Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. DPC Latencyĭeferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. MSI has clearly done away with over half of the Nippon Chemicon gold audio capacitors and whether that's had a detrimental effect or not on the B450 Tomahawk, our testing shows that the B450 Tomahawk performs the worst out of all the Realtek ALC892 equipped boards thus far. We look specifically at the Dynamic Range of the audio codec used on the rear panel of the board.Īs it was previously stated in the visual inspection, one of the negative differentials between the first and second generation AM4 B350/B450 Tomahawk models is the audio area of the PCB. The OS is tuned to 192 kHz/24-bit input and output, and the Line-In volume is adjusted until we have the best RMAA value in the mini-pretest. For this test we connect the Line Out to the Line In using a short six inch 3.5mm to 3.5mm high-quality jack, turn the OS speaker volume to 100%, and run the Rightmark default test suite at 192 kHz, 24-bit. Rightmark:AA indicates how well the sound system is built and isolated from electrical interference (either internally or externally). The B450 Tomahawk as it stands performs averagely and offers the same sort of performance as the board it replaces. Some perform decently, such as the MSI B350 Gaming Pro, and others like the MSI X470 Gaming Plus have much longer POSTing times. Having tested five MSI AM4 models so far and even an X399 ( MEG X399 Creation) model, the consensus so far is that MSI boards have very erratic booting times. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. 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). Non-UEFI POST Timeĭifferent motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. Even at full load the B450 Tomahawk performs well in regards to power consumption and like the X470 Gaming Plus, currently reigns supreme albeit marginally over the ASRock B350 Gaming K4. While it wasn't as apparent in our ASRock B450 Gaming ITX/ac and B450 Gaming K4 motherboard reviews, the newer B450 chipset has an idle power draw of only 2 W which really shows in the testing of the B450 Tomahawk. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot. 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 are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard. 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. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. 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 can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested. 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. 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.
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