feature available on all B/X series board. The board does come with clock generator but for the life of mine I just can't locate it (read it is usually placed between CPU socket & DIMM slot). useful for those really wanna push their chip a lil further.

Spotted here are adjustable switching frequency for both CPU & CPU-NB (aka SOC), a feat that only available on flagship boards, thanks to the use of IR35201 vrm controller. Only heavily OC setup need higher switching frequency I reckoned, for stock setting I'd say it's good to leave it to Auto.

 

[ah_khoo]

Finally the presence of offset voltage for both vcore & vsoc! If I'm not mistaken, on earlier days there was only fixed voltage (override mode) available hence some reviewers weren't that impressed. Now, both override & offset mode (with + & - option too) are here so picky users rejoice! This also proved that MSI do actually listen to the thoughts/input from the users of their products, not something practiced by all manufacturers. Best thing is even my old & trust worthy B350 Tomahawk also having similar update, a nice touch from MSI I'd say.

The real tests

I have high hope for the bundle as I did okayish result with X470 Gaming Plus & Ryzen 5 2600 like 9 months back (link here: https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/...x470-gaming-plus-sniper-x-3600-a-5882652.html), though I'm fully aware of the silicon lottery factor. X chips usually fare better in term of mileage, cpu as well as ram (IMC) but let us see whether it is applicable on this scenario. Before I proceed further, below are the details of test bed used:

Ryzen 5 2600X
MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon (BIOS ver. 7B78v28)
Innodisk (OEM ram manufacturer I supposed) 2 x 8GB DDR4 2400, rated CL18
2x Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming 8G
OEM Samsung 128GB nVme drive (MZVPV128HEGM)
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML240L RGB @ PushPull
eVGA SuperNova G+ 750W
Masterbox MB511 RGB Casing


Stability test:

I'm old school hence I always use fixed voltage + CNQ (cool & quite) off for OC'ed setup. I will try to explore offset voltage with CNQ on if I have the time, but no promise. 4.1GHz on CPU & 3466MHz on ram done without much hiccups, bar some tinkering done on the cooling, such as adding 2 fans as pull on the rad (rather budget 240 AIO) - if it help on reducing 1 or few degrees load temp also good enough already. I firmly believe there's some MHz left there to be squeezed but sadly my cooling setup already hit the limit (for stability test). But @ 4.1GHz with 1.30v (BIOS set), I'm pretty impressed.

Generic Tests

Cinebench R15

Auto/Stock - Multi core: 1347 / Single core: 172

4.1GHz/3466MHz manual OC - Multi core: 1401 / Single core: 171

Auto/stock setting yields slightly better result than manual OC in single core score & not too far off in term of multi core score (despite having significantly lower memory frequency). Hmmm... Like what some used to say, X chips are better off ran auto, let the XFR (eXtended Frequency Range) 2.0 and/or PBO work their magic, in certain programs/software of course.

 

[ah_khoo]

3DMark (TimeSpy)

Auto/Stock - CPU score: 6059 points | CPU test: 20.36 FPS | Graphics score: 8522 points

4.1GHz/3466MHz manual OC - CPU score: 6535 points | CPU test: 21.96 FPS | Graphics score: 8493 points

The increased memory bandwidth (2400MHz CL17 vs 3466 CL16) clearly improves the CPU score in 3DMark. So manual OC (at least the memory) does actually help. But if you have those highly binned modules like 3466/3600, perhaps only tightening of memory timing (& increasing soc voltage) is needed. on a side note, overclocked setup yields a slightly poorer GPU score (compared to auto) - 8493 (oc) VS 8522 (auto).

Rise of Tomb Raider (Very High setting @ 1440P)

Auto/Stock - 83.22 FPS

4.1GHz/3466MHz manual OC - 84.57 FPS

Once again higher memory bandwidth & overall CPU frequency helps in providing slightly better result compared to stock (in most scenarios). Was very delighted with the CrossFire setup (from a single RX580). Now I can play ROTR even with Very High setting (highest available) with decent frame rate.

7zip

Auto/Stock - Compression: 36530 MIPS | Decompression: 59353 MIPS

4.1GHz/3466MHz manual OC - Compression: 39766 MIPS | Decompression: 62307 MIPS

The advantage of having higher memory frequency & CPU clock (across all 6 cores) contributes to higher compression/decompression MIPS in 7zip.

 

[ah_khoo]

AIDA64 Cache & memory benchmark

Auto/Stock - memory latency - 82.9ns

4.1GHz/3466MHz manual OC - memory latency - 66.5ns

Again, huge boost especially in memory latency when the setup (noticeably memory) is overclocked.

Crystal Disk Mark

Auto/Stock

4.1GHz/3466MHz manual OC

spotted here is a slightly inferior scores. This could be caused by the higher temperature overall (including the nVme drive itself) when the system is overclocked.

Auto/Stock with some helps from StoreMi

drastic improvement @ 4KiB Q8T8 test as well as 4KiB Q2T1 with the assistant from StoreMi (Toshiba KXG5AZNV256G as TierDrive).

Temperature & power consumption:

Temperature has always been a concern for flagship modern processors, be it blue camp (with their TIM issue which been haunting them for ages) & AMD (high power draw @ bulldozer anyone? ). AMD been using soldering IHS onto the chip method, the only way to get rid high load temp issue is to improve power consumption. Thankfully, AMD has being doing very good job in keeping the watt reasonably well since the introduction of Ryzen (1st generation). One will notice Zen+ actually have slightly higher temperature & power consumption if compared its predecessor, but this is due to the better algorithm in XFR 2.0 & Precision Boost 2, where more core(s) & higher boost frequency are allowed on 2000 series chips.

Here, I'm comparing load temp & power consumption on 2 scenarios: Auto setting vs manual OC (4.1GHz) like what I've conducted in all tests. Before I proceed with the results I'd like to reiterate that the test ran was Prime95 (small fft, AVX enabled) & the power consumption taken is for the PC (excluding LCD of course) as a whole which consists of the components as below:

1. 6x CoolerMaster RGB fan, 2x CoolerMaster normal case fan
2. 2x platter 7200RPM HDD (Toshiba 1TB & Seagate 3TB)
3. 2 x nVme drive (Samsung 128GB & Toshiba 256GB)
4. 2x RX580 8GB (stock)
5. 2x Innodisk DDR4 2400MHz CL17
6. Ryzen 2600X @ stock/4.1Ghz (oc)
7. MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon
8. CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML240L RGB

Auto/Stock @ idle: CPU @ 39'C | VRM @ 50'C | watt consumed: 121W

 

[ah_khoo]

4.1GHz/3466MHz @ idle: CPU @ 39'C | VRM @ 52'C | watt consumed @ 142W

Auto/Stock @ load: CPU @ 80'C | VRM @ 77'C | watt consumed @ 251W

4.1GHz/3466MHz @ load: CPU @ 77'C | VRM @ 77'C | watt consumed @ 275W

 

[ah_khoo]

Wrap up:

I've been using the setup for bout 3 weeks & there's definitely more "yes" than "nay" from me. Programs, games & windows run noticeably faster then before (compared to B350 + 1300X @ 4GHz, same nvme drive). X470 Gaming Pro Carbon is a well balanced board in term of performance, aesthetics, pricing as well as features wise.

Hardware quality & features:

Being a mid range X470 board, X470 Gaming Pro Carbon has all the basic feature one can expect, SLi support, good, or i should say slightly above average vrm, decent vrm cooler, some fancy RGB lighting & etc. The presence of clear cmos button @ the back I/O area is a good move for tweakers, but would be more accessible if it's placed near d front panel header. The absence of 7 segment display debug code unit is sorely missed (not a must though, just personal preference especial for a enthusiast level, albeit not a top notch one). What i really like is the build quality & components used, especially on vrm part. MSI certainly been very generous on putting quality components - double the chokes & mosfets (for vcore) & very good vrm controller in IR35201. if we are talking about vrm only, X470 Gaming Pro carbon (5+2 phase vrm &good components quality) is sitting in between Gigabyte X470 Gaming 5 (4+3 phase vrm & inferior components quality) & Asus Prime X470 Pro (6+1 phase vrm & leveled in term of components quality ???). I appreciate the 2 additional SATA port near the front panel headers area too, which i initially get quite frustrated due to the weird placement (aka low end board lay out). It makes the look much more cleaner if ur using only 2 platter HDD setup. (check up the photo posted).

As for the chip, i appreciate the XFR 2.0 & PB 2 on 2000 series even more now. It is making manual OC a lil' less worthy of efforts (especially on X chips, with higher boost frequency). Just give the best cooling one can afford, coupled it with fast ram (3200MHz or higher with tight timing), one can literally sit back, relax & let the setup do what they are supposed to do.


Aesthetics:

I'd say MSI just did enough to make the board looks nice without overdoing it. The carbon vynil sticker at chipset cooler as well as vrm cooler shroud added cool factor without being too fanciful. the RGB lighting in genrally is nice, but the RGB LEDs at vrm cooler shroud can be easily taken its lime light when you use RGB exhaust fan while adding nothing to help the cooling of vrm cooler, which is quite crucial to my book. I'd appreciate an actively cooler vrm cooler with RGB fan(s), or perhaps motherboard/cooler manufacturers can come out with something like upgrade kit for certain models of motherboard would certainly make my day. One can always hope...

Pricing:

(still ) Being priced at $319 now might not seemed like an interesting option but I'd say it's the most well balanced in term of everything between the 3 boards I've mentioned (come in the range of 320-345). You get one with the better look, very good vrm (even for R7 2700X) & decently priced board in X470 Gaming Pro Carbon. As for 2600X, it's still reasonably priced (at $339) if compared to it's counterpart in blue camp (i5 9600K is priced at $398 still). While the mileage (after OC) & gaming performance might not be as good (especially those prefer high CPU frequency) as i5 but 2600X shines in thread counts (12 threads on 2600X vs 6 threads in i5) & obviously multi-threaded programs.


Performance:

*test results at a glance

AMD is making a steady progress in catching up with blue camp in term of performance, while staying competitive price wise while offer better multitasking (core/thread counts) for higher productivity. From various reviews online we can clearly see the gap is getting smaller, especially on 1440P gaming.

Based on the test results (stock/auto vs manual OC), I'd say manual OC still has its edge (even just slightly) compared to auto. While temperature & power consumption can be slightly higher, manual OC clearly benefiting those multi-threaded programs (in such scenario where only few cores boosted [stock] vs a full fledged 6c12t oc'ed). For those concerned about power consumption/temperature, one can always explore offset voltage coupled with C&Q enabled.

As for X470 Gaming Pro Carbon, I'd say the board did a very2 good job on what being threw at it. 2600X barely max out the VRM capability offered, but I personally feel temperature of mosfet can be further improved with better design (instead of prioritizing bling).

All in all, the couple make a good combo for gaming/paper work while having decent look.


How the rig looks like:

 

[ragnarok95]

No issue. Go ahead.

 

[ah_khoo]

thanks for the kind understanding sir...

will do further update as much as i can...

 

[royfrosty]

Good board, nice price performance board!

Managed to do any overclocking?

 

[ah_khoo]

Good board, nice price performance board!

Managed to do any overclocking?

not yet bro, gonna stuff everything into the case over the weekend only...

 

[ah_khoo]

stability test done... okayish I supposed considering d cooling not really a top notch... further tests incoming this week... pls bear with me...

 

[5star_pundit]

show some Cinbench Score score la

 

[ah_khoo]

show some Cinbench Score score la

will do bro... no worry... rig will be complete tonite hopefully, still lacking 2x top plus back exhaust fan...

 

[ah_khoo]

some figures are up...

 

[clon22]

How's your system's upgrade like?
Any pics?

 

[Zink00]

Does the m2 slot below the gpu slot cause the ssd to heat up from gpu hot air?

 

[SkyShroud]

Does the m2 slot below the gpu slot cause the ssd to heat up from gpu hot air?

I am sure all modern gpu don't blow outward but inward towards itself.

 

[super8888]

Gdddddddddddd

 

[ah_khoo]

How's your system's upgrade like?
Any pics?

very satisfactory so far bro, definitely zippier than previous setup even on non oc'ed setup.

will post up pic of d build soon, still missing abit of things here n there...

Does the m2 slot below the gpu slot cause the ssd to heat up from gpu hot air?

will check that for u bro when all is up...