[nextpage title=”Introduction:”]
It’s now time to tell you about our copy of the MSI Z790 MPOWER motherboard that we managed to get via MSI France, whom we’d like to thank. So why did we say “managed” to get it? Because this micro-ATX motherboard was originally intended for the Taiwanese market only. In fact, it is only listed by MSI on the MSI Taiwan website. It can now be found in a number of French shops at a price of €269.90. As you’ll see from our article, this is a very attractive price for those who want to build a computer around the Z790 chipset, while at the same time having a motherboard geared towards memory overclocking! As you will have gathered, this is a micro-ATX model with just two memory slots.
MSI has worked closely with a number of memory kit manufacturers, including the Patriot team, which MSI has named the ‘Dragon Alliance’.
@cornerjack_occ Configuration de tests du moment avec la MSI Z790 MPOWER, un i9-13900KS, le waterblock Core 1 CPU et le kit mémoire Patriot Viper 5 Gaming 8000 MT/s CL38. @Overclocking.com @Intel Corporation @Intel Gaming @MSI @MSI France @Alphacool #chiller #alphacool #z790 #msi #13900ks #intel #patriot #DDR5
We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Shannon Robb from Patriot, who provided us with a copy of the Xtreme 5 MPOWER kit clocked at 8000 MT/s in CL38, for a total capacity of 2 x 16 GB. This kit is intended for this MSI Z790 MPOWER, with a design to match the motherboard.
[nextpage title=”MSI Z790 MPOWER : “]
Let’s start with a trip down memory lane. The older among you may remember the arrival of the very first MPOWER motherboard based on the Z77 chipset. This series was designed for overclocking and featured a yellow and black PCB and radiators. MSI put an end to this series with the MSI MPOWER Z270 Gaming Titanium, which ensured the transition by coming in black and grey. So, after many years, MSI has decided to release a new MPOWER motherboard with our model of the day, the MSI Z790 MPOWER.
The Z790 MPOWER bundle :
A quick look at the MSI Z790 MPOWER bundle to see if it comes with any special accessories. Given that this is a board priced at 269.90 euros, we’re not expecting a substantial bundle. And yet we get an EZ DashBoard. This is a piece of PCB with several functions: a Debug Code LED, a Clear CMOS button, a Reset button and a motherboard power button.
This will be connected to the motherboard via a special cable included in the box. You’ll need to connect the cable to the EZ DashBoard and to the motherboard at the JDASH1, JFP1 and JBAT1 connectors.
Apart from that, the Z790 MPOWER box contains: a quick installation guide, a SATA 6 Gb/s cable, an EZ Dashboard cable, a Wi-Fi antenna set, a pack of EZ M.2 clips (1 set/pack), a pack of M.2 screws and spacers (1 set/pack) and a set of cable stickers.
Architecture:
First a word about the box. It follows the colour code of the ‘MPOWER’ series, with a visual of the motherboard on the front in a cloud of smoke, possibly liquid nitrogen. The more attentive among you will have noticed that most of the information on the box is in Chinese. This is quite logical, since this motherboard was originally intended for the Asian market only.
The MSI Z790 MPOWER is built around Intel’s new Z790 chipset, and this motherboard retains the previous-generation socket, the LGA-1700, as the processor has grown in size since Rocket Lake. The size of our MSI Z790 MPOWER is 243.84 x 243.84 mm, which corresponds to the micro-ATX (mATX) format.
The six-layer PCB looks very similar to that of the MSI MAG B760M Mortar WiFi, the only difference being the memory slots on the MPOWER.
The Z790 chipset supports PCIe 5.0, offering higher storage performance than the previous generation, as well as DDR5 support. We’ll see what happens on today’s sample.
The different heat sinks :
The dominant colours on the PCB are shades of grey to black. If you’re still in any doubt about its overclocking vocation, just look at the various inscriptions on the different heat sinks: ‘ Overclocking ‘, ‘ Frequency ‘, ‘ MHz ‘, ‘ Voltage ‘, ‘ Timing ‘, ‘ Profile ‘ and ‘ Clock ‘. Let’s start with the radiators, of which there are three. Firstly, the two heat sinks on the top of the motherboard, which surround the socket and cover the power stages. These two radiators are independent and are not connected by a heat pipe.
The third is the one covering the chipset, which is low enough to easily accommodate the graphics cards. As you’ll have gathered, there’s no RGB backlighting on this Z790 MPOWER, and we’re tempted to say, ‘so much the better’!
No M.2 5.0 SSD slots:
The card has two slots for M.2 2280/2260/2242 PCIe 4.0 x4 SSDs. They both benefit from a ” Shield Frozr ” heat sink and thermal pad.
The socket and PCIe :
The space around the socket is fairly clear and will be easy enough to isolate with rubber for testing under LN2. The power stage is made of 12 + 1 + 1 phases, which we’ll come back to in detail on the next page.
There are three PCIe ports. There is firstly a PCIe 5.0 x16 port, secondly a PCIe 4.0 x4 and finally a PCIe 3.0 x1 port.
