MSI 970 Gaming Motherboard Review: Undercutting AM3+ at $100
by Ian Cutress on January 22, 2015 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- MSI
- Vishera
- AM3+
Gaming Performance
F1 2013
First up is F1 2013 by Codemasters. I am a big Formula 1 fan in my spare time, and nothing makes me happier than carving up the field in a Caterham, waving to the Red Bulls as I drive by (because I play on easy and take shortcuts). F1 2013 uses the EGO Engine, and like other Codemasters games ends up being very playable on old hardware quite easily. In order to beef up the benchmark a bit, we devised the following scenario for the benchmark mode: one lap of Spa-Francorchamps in the heavy wet, the benchmark follows Jenson Button in the McLaren who starts on the grid in 22nd place, with the field made up of 11 Williams cars, 5 Marussia and 5 Caterham in that order. This puts emphasis on the CPU to handle the AI in the wet, and allows for a good amount of overtaking during the automated benchmark. We test at 1920x1080 on Ultra graphical settings.
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite was Zero Punctuation’s Game of the Year for 2013, uses the Unreal Engine 3, and is designed to scale with both cores and graphical prowess. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Tomb Raider
The next benchmark in our test is Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider is an AMD optimized game, lauded for its use of TressFX creating dynamic hair to increase the immersion in game. Tomb Raider uses a modified version of the Crystal Engine, and enjoys raw horsepower. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is a benchmarking wet dream – a highly complex benchmark that can bring the toughest setup and high resolutions down into single figures. Having an extreme SSAO setting can do that, but at the right settings Sleeping Dogs is highly playable and enjoyable. We run the basic benchmark program laid out in the Adrenaline benchmark tool, and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
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200380051 - Friday, January 30, 2015 - link
THAT. No 9 Series mATX boards whatsoever, and only a few AM3+ mATX boards with a decent power stage (even 4+1 phases). That's too bad. I, for one, could put one such board to good use.frenzy55 - Wednesday, January 28, 2015 - link
"The 970 chipset limits the user to a single NVIDIA GPU and PCIe 2.0,"MSI's website says they support SLI and I am currently running 2 Radeