MSI 890FXA GD70 Motherboard review

1. Introduction2. The MSI 890FFX GD70 Motherboard (1)3. The MSI 890FXA GD70 Motherboard (2)4. Bios, Test System and Overclocking Threshold5. Game Testing6. Encoding7. KitGuru Photoshop Benchmark V1(4)8. 3d Studio Max 20119. PcMark Vantage10. Power Consumption11. Closing thoughts12. View All Pages

The MSI bios configuration is very capable, offering a plethora of automatic overclocking and core unlocking capabilities. CPU Voltage can be adjusted by altering voltage detection pins (VDD) or by manual override.

MSI allow for up to six configurations to be saved as overclocking profiles in a safe area of the BIOS rom. This means if you lose stability and can't remember the previous settings you can simply (and safely) recall them by simply selecting the previously saved setting.

Here are some bios screens to give you an indication of the diversity on offer. It is quite rather similar to the 790FX bios.

We disabled features such as Cool ‘n' Quiet and CPU C1E power states. For safety reasons we kept voltage to 1.450v maximum. Our 1090T Phenom II is currently being used in another system for reviews so we reverted to our 965 Black Edition which is still relevant as they are a widely used enthusiast processor.

Test System
CPU	AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition – 3.40GHZ, 6MB Cache -C3 stepping
Motherboards	MSI 890 FXA-GD70 Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7 AsRock 890FX Deluxe 3
Memory	Crucial Ballistix Tracer (4GB) DDR3 1600 @ DDR1333
Graphics	Sapphire HD5850 Toxic Edition – Catalyst 10.5
Monitor	LaCie 730 30 Inch screen
Hard Drive	Intel 160GB SSD @ Raptor X 300GB
Cooling	Noctua NH-C12P SE14
Power	Enermax 1250W Revolution
OS	Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

The results for the three motherboards on test were close. The Black Edition managed to hit 4ghz with both Gigabyte and MSI boards but fell 100mhz short of this with the AsRock board.

The systems were built from scratch and all drivers, firmwares and software was updated – all our results are gathered from five individual runs to analyze and remove any possible result abnormalities. We try to mix and match games between reviews to keep it interesting for regular readers – no one wants to see the same four or five games benchmarked every week.

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