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MSI_990FXA-GD65_ATX_AM3_990FX_DDR3MSI 990FXA-GD65 is proposed as high-end motherboard for AMD AM3+ CPU, so compatible with the upcoming AMD Bulldozer. Powered by the AMD 990FX chipset, it has nice features, that we will discuss during this review.

[VERSIONE ITALIANA]

 

 

Overview

The wait time for the release of the new high-end processor, AMD Bulldozer, is shrinking. The press release speaks of September 2011 and the succession of technical information on the new architecture that circulate in the network makes the air pungent: we are close to launch.

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Recall that the term Bulldozer refers the architecture with which AMD will attempt to climb the peak in terms of computing power and to recover lost time at approaching the long time enemy, the Intel Corporation, that with the new Sandy Bridge architecture and upcoming LGA 2011 platform expected in November this year (which will replace the LGA 1366 platform), has created very fast and efficient CPU.

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No doubt that the technological gap in time gained by Intel on AMD is 1 year or a little more, and AMD is working hard to recover lost time and regain market share that will bring a breath of fresh air terms of trust in his supporters and shareholders as well as thickening of the company's coffers.

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Certainly in our view the release of the new version of 990FX chipset that will support the Bulldozer FX architecture occurred well in advance. The differences with his predecessor 890FX at least on paper are few, the 990FX in practice has inherited almost all the features of its predecessor. Improvements on the CPU and RAM support side are the Zambesi CPU support, precisely Bulldozer, the 32nm technology support and the memory side the support of DDR3 memory at 1866MHz (2133 OC), indeed derived from the memory controller integrated in the future CPUs. Same goes for the SB950 southbridge, virtually identical to its SB850 predecessor. Comparing instead the 990FX chipset to its competitor P67/Z68 in terms of performance, it seems to get closer to the needs of hardcore gamers, bringing real benefits, at least on paper. The 990FX consists of well 42 PCI-Express lines (16+16+6+4) compared with only 16 PCI-Express (x8+x8) of the Intel LGA 1155 platforms, whose PCI-Express controller is integrated into the CPU. The 990FX supports both the Crossfire (technology that AMD has inherited acquiring ATI) that SLI from Nvidia. The latter is perhaps the greatest innovation, indeed derived from an agreement with Nvidia, rather than technical solutions related to the chipset. With regard to the Southbridge, it is interesting to note that the new AMD and Intel platforms have not yet implemented natively the USB3.0 standard, and both use external chip to integrate the slots on their products. Future AMD chipsets will probably integrate this standard, integration already occurred in other motherboard chipsets for AMD Llano. The AMD SB950 Southbridge has an incredible number of built-in devices for communication. As many as 14 USB 2.0 ports, besides 6 ports, all 6Gb/s SATA3 native, while Intel has only 2 of 6 total.


Main Exclusive Features

MSI's leading product Motherboard regarding AMD CPU family, with AM3+ socket and full compatibility with the next generation of Bulldozer processors, MSI 990FXA-GD65 along with bigger sister MSI 990FXA-GD80 offer a full range of advanced technologies that help the even more demanding user both in critical activities, which require stability and processing power, both in the practice of overclocking, offering a range of hardware benefits, such as use of military components from Class II with MIL-STD-810G certification, and software, such as OC Genie II technology. Listed below are the peculiarities of the MSI 990FXA-GD65:

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The OC Genie II technology makes the overclocking and the unlock of locked CPU Core an easy and fast experience. OC Genie II automates even the most advanced overclock features offering a performance boost of up to 248% with a simple click.

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The use of components of Military Class II with MIL-STD-810G Certification offers a perfect tern of quality, efficiency and stability as well as a longer life, to satisfy in situations of temperatures and voltages to limit even the most demanding overclockers.

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The Hi-C CAP are capacitors with up to 8 times longer life than standard component. This thanks to the use of special materials such as tantalum, often used on space shuttles or satellites, since it offers an incredibly high thermal conductivity at very high temperature.

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Icy Choke, for incredible stability at low temperatures. Compared to the ferrite and the shock that often is given to the components made of such materials at low temperatures, the materials made from elements such as tantalum, of military origin, provide a higher power and stable power supply, which in extreme overclocking sessions is of vital importance.

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Solid cap for a durability not less than 10 years. The MSI offers for its military class motherboards a quality at the highest level. This excludes the cases of the outbreak involving traditional capacitors.

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The increasing use of mobile devices such as Smartphones, MP3 player or portable e-book and Console, have led consumers to be careful to the power-saving devices or having to load quickly the devices wherever you are. Well, the Super Charger MSI technology reviews the classical method of considering and use an USB port. Once connected the device to the predispose port with this feature, it will be fed and then recharged without the need to keep your PC switched on.

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Compared with the previous USB 2.0 standard limited to a speed of 480Mbps, the new USB3.0 technology not only maintains compatibility with older devices, but raises the limit of 10 times bringing it to 5 Gbps. An example would be the transfer of a movie in Blu-Ray standard, that in particular would take less than a minute.

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Another advantage in terms of connectivity for storage is the implementation of the ports with recent certification standard, the SATA 6Gb/s, which doubles the speed of compatible devices.

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Do not be fooled by other solutions with integrated audio on board. Sometimes you can not even find the driver. MSI's solution instead, offers audio of high quality with an incredible value of 109 dB SNR and a smaller loss at 24-bit/192kHz.

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Of course it is supported the surround for 7.1 channel for a sound experience without limits.

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Winki 3 is a multilingual free software Linux-based that MSI has made available either at system boot providing a quick access (of only about 25sec) to a functional and pleasant interface to both surf the internet and both to read the email or to watch your own photos on the memory stick.

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Compared with the common architecture of most motherboards, which are equipped with 2 BIOSes for safety, MSI M-Flash has only 1.But has the double advantage of allowing both to save/backup directly to USB memory stick, or just allow it to boot from a USB stick as if it was a second BIOS. This way you can try the new settings safely, without risking the failure on start of the motherboard, or loss of time performing CMOS reset/clear.

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Thanks to the supplied Anti-ESD chip, the USB Safeguard technology protects the motherboard and the USB ports from short circuits without the need of a fuse, while allowing the state of standby and power protection.

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The proprietary ATI CrossFire X technology provides maximum scalability to the system. Installation up to 4 AMD Radeon HD graphics cards (Or 4 GPUs in total) allows the player to keep his system longest, at the same time benefiting from a smoothness and a readiness for the duration of the play session. This board, having only two PCI-Express x16 slots, allow you to install 4 GPUs only with dual GPU cards like the HD 6990.

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MSI Live Update 5 is a powerful tool for updating both the BIOS and system drivers directly from the MSI website, to expand the capabilities of both the PC/BIOS and the compatibility with software/games.

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Feature similar to the previous MSI Live Update online, it helps to reduce the risk of update operations while reducing the time and also sessions dedicated to it. The update is done automatically through the web pages.

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Similar to AMD's CrossFire X technology, SLI of Nvidia allows you to use multiple graphics cards (up to 4 GPUs total) scaling in performance and increasing the readiness of the system during all play sessions as long as the games/programs benefit from this technology.

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With AMD's Cool'n'Quiet technology MSI reduce the heat emitted by the processor when not in use, automatically reducing the consumption and especially the overall noise of the system due mainly to the fans. This will make the work/leisure sessions more enjoyable.

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MSI 3TB+ Infinity allows not only to overcome the fateful limit of the partition sizes due to the BIOS, but also to make efficient use of large hard disks (over 2 TB). Compared to competitors, MSI 3TB+ Infinity is a leader in storage management technology by presenting a substantial lead in development for application both at present and in the future.

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Another very interesting utility that accompanies the MSI 990FXA-GD65/80 that you will find on the CD-ROM with other software/drivers is called Control Center. In the first screen you will see the specifications of the motherboard, the chipset and the version of bios installed. Surely you have noticed some incorrect entries, but we are confident that these early problems will be resolved with future updates.

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Continuing in the subsequent screens go to the System Information CPU section on which we do not notice any error, in fact the utility shows the real clock frequency and the multiplier down for the effect of Cool'n'Quiet function that, when not in use, thereby reduce the CPU frequency.

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Below, in the System Memory Information section, there are listed the specifications of the memory. Very precise is the reading of the information contained in the SPD chip, only missing of the serial number.

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Continuing to navigate the left menu, let's go to Basic Overclocking section where we can act in real time on some parameters that allow you to overclock the processor.

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Another possibility for the overclocking is to let calculate the most stable threshold automatically by the OC Genie Lite program, prior authorization by Bios.

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In photo the Green Basic section that shows with some mistakes here too, the main voltages and temperatures of the motherboard and the related fan speed.

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In Green Power Advanced Mainboard is possible to act on the current load, or the phases, to be made ​​available to the CPU if it so requires. It is also possible act on the fan speed.

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Also in this screen, you choose whether to keep active the LED system which indicates the current load absorbed by the CPU. Let us now turn to the next section where we list the technical specifications of MSI 990FXA-GD65 as published by the manufacturer, MSI.

 


 

Technical specification

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We report here the link to the manufacturer's site for the complete list of supported CPUs.


 

Packaging and First Contact

Let us see now more closely the 990FXA-GD65 of the well-known manufacturer MSI, one of the most promising motherboard both in technology and for quality construction.

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The package comes with some very bright colors. Front from the top we have the name of the company that produces it, MSI, and a series of icons representing the technologies offered that we mentioned in the previous section. At the center part of the proprietary technologies adopted by MSI products in the Military Class series and at the bottom there is the model of the board. At the back of the pack there is a more than a summary explanation of the features given early on the front and that we talked about in the previous section.

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In the label in the picture, we get some summarized information that characterize this product, in addition to the model and serial number.

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The material accompanying the MSI 990FXA-GD65 is as follows:

  • Multilingual Manual including Italian, unfortunately, very brief
  • Additional brochures for quick installation
  • A user's guide for backing up on hard drives
  • CD-ROM containing drivers, utilities and Norton Antivirus
  • I/O mask for the board assembly in the chassis
  • Various sockets for fast wiring of various wires from the chassis
  • 2 molex (4 pin) to SATA power connector adapters
  • 4 6Gbit/s SATA cables
  • Bracket for mounting on the chassis 2 USB ports

 

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The layout seems well-ordered with lots of free space around the socket, especially if you remove the bracket pre-installed to allow the mounting of liquid/nitrogen heat sinks (for high-end overclocking). This will be very pleased to overclockers. In the picture you can see the black bracket for attaching the standard heat sink. To disassemble just unscrew the 4 screws that hold it together with the metal plate below.

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Here are the pictures of the underside. As you can see the surface is clean with no significant findings, except for the socket retention bracket, which is not glued but fixed with screws. This facilitates and simplifies the neoprene insulation operations when you want to run high-end overclock tests, using nitrogen.

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The AM3+ socket (or also called AM3b), unlike the Intel is a socket with many holes, exactly 942, where they are going to fit CPU pins. Logically it has its orientation, so be careful when installing. Next to the socket we note the 10 power phases with Military Class components. First we have the Hi-C Cap with the traditional solid Cap. In the second row we see the Icy Choke chokes, while under the big heat sink are the mosfets.

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If you want to cool the processor through a liquid cooling system, then water block, the movement of air from the fan installed on the CPU cooler air would be lost. It is advisable to consider the installation of a fan nearby to cool this area.

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To ensure the full stability, we're going to check, and delivery sufficiently adequate amperage required by the current 45nm and future 32nm CPU, we can highlight in the photo on the right the black 8-pin connector attack for the additional processor power.

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Starting from the left in this photo we have the mixed PS2 attack for the keyboard or the mouse and below the first 2 USB 2.0 ports. Further we have the button to immediately reset the CMOS memory. Continuing on the right we have from above the connection for coaxial SPDIF output and below the optical SPDIF output. On the right we have 2 blocks of 2 USB 2.0 ports. Following that we find an Ethernet port (in Gigabit standard) and other 2 USB 2.0 ports. Then in blue to differentiate them from other, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and finally the block dedicated to the connectors for the input and output of the audio channels.

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Leaving the sockets/ports area, going to the left we see the 6-pin connector for additional power supply of the PCI-Express and then of the graphics card. Note the wording NEC USB 3.0 and the D720200AF1 chip. We remind readers that in the introduction we said that both AMD and Intel have not implemented natively this standard (except for Llano), but rely on external chips.

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Here is the macro shot of the Realtek ALC892 chip (left) dedicated to the signal. You can find additional details at this address: Realtek ALC892 .

On the right we see the Fintek F71889AD chip dedicated to hardware monitoring of voltages and temperatures as well as to assist the OC Genie II tool.

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In this photo we see the area of ​​the slots that house the internal cards. In black the 1 st, 2 nd, the 4 th and 5 th are PCI-Express x1. In blue the 3 rd and 6 th are PCI-Express x16 full length for graphics cards or scaling to lower speeds such as RAID controllers for PCI-E x8/x4. The slot can operate simultaneously at full bandwidth (x16, x16). The 7 th black slot, not to be confused with other shorter is 32bit PCI type and can accommodate cards compatible with this standard. On the PCB of the card printed in white letters we see the model/version of the MSI 990FXA-GD65 we are reviewing.

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We now move to deepen the area reserved for connectivity and so to the connecting of all those cables that replicate on the chassis (front and back) the various ports. From the left we have a dedicated connector to the Front Panel Audio, i.e. to replicate the input/output of the ports/speakers from the chassis. With the words in white JCD1 we have the internal connector for the audio signal output. The JSP1 connector is the one dedicated to duplicate on the case the S/PDIF output. Immediately to the right then JCOM1 is dedicated to the serial COM port output.

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Still on the right with JUSB1 and JUSB2 we have other 8 USB 2.0 ports. An attack will host the bracket shown in the bundle.

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The JTPM1 area is devoted to a possible optional TPM module (Trusted Platform Module). On JFP1 and JFP2 we will connect all the cables from the main front panel of the case, namely the Start button, Reset, activity LED of the hard disk and the speaker. Above we see the classic button-type battery for storing settings/timer in the CMOS and at its right the JBAT1 3 pin jumper to clear the CMOS.

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Changing the side or following along the perimeter of the PCB we have a 3-pin connector to power the chassis fan.

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To its right we have the 6 6Gb/s SATA ports and yet another attack on the right always another 3 pin fan.

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In the picture the classic 24-pin ATX v2.2 Power connector for the main power supply to the motherboard.

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On the other hand we can see the photos of the Northbridge passive heat sink. Here, too, same thing as the heat sink of the socket area, it is good that there is in the vicinity a fan who dispose of the heat produced, especially in the presence of future 8 cores Bulldozer CPU.

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Under this passive heat sink is the SB950 Southbridge chip.

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Framed in pairs of 2, the 4 blacks and blue slots dedicated to the DDR3 memory modules, with overclocked speeds up to 2133MHz.

Let us now examine together the BIOS.


 

BIOS

The BIOS is a classic AMI as you can find on many motherboards. It's very complete, as expected for a card of this caliber, voted to overclocking, has tabbed browsing (namely 8) on the many sections/menu including one dedicated to overclocking. Let's look them together.

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Pressing the Delete key (DEL) repeatedly on the keyboard of your PC at startup we enter the BIOS. We anticipate that being the card without any type of display for the diagnostics, before entering the BIOS on the screen at the bottom right it shows a sequence of codes where everyone has a very specific and well known meaning for the overclocker/assistance. In addition to the date and time, where you can take steps to correct it, we see below a short information on CPU type and amount of memory installed in the system.

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In this Advanced tab we have the classic sub-menus:

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  • latency of the PCI bus

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  • ACPI Settings (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) where you set the state

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  • Integrated Peripheral section, dedicated to network devices, Discs and Audio.

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  • mode setting of the SATA controller, IDE, RAID (if there is more of a drive) or AHCI.

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  • USB Configuration Section where you set the speed of the USB ports and you can choose if activate the blue ports with USB 3.0 standard.

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  • submenu Hardware Monitor were is the detailed report of the temperature and fan speed connected to the system. On the latter point intervenes the Smart Fan system, where you set the fans speed as a percentage.

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After leaving the Advanced menu we enter Overclocking menu, certainly richer for the needs of all those who engage in such practice.

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We can intervene in descending order on the CPU multiplier

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then passing to the ratio between the CPU and Northbridge.

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Here is an interesting item that unlocks, if enabled, locked cores on some CPUs.

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As you can see the motherboard is equipped with all the settings and can disable individual processor cores

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or you can set the Turbo multiplier

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Here we can intervene on the memory preset frequency

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or on the timing mode

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and the multiplication ratio of the Hyper Transport bus.

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This instead is dedicated to setting the voltage of the CPU. As you can see the progresses are in the order of millivolts.

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Same goes for the CPU-NB section

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Instead on this entry we can save overclocking profiles for recall when needed.

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Instead entering the CPU Feature submenu

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you can see the specifications of the installed processor,

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or you can intervene on energy-saving technologies.

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The following section instead is the M-Flash, where we can make a backup on disk (or USB drive) to use as a second BIOS, which is useful when you want to try new settings or make a backup.

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In the Security section you can set the password both to access the BIOS or boot the system,

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while in Green Power you can set the advanced energy saving technology.

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Instead, in Boot, among other things, you can just set the priority of boot devices.

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In the last section you can save or not the settings and you can boot with one of the devices listed.

As you can see, it do not really miss anything. It's complete even if not of rapid understanding as the UEFI BIOSes, more advanced and graphically appealing, installed on certain motherboards of recent production. Now on to the next section, where we illustrate both components and the methodology used in conducting various tests.


 

Test System and Test Methodology

We show how the MSI 990FXA-GD65, being a motherboard designed primarily for the CPU soon to be introduced, such as the Zambezi 8-core architecture, supports and responds very well with the previous generation CPU processors provided that they are compatible with the AM3/AM3+ socket. Please remember to check the manufacturer's website for the support of the processors that you are going to choose.

 

In this review, we will test the motherboard with a well known CPU and on the market for the number of integrated cores, the Phenom II X6 1090T. This is a processor built with 45nm lithography, which operates at a frequency of 3200MHz, and with 6 different physical cores. Here are 2 screen of the known CPU-Z software

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Notice the two states of the CPU, effect of power saving technologies built into the processor to dynamically manage both the multiplier, i.e. the clock frequency, and the voltage.

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Codename Thuban, as shown in the photos above, has a total cache size of 2 nd and 3 rd level of well-9MB shared among all 6 cores. The first stage of cache amounts to 128Kb, divided in half between the instructions and data. The second stage is 3MB L2 cache, 512KB per core. The third stage is of 6MB L3.

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Here we see the data of the motherboard, the subject of this review, reported by the excellent CPU-Z

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And the total amount of memory installed, the timings set in the BIOS, the northbridge frequency

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And the information in the SPD chip.

 

For some years until now, like other AMD processors, also the Phenom II brings the integrated memory controller and ultimately supports the DDR3 memory standard up to 1333MHz (frequency upgradeable via bios of course). The processor uses an High speed Hyper Transport bus, for a transfer rate of 4000 MT/s (MegaTransfers/second).The Phenom II processor has a TDP of 125W with a maximum temperature of 62°C. The expected voltage range is between 1.125 ~ 1.40. A new feature introduced in the Phenom II is the Turbo. Basically it is able to completely turn off the cores when not in use, raising the rate on the remaining, up to a maximum of 3600MHz. Below is a brief data sheet available also on the manufacturer site, AMD.

 

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Below in table the list of hardware used for testing

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While the cooling method used consists of the following components

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The decision to use liquid cooling was motivated both by its efficiency, since the period (late August) gives us more leeway for overclocking tests, either because the pieces have already assembled and ready on the bench.

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Obviously, this has allowed us to obtain excellent temperature in our system.

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As operating system we have chosen the latest version now more stable of Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Service Pack 1 updated with all high priority patches available. To replicate as closely as possible the system in a real environment, we chose not to make any optimization both in the operating system both in the bios, since that would impact positively on the tests. The only software, which is always installed on all machines connected to the internet is an antivirus software that we decided not to install because the versions that are on the market affect the resources unevenly. In order then to make it enjoyable and have a term of comparison, we conducted tests also on another motherboard, the ECS A990FXM-A and we compared the values ​​received on individual charts that we will comment.

As synthetic tests we have chosen for their completeness:

  • FutureMark 3DMark Vantage v1.0.1 11
  • FutureMark 3DMark Vantage 1.1.0
  • FutureMark PCMark Vantage 1.0.3
  • AIDA64 EXTREME ENGINEERING

 

As to test Data Compression and Multimedia we performed:

 

  • 7zip 9.20 x64
  • WinRar 4.1.0 x64
  • 64bit Cinebench 10
  • 64bit Cinebench 11.5
  • X264 HD BENCHMARK
  • Handbrake 0.9.5

 

As an USB test we carried out:

 

  • ATTO Disk Benchmark
  • CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64

 

As a test to verify stability in overclocking, we performed the following 3 famous tests:

 

  • Prime95
  • LinX 0.6.4
  • OCCT

 

We used a clamp meter to measure the (total) power absorbed by our power supply/system on each test, of which we store the highest peak reached.


 

Synthetic tests

Below the comparative graph related to the last graphics benchmark of FutureMark. 3DMark 11 is primarily a test that measures graphics performance, returning a set of scores that are the result of interactions between the various hardware components. The test is based on Microsoft DirectX 11 libraries that are a prerequisite for installation and thus requires Windows Vista or Windows 7. We have selected/executed separately 2 test groups. One dedicated to physics, which concentrates the workload on the CPU only, 4 graphics tests that stress the GPUs alone. The tests have been performed to FullHD resolution of 1920x1080

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Another test known for worldwide overclocking competitions is 3DMark Vantage, also of FutureMark. The test is based on Microsoft DirectX 10 graphics libraries and thus requires a compatible video card. Here too, we performed 2 sets of tests, those concentrated on the processor (CPU) for calculating the physics algorithms using integer and floating point numbers and the second group of tests designed to measure the performance of the graphics card. We propose the following graphs.

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In order then to measure the overall performance of the system with the use of Office applications, we used the latest version of the Benchmark PCMark Vantage, also of FutureMark. The benchmark requires at least Windows Vista and is compatible with 32bit and 64bit systems.

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Here are the results of the test AIDA64, produced by FinalWire. We focused only on testing the efficiency of the memory and then memory controller integrated into the CPU.

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As can be seen from the results of this first round of testing, even if only slightly, the opponent ECS behaved better.


 

Data Compression and Multimedia Test

To understand how our system is well balanced in terms of entertainment or everyday office tasks such as data compression, we now concentrate on tests that measure the ability of compression/decompression of data and multimedia. The workloads are mainly given to the processor but also on the disk subsystem. As a first test we propose the free compression tool 7zip 9.20 x64. This tool performs a measurement of the ability of compression/decompression, unpacking file segments and measuring the time taken. The workload involves mostly the CPU and the memory.

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Another compression program that we believe is not less efficient than the previous one, but that is based on a different compression algorithm that is also proprietary is precisely WinRar. The benchmark built into the program, of which we run the 64bit version, measures the speed of compression/decompression returning just a rating value. We propose you the results.

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Moving on to test the multimedia capabilities of our system, we propose the results of tests conducted with the Cinebench V10 Cinema rendering program based on the rendering engine used by Cinema 4D. The program produced by MAXON put under pressure mainly the CPU but also takes advantage of the assistance of the GPU by rendering a photorealistic scene. We have closely involved in the processing only the processor performing the calculation both with a single core and by measuring the efficiency with multicore. We propose the results

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Last version and thus more updated than the previous.

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Here we are to test our system in terms of video encoding. As you know the elements that come into play are the processor, video card and disk subsystem, even if the latter is not so relevant to the test. The x264 Benchmark program do the render encoding a movie in 720p (1280x720) and returns the frames per second for the 2 steps of the 4 cycles. The highest score is the best one.

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Now we propose the excellent open source encoding software, Handbrake now in version 0.9.5. In the tests we carried out the conversion of an AVI movie to MP4. The graph shows the respective times taken for the 2 encoding platforms.

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Also on this round of testing the ECS motherboard seems to have better performance. This could be due to a more aggressive management of TurboCore technology by ECS, which is more aggressive on the increase in CPU frequency. Instead we propose in the next section two tests to measure their performance on USB ports


 

USB Test

We now offer 4 exciting slide of tests with the well-known software ATTO Benchmark with which we measured the performance of reading and writing in packages of different sizes, connecting the Kingston pen drive, the DT Ultimate 64GB both on the USB 3.0 ports both in the slower USB 2.0.

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As you can see the screen on the right, i.e. the one generated by connecting the pen drive USB3.0 port on the motherboard, is better. The Ultimate DT 64GB being a pen drive that supports the new high-speed standard USB3.0, releases all of its speed. Let’s see how it behaves the same device when connected to a motherboard ASRock P67 Fatal1ty Professional, equipped with Etron USB 3.0 controller (USB 2.0 managed by the P67 chipset).

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As you can see the MSI 990FXA-GD65 with AMD 990FX chipset has came out the winner. Let us see how it behaves the same pen drive using the benchmark CrystalDiskMark if connected respectively both to the USB2.0 port and on the faster USB3.0.

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As you can see the gap in the sequential reading test is almost triple.


 

SATA 6Gb/s Test

The SB950 Southbridge is the evolution of the previous SB850, the first AMD chipset to integrate the 6Gb/s SATA standard. The evolution would have permitted an improvement in performance, needed to ensure good performance with 6Gb/s SATA drives becoming increasingly prevalent. We tested the MSI 990FXA-GD65 with an Intel SSD 510 of 250GB. We compared its performance with the one detected on Z68 Intel chipset and on a 9128 Marvell controller of a Gigabyte X58A-UD7.

ATTO

ATTO_990FX

atto_read

atto_write

CrystalDisk Mark

Crystal_990FX

crystal_read

crystal_write

AS SSD

AS_SSD_990FX

as_ssd_read

as_ssd_write

The ATTO test shows an abnormality with the Intel SSD 510: with files larger than 512k, performance dropped dramatically. The same decrease in performance can be seen from the low values ​​obtained in sequential tests. The causes of this decline are not very clear since the drive showed no problems on other motherboards. At the same time, the board has performed well with other SSDs, as we shall see in a moment. We suppose then a possible "incompatibility" between the SB950 and the Intel SSD 510, or a non-optimal behavior of the two controllers.

Beyond of this little problem the other tests have shown good behavior in tests with sequential files up to 512k, and a small drop in performance on the 4k. Good behavior using the NCQ technology. Once again however we highlight the limitation of the Marvell controller, especially with regard to bandwidth, which is able to provide.

Vertex 3 60GB

Given the problems outlined above, we have carried out tests with a drive equipped with SandForce SF-2200 controller, in particular the OCZ 60GB Vertex 3. The tests showed a linear behavior and normal performance, demonstrating the goodness of the 6Gb/s SATA controller of the SB950.

