The MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic Motherboard Review: White as Snow
by Joe Shields on November 20, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- M.2
- USB 3.1
- X299
- Skylake-X
- Tomahawk
- Tomahawk Arctic
Gaming Performance 2017: AoTS Escalation
Ashes of the Singularity is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any system differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system doesn't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph.
In our gaming testing, the Tomahawk Arctic was inline with the rest of our results.
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blppt - Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - link
Believe it or not, I've had exactly zero issues with my ASRock Taichi X399---was kinda concerned about trusting a "budget brand" but after seeing all the issues with the MSI/ASUS/GB boards, I decided to give them a try.I do NOT use custom fan profiles though---cant tell you if those work or not.
PeachNCream - Monday, November 20, 2017 - link
While the motherboard's price and features seem reasonable, the terminology used to describe the target audience seems weird to me. When I think of casual gaming, playing things like Candy Crush Saga or spending time on Pogo.com both come to mind. Maybe there's a few inexpensive titles or some occasional 3D stuff, but certainly nothing that needs a 6+ core CPU or even much more than a low end dGPU.inighthawki - Monday, November 20, 2017 - link
"Casual" in the realm of PC gaming pretty much refers to anything short of playing competitively or professional, which can essentially refer to anyone who just wants really high performance.PeachNCream - Monday, November 20, 2017 - link
That's a much broader use of the term than I've seen anywhere else. It's not like "casual gamer" has a formal definition someplace so you can get away with using it like that, but you and MSI are the only ones I know of that have done it. I think from MSI's view, its mostly wishful thinking to get people playing Farmville to buy a $280 motherboard and a Skylake-X CPU for it. I'm sure they'd like that and their marketing people are trying to encourage more casual types to move up the product stacks, but most of us causal types are playing games on our phones and tablets or on a very low-end notebook PC rather than a desktop put together from individual parts.Intervenator - Monday, November 20, 2017 - link
I appreciate how this board is the most aesthetically pleasing white board I have ever seen on the market, and one of the nicest looking boards of all colors and designs I have seen in a long time.nevcairiel - Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - link
The X299 Tomahawk has a particularly bad VRM implementation, so that should probably be noted somewhere. It has some VRM components on the back of the board with only a tiny heatspreader on them (and only a 4x2 design). The X299 Gaming Pro Carbon in comparison comes with a 6x2 power design using better components - and even those need to get cooled on high OCs.From the feature set alone, the Tomahawk looked like a board I might've bought, but alas the subpar VRM limiting the OC potential had turned me off of those quite fast.
Joe Shields - Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - link
It was mentioned below the specifications table that it wasn't 'great'. However, it handled all of our testing and overclocking just fine. You will likely run out of cooling first before there is a worry about the VRMs here. Also consider the board is marketed for the professional, so there really isn't a need in the first place considering the vast majority using the board will likely keep it at stock or mild clocks anyway.Joe Shields - Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - link
Apologies, that is the SLI Plus marketed towards the professional. Scratch that portion of the above post. :)notR1CH - Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - link
What's this?! An MSI motherboard without an integrated Killer NIC? I hope they've finally realized gamers aren't interested in sub-par Killer products and this trend continues.gammaray - Wednesday, November 22, 2017 - link
Why you say Killer NIC is sub par?