MSI 970 Gaming motherboard review
Click here to post a comment for MSI 970 Gaming motherboard review on our message forum
Pill Monster
Your review says 4700Mhz required 1.46v vcore and stayed at 50c however CPU-Z shows 1.51v with a socket temp of 61c in HW monitor.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
checking
Pill Monster
Good review though.
War child
Their board design is really growing on me. I'm in love with the Gaming 9 AC or ACK boards.
I'm quite surprised how they managed to get these features in at a good cost too.
BLEH!
Got the A88X version of this board in my backup rig. It's rather cool I must say.
waltc3
Great review HH...! One of the more practical, informative reviews of this motherboard/cpu combination it's been my pleasure to read...!
I have at home an MSI 970a-G46, and I can find precious little to separate it from the 970 Gaming--save for the NIC and the on-board sound, of course. I've been using this combo for > 2 years with an FX-6300 clocked to ~4.4/5GHz on air, stock voltage--solid as the proverbial rock, actually.
I'm really, really hoping that AMD can shoehorn Steamroller into AM3+ and that they'll deliver a new core-logic chipset to boot--although, as you say, the performance difference between PCIe2.x & 3.x is practically non-existent. I'd go ahead and pick up a 970 Gaming if I had some concrete compatibility info from AMD on Steamroller & AM3+.
EKRboi
Nice review and a really nice looking board, with damn good features for the price.. kudos to MSI.
AMD really needs something new and quick though.. the general bulldozer/piledriver architecture has mostly been a failure in the performance market. Sure there is little difference between PCIe2/3 when talking about a single card.. once you move to multiples.. Performance drops off fast compared even to a Sandy Bridge processor and I can only assume it is because of the PCIe3.
2 970s are scoring higher in benchmarks on an old sandy bridge with HALF the pci-e lanes (16 vs 32 for 990fx chipset) than 3 970s with an fx8350 clocked at/near 5ghz.. unacceptable. Ive been a LONG time AMD user.. but I'm jumping ship as soon as my tax return arrives next year or sooner if my wallet allows, which I doubt due to Christmas.
EDIT* Jumped ship last night when the on board sound went out AGAIN on my Sabertooth 990fx.
AC_Avatar100400
This is the best Looking AM3+ Board i have seen so far and hasn't AM3+ FX boards been around for 3 years + now?.
MSI did a great job definitely going to use this in some future AMD builds.
waltc3
EKRboi
That makes sense.. I'm talking about benchmarking too. it was doing mostly fine even with the newer titles but I was still having to turn down some settings to keep the frame rate smoother when I don't think I should have needed to. So will be fun to see how the new system handles those same games.
As for the board the sound went out on my Sabertooth 990fx V1 within 20 months. RMAd & received a new Sabertooth 990fx V2 and it has been 19 months since getting that board and the sound going out. I was playing FarCry 4 before going to have some beers with friends and shutting down the PC. When I came home and booted it up there was no more onboard sound. WTH. Not a great experience and it sucks because I've always used Asus boards and this sabertooth series is the only one I've ever had an issue with, but I still couldn't bring myself to buy from them this time and decided to give MSI a go. The new stuff arrives tomorrow, can't wait.
nirjharmistry
nirjharmistry
dsbig
only good thing about AMD is that they dont change socket designs as much as Intel. if AMD board dies. you can still buy a new replacement.
when my intel board died last month, I was tempted to switch back over to AMD just because I had a AMD 1090T and I just needed an new board and its easier to find and buy.
Even the MSI 970 board supports the cpu.
excuse my rant.
granted my intel system leave AMD in the dust.