Stock

It has been a few months since the platform launched, so most boards are pretty ready to go at this point, and after getting the OS installed, my testing software was met without any issues at all. The board most definitely runs with a default Intel Turbo profile, with power savings as the primary focus.

Automated Overclocking

The same can be said of MSI's automated overclocking feature as simple testing did not even increase the CPU voltage, but I was glad to see memory speed increase a bit. However, neither the CPU or the memory was maxed out, which lead to a rather disappointing result if you are looking for as much performance as possible. That's not really what the MSI Z170A GAMING PRO is all about, though. You get a moderate overclock from a moderately priced and featured board. That's something I can agree with.

What I did find interesting was that rather than increasing the CPU voltage, it appeared to drop at load as compared to stock, which tells me that something changed with the CPU voltage. Obviously intentional, it is in line with the idea of moderate performance as it also ensures moderate power savings.