SuperMicro C7H170-M (LGA 1151) Motherboard Review

CPU & GPU Performance

Cinebench

Before we analyse the results, it’s important to reiterate that the H170 motherboards at stock can only use 2133MHz while all the Z170 data was recorded with the memory’s XMP running at 2666MHz. Despite this, the CPU recorded a good score which competed rather well against Intel’s overclocking platform.

Once overclocked, the CPU isn’t too far away from the other motherboards despite its 200MHz deficit.

WPrime

In WPrime, the motherboard managed a good computational score and almost achieved a mid-table position.

The gap widens somewhat when overclocked, but it’s much less than I anticipated due to the lower frequency. For a H170 motherboard, this is a fantastic score.

SiSoft Sandra

Unfortunately, the C7H170-M struggles during Dhrystone testing although the Whestone Aggregate score is closer to the kind of range I expected.

As the only overclocked H170 result, it’s clear that the motherboard cannot compete with products using Intel’s Z170 chipset. To confirm this,  I ran the benchmark multiple times and didn’t notice a marked difference.

3DMark

3D results are predominately GPU bound and the differences here revolves around driver enhancements from NVIDIA. Saying that, it’s impressive to see a lower-end platform performing so well which exemplifies how unnecessary Z170 can be for the gaming audience.

Tomb Raider

At both 1080P and 1440P, the C7H170-M reported excellent figures.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite is becoming bizarre for benchmark purposes as driver changes appear to dramatically affect the results. Nevertheless, the performance is superb and within touching distance of first place.