Two memory slots and the Patriot Xtreme 5 MPOWER kit:
We’ve said it over and over again, this MSI Z790 MPOWER is primarily intended for memory overclocking, and to facilitate it’s OC potential, it only has two memory slots. In its specification sheet, MSI announces support for DDR5 up to 8000 MT/s and a total of 128 GB.
As we mentioned in the introduction, we’ve received a DDR5 kit from Patriot, the Xtreme 5 MPOWER model, which consists of two 16 GB modules, for a total of 32 GB. It is clocked at 8000 MT/s, with timings of 38-49-49-85, all at a voltage of 1.45 V.
Finally, to power all this, the card has a 24-pin connector and two 8-pin connectors next to the power stages.
[nextpage title=”The PCB and connectors: “]
Tools for clocking:
Let’s start with the elements embedded on the PCB, which can be interesting tools for overclockers. There aren’t many of them on this model and they are mainly found on the EZ DashBoard.
- The power button: powers up the motherboard.
- The reset button: used to restart the motherboard in the event of failure. The button can now be assigned to another task via the BIOS.
- The CMOS CLR: clears the BIOS settings to return them to their default values.
- Debug Code LED: displays a code corresponding to the component responsible for the boot error.
PCB:
Our MSI Z790 MPOWER is based on a 12 + 1 + 1 phase power supply. The part in charge of the CPU is made up of 12 phases and on this model there is no doubler, but the phases are placed in parallel, so there are really 6 of them. The controller is a Renesas RAA 229132 chip.
The 12 mosfets are all 75A RAA 220075R0s. The mosfets in the power stages generate the most heat because they are responsible for voltage conversion and delivery to the CPU from the 12-volt EPS connector.
Connectors :
The rear panel features the following. There are four USB 2.0 Type-A ports, one DisplayPort, one HDMI port, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gb/s Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 20 Gb/s Type-C port, one 2.5G LAN (RJ45) port, two WiFi antenna connectors, five audio sockets and one optical S/PDIF output connector.
Now that we’ve had a look at the card, let’s go to the BIOS.
[nextpage title=”The BIOS:”]
As far as the BIOS is concerned, you’ll instantly recognize that this is MSI. Those familiar with the brand will have no trouble finding their way around. As a reminder, the tab that will interest us most is ‘OC’. Before we start, we’d like to remind you that it’s vital to update your BIOS regularly.
Here’s a series of captures, where we’ve highlighted the options you’ll mainly need for CPU overclocking and DDR5 memory overclocking.
Options for your processor :
Everything happens in the ‘OC’ section. First check that you are in expert mode. This will allow you to change the multiplier for P cores, E cores and the cache (ring). The Advanced CPU Configuration option (screenshot 2) allows you to disable all the E cores. The idea is to keep only the performance cores so that you can run a benchmark with them only.
Two important elements. Firstly, the voltages of the various cores. We advise you not to exceed 1.30 volts when using LoadLine Calibration and to check the temperatures in your OS with Core Temp for example.
Don’t forget to set the LoadLine Calibration to mode 5, which we think is the most appropriate. Go to the CPU overclocking page for a better understanding of how LoadLine Calibration works. Let’s move on to setting up our memory kit.
The options for your memory kit :
First of all, the most important, activating your XMP profile. We can’t stress this enough, but your memory kit settings are not set automatically once you’ve installed it. If this is the case for your processor, it won’t be for your memory kit and you will have to go through the BIOS! Without this, your performance will be impacted in all areas and you will end up with a kit that does not exceed the CL40 frequency of 4800 MHz. So we’re going to activate our XMP profile directly in the BIOS.
Depending on the BIOS, MSI offers memory profiles in some BIOSes to make it easier to start memory overclocking. If this is the case, it can be found in Load Memory Presets. As you can see here, several profiles are available, and we’ll come back to this in our tests.
To modify the timings and subtimings if you opt for manual overclocking, you need to go to Advanced DRAM Configuration. Finally, we’ve framed the useful memory voltages on the last capture.
Additional options:
Finally, you should know that MSI offers to flash your BIOS via the M-Flash utility. Your motherboard will reboot to launch the flash utility . Finally, saving profiles is highly recommended when you are carrying out tests. It saves time. You can also save them on a USB key.
[nextpage title=”Memory overclocking: “]
Of course, our test will focus on memory overclocking, but before we get started, here are the various components used in our test platform. For the publication of these tests, I used the latest BIOS available directly from the MSI Taiwan website.
- Motherboard: MSI Z790 MPOWER (BIOS 7E01vP4)
- Processor: Intel i9-13900KS
- Memory: 32 GB Patriot Viper 5 Gaming 8000 MT/s CL38
- Graphics Card: GALAX GT 710 Fish
- Cooling system : Alphacool Core 1 CPU and Eiszeit 2000 chiller
- SSD: Western Digital SN850 NVMe SSD M.2
- Power supply: be quiet! Dark Power PRO 13 1000w
- Operating system: Windows 11 64-bit
- Screen: ROG XG27U
If you’re a regular overclocker, you’ll know that memory overclocking is the one that requires the most time and patience. The arrival of DDR5 is still very recent and mastering it will require many more hours of testing. Fortunately, you’re in luck and can join our Discord community. Many of our members have DDR5, but they also have very different motherboards, so they’ll be able to answer all your questions.
