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You will have noticed that I haven't discussed the PCI Express side of the MSI A88X-G45 and the support for 3-way Crossfire. This is a crucial question and takes us to the heart of the AMD vs. Intel debate. If you buy an Intel CPU you get fairly weak integrated graphics capabilities but you don't have to make a decision about the CPU socket on your motherboard as LGA1150 is the only game in town.
By contrast AMD presents you with a binary choice. Do you want a powerful (and power hungry) CPU in which case you choose AM3+ and set a budget for one, two or three graphics cards. Alternatively you choose FM2+ and buy a relatively pricey APU which has limited CPU power, but offset by a decent graphics core.
Overall I like the A10-7850K and feel it is a viable opponent against, say the £144 Intel Core i5-4570S that runs at 2.9GHz-3.6GHz with a 65W TDP.
The Core i5 is a safe bet but if I go down the £132 Kaveri route I want to avoid using a graphics card. I might, possibly, install an R7 240 or 250 to add extra graphics outputs but there is no way I will use dual or triple graphics slots.
The test sheet that came with the MSI A88X-G45 showed that MSI had run this board with a £300 GTX 680 graphics card and I simply do not understand how this makes any sense.
The consequence of my way of thinking is that I don't want an FM2+ motherboard to be ATX but instead would choose Micro-ATX. It would be going too far to specify Mini-ITX as Kaveri requires a decent cooler and that requires a certain amount of space – so Micro-ATX is the choice for me.
The test system I assembled was good but was far from cheap. Take the components I have listed and add in the cost of Windows and a reasonable case and the total is around the £850 mark. Of course I could save some cash by choosing 8GB of RAM and I could have reduced the capacity of the Samsung SSD to leave a bit of budget for a storage HDD but none of this hardware is particularly inexpensive.
I was impressed with the quality of the MSI A88XG45 and the superb OC Genie function which delivers very high, and stable overclocks. The board is also loaded with an extensive feature set. MSI do charge £95 inc vat for the A88X-G45 Gaming however, making it one of the most expensive FM2+ boards on the market today.
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Pros:
- OC Genie overclocking.
- Superb BIOS set-up.
- A list of features as long as your arm including six USB 3.0 and eight SATA 6Gbps.
- Full set of graphics outputs.
- Impressive gaming performance for an APU system.
- Live Update 5 does an excellent job of maintaining the BIOS and drivers.
Cons:
- ATX form factor.
- Unnecessary support for triple graphics cards.
- High price for what should be a budget PC build.
- Live Update 6 didn't behave in our tests.
KitGuru says: MSI have over-engineered the A88X-G45 Gaming to deliver the best possible feature set and overclocking performance. You will have to pay handsomely to own one however.
Great looking board, bit costly when most seem to be £30 less, but I guess if you wanted the best for your overclocking this is the one to get. Id rather get FX though for games.
Everyone is making red and black boards now, all look the same – I wish they would all have their own styles like they did in the past. I dont even like Red and black ! (apart from my super hero costume)
Seems like they are targeting the wrong market with the board. I dont know anyone who wants a 7850 and three graphics card slots! AMD lovers go for 8350 FX with graphics cards like that.