MSI Z97I Gaming AC Mini-ITX Motherboard Review

Futuremark 3DMark – FireStrike Extreme

3DMark has been a staple of the benchmark world for many years. The latest version includes multiple benchmarks depending on the system. We will be taking a look at the FireStrike Extreme benchmark that is geared towards high performance gaming PC’s with overclocked processors.

The Graphics Test focuses on tessellation and volumetric illumination along with smoke simulations for dynamic particle illumination. The Physics Test runs 32 simultaneous simulations of soft and rigid body physics on the CPU. The Combined Test is exactly what it sounds like, the combination of the Graphics Test and Physics Test to stress the CPU and GPU.

Benchmark Results: With only a few Marks separating the two Z97 motherboards, we can see that there is no difference in performance in 3DMark FireStrike Extreme between them. This shows that if a mITX board is in your future, you don’t have to sacrifice performance, at least according to 3DMark.