Choosing your DDR5 kit based on memory chips :
As was already the case for DDR4, if you want to clock your memory, certain chips will have better potential. Currently, the kits announced by the various brands are equipped with Micron chips, Samsung chips or Hynix chips. The last two brands are the most interesting.
We have already had the opportunity to review several DDR5 memory kits and test the potential of these three types of memory chips. We invite you to take a look in the ‘memory’ section of our site.
Key DDR5 voltages :
For memory overclocking, there are 5 key voltages. These are the voltages that will have an impact on overclocking and therefore on the frequency rise or the tightening of timings. These are the CPU System Agent Voltage (SA), the CPU VVDQ Voltage, the CPU VVDQ2 Voltage, the DRAM Voltage and the DRAM VDDQ Voltage. Here’s where you’ll find these voltages in the BIOS of this MSI Z790 MPOWER.
Note that depending on the type of memory chip (Micron, Hynix and Samsung), the balance between these different voltages is different. We also drew a parallel between the voltages available from ASUS and their equivalents from MSI by following this link. Let’s get to work overclocking this Patriot DDR5.
MSI BIOS profiles for the Z790 MPOWER :
As you saw when we presented the BIOS, there are a series of memory profiles within it. Unfortunately, the most interesting ones for us always refused to start the motherboard. What’s more, there’s no indication of which BIOS profiles or chip types they relate to.
Default XMP and scores obtained :
Our first objective is to test our Patriot Viper 5 Gaming kit at its original frequency, i.e. at 8000 MT/s with timings of 38-49-49-85.
The scores are already very good at this frequency, so let’s see what we can improve!
8400 and 8533 MT/s CL34 :
This seems to be the limit, as it’s impossible at the moment to go beyond 8600 MT/s with our test parameters. Now, reaching a frequency of 8533 MT/s in CL34 is already an excellent result for this Z790 MPOWER!
Compared with the original kit, the results under AIDA64 in read mode go from 123470 to 134240 GB/s, in write mode from 103460 to 132100 GB/s, in copy mode from 107480 to 128970 GB/s and latency from 58 to 49.9 n/s.
The 48 GB Patriot kit at 8400 MT/s CL 38 :
Before taking the motherboard apart, we’ve got another big test in the pipeline. We ran our Patriot Viper 5 Gaming 48 GB 8400 MT/s CL38 kit on the MSI Z790 MPOWER with the same settings as our APEX Encore.
Unfortunately, we can’t go any higher. With the APEX Encore, we reached 8800 MT/s CL38.
[nextpage title=”The last word:”]
This MSI Z790 MPOWER motherboard is optimised for memory overclocking and has been designed with this objective in mind. Let’s not forget the collaboration that MSI has set up with numerous memory kit manufacturers. Now, is it really the best motherboard for memory overclocking? Personally, despite its many qualities, I don’t think so…, but, and this is where it’s important, for a price of 269.90 euros, you’re getting an excellent motherboard based on the top-of-the-range INTEL Z790 chipset and with excellent potential for memory overclocking. Remember that other models based on the same chipset and offering identical performance, are well above the price of this MSI Z790 MPOWER.
We therefore think it’s an excellent idea for MSI to have relaunched (let’s hope) this ‘MPOWER’ series, since we weren’t able to enjoy a ‘Unify-X’ model on the Z790 chipset. We can’t wait to see MSI continue to offer new models based on the future Intel Z890 chipset, and above all, to offer worldwide distribution.
And if we need any further proof that MSI may have hit the nail on the head, it’s the fact that ASUS has also launched an affordable motherboard based on the Z790 chipset and featuring two memory slots, the ASUS Z790 AYW OC WiFi.
MSI Z790 MPOWER :
We liked :
- A well-designed power supply, modelled on the MSI MAG B760M Mortar WiFi
- The possibility of using high-capacity, high-frequency memory
- The highly responsive MSI team when it comes to proposing new BIOSes
- MSI Dragon Power and Drabon Ball overclocking software
- The presence of the EZ DashBoard in the bundle
- The very competitive price of €269.90
We would have liked :
- More detailed memory profiles, especially depending on the chips used
This MSI Z790 MPOWER didn’t disappoint us, and could be a very interesting first motherboard for those who want to try their hand at overclocking their processor and memory kit. Combined with an i5-14600K and a memory kit featuring second-generation A-Die or M-Die chips, it could be a perfect combo. We’re really keeping our fingers crossed that MSI will continue in this vein and offer even more models in the ‘MPOWER’ series.
Thanks to MSI France for making this test sample available to us.
