Gaming Performance – X3D Gaming Mode
The MSI MAG X870E TOMAHAWK MAX WiFi PZ is MSI’s mainstream gaming platform. Not only that, it happens to be the top motherboard in Project Zero and includes X3D Gaming Mode in the BIOS, advertised to increase 1080p gaming performance by 2-20%. We decided to evaluate this just as we did in our GIGABYTE X870E AORUS ELITE X3D review.
In this section, we ran a series of games with the BIOS set on “default”, PBO “auto” + X3D Gaming Mode, PBO enabled, and finally PBO + X3D Gaming Mode. In each of these games and with each grouping of settings, the memory XMP profile was used. We wanted to get as close to the test conditions we used in our GIGABYTE review, so the test components (Ryzen9 9950 X3D, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE, Corsair Vengence@6000M/T) were identical, as were all game settings. In Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon Zero Dawn, quality settings were on “High”. In all the other games, we used the highest quality settings available.
Black Myth: Wukong
Here we see a 4% gain, but across the entire test spectrum, not exclusive to X3D Gaming Mode.
Claire Obscur: Expedition 33
There is no advantage. Claire Obscur does not support FSR, so DLSS was the only difference from our GIGABYTE testing.
DOOM: The Dark Ages
Interestingly, the default settings had the fastest FPS. But no advantage was seen with X3D Gaming Mode.
Horizon Forbidden West
There is an 8% gain over default and a 5% gain using PBO and X3D Gaming Mode in this game.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
We see similar gains in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II as we saw in Horizon Forbidden West.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Here in the default settings with X3D Gaming Mode, there is an 8% gain.
Cyberpunk 2077
This game at the noted settings is one that both GIGABYTE and MSI used in their press release slide decks. We used their settings to attempt to duplicate the results they listed. MSI did not use upscaling, whereas GIGABYTE enabled FSR. MSI showed a 1-3% gain in performance, whereas we show 4%.
Horizon Zero Dawn
This game was also highlighted by GIGABYTE, so we carried it over to this review. This game seems to be the most receptive to the X3D Gaming Mode, showing an 8% gain.