ATTO_Vertex3  Crystal_Vertex3  AS_SSD_Vertex3


 

Overclock

As a must we have verified the behavior of MSI 990FXA-GD65 under overclocking and we must say that it has not shown any uncertainty. In the BIOS we have disabled the various mechanisms of energy saving and the Turbo, and we've set the voltage to the processor in manual at 1.45v which is the maximum voltage allowed to remain in safe parameters. Since the Phenom II X6 1090T processor is of the unlocked type, this allowed us to raise the multiplier bringing up to maximum stable allowed for that voltage at 20x, so the resulting frequency was 200x20 = 4000 MHz. Although the low temperature reached the CPU would allow us to rise further, in fact we have achieved as a test a frequency of 4400 MHz, but the voltage to maintain this rate was slightly higher than the 1.60 V, very prohibitive for a daily use basis. Remember that Thuban series processors are built with 45nm lithography, that's why the very high voltages. The next thing to take into account is that our processor, although cold, is not a particularly successful example in overclocking. Focusing on the motherboard, as confirmed by the excellent tool CPU-Z and HWMonitor, the voltage was very stable, showing for brief moments of time values ​​of 1.58 V (against the 1.45 V set by BIOS). However, we do not feel to confirm this value, since it could be a simple reading error of the chip used on this motherboard. We conducted the following tests to confirm the full stability in overclocking of the MSI 990FXA-GD65.

  • LinX
  • Prime95 (Blend)
  • OCCT

 

We show then the first screenshot on LinX. This program is based on the Linpack libraries that stress the floating point unit of the processor. Interesting the Gigaflops value returned to the screen, a sign of the robustness of the power circuit that allowed the processor to release its full computing power without hesitation.

058

Moving on to the next test Prime95 also known to stimulate the group Motherboard CPU RAM. Prime95 can run in 3 different modes, from the initial SmallFFT that stresses only the processor, In-place large FFT focuses primarily on the processor and few on the RAM while the last of the tern, the Blend test intensifies the calculation on the CPU, RAM and chipset. We propose the test completion screen.

059_new  060


 

Energy consumption

We have kept track of, as a curiosity, the consumption of the system on MSI 990FXA-GD65 during all test cycles, let's see how it behaved.

061

 


Conclusions

orobest_buy

 

Bundles

4,5 stelle - copia

Performance:

4,5 stelle - copia

Aesthetics

4 stelle - copia

Overclock

5 stelle

Quality

5 stelle

Price

5 stelle

Total

4,5 stelle - copia

MSI with the model 990FXA-GD65 has done a great job. Ordered layout, rational allocation of slots and ports. We would prefer an active chipset cooler with connecting heatpipes for better cooling. The card seemed to us very robust; comprehensive the department of the sensors though with irregularities in the voltage reading that we hope will be fixed in future BIOS releases and tools updates. Compared to competing motherboards it lacks the connecctor for older P-ATA (EIDE) devices, but at least the USB ports are quite numerous. Excellent response in terms of transfer rate on USB ports and stable overclock. A card of this class, built with components of military origin will certainly not disappoint if charged with heavy overclocking with liquid nitrogen cooling. We would have liked to find on the PCB for voltage reading points, very useful for extreme overclocking. The BIOS is very complete although less evolved than competing brand cards that have adopted the standard and graphical interface of the UEFI technology. The price on the market to bring home the 990FXA-GD65 is very good. At the time of writing we can buy it starting from 115 Euros. We are proposing it certainly both to the average user and to an high end user attentive to the budget. 

PROs:

  • Build quality (of superior class)
  • Price (particularly advantageous)
  • Complete bundle
  • Overclock

 

CONs:

  • Lack of display for diagnostics
  • Passive cooling

We thank MSI for the sample provided for this review.

Valter d'Attoma

Translated by Marco Comerci

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