![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , July 27, 2010
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
MSI 890FXA-GD70 Motherboard Review
MSI's newest offering supporting AMD's line of processors comes in the form of the 890FXA-GD70. This board could potentially be a P55 killer, with its balance of features and performance prowess. How does it do in the HardOCP gauntlet and better yet, how well does it overclock?
Gaming Benchmarks
As always, these benchmarks in no way represent real-world gameplay. They are all run at very low resolutions to try our best to remove the video card as a bottleneck. I will not hesitate to say that anyone spouting these types of framerate measurements as a true measuring tool in today’s climate is not servicing your needs or telling you the real truth.
The gaming tests below have been put together to focus on the processor power exhibited by each system. All the tests below consist of custom time demos built with stressing the CPU in mind. So much specialized coding comes into the programming now a days we suggest that looking at gaming performance by using real-world gameplay is the only sure way to know what you are going to get with a specific game. Our Real World Gameplay CPU Scaling would be a great place to start.
Graphs are labeled as follows: Motherboard - CPU Type & Clock Speed - Memory Speed
Lost Planet
The 890FXA-GD70 begins the gaming benchmarks on a strong note, besting the Intel P55 bases systems and matching performance with the other AMD based system.
Call of Juarez
Given the GPU bound nature of this test, the Call of Juarez gaming benchmark remains a good indicator of overall system health and performance, with similar performance between systems being crucial.
Meeting with our expectations, the 890FXA-GD70 performance matches that of the other systems, which is indicative of a correctly functioning system.
Quake 4 v1.4.2
The 890FXA-GD70 again manages to outperform its Intel P55 based competitors, with its performance even slightly better than its sibling AMD system.
Crysis
While the 890FXA-GD70's performance takes a back seat to the Intel boards performance-wise, it manages to easily match the other AMD system and does perform well given the intensive nature of this gaming test.
FarCry 2
We close out the gaming benchmarks with the 890FXA-GD70 trailing slightly behind the Intel P55 based boards, but with a slight advantage over the other AMD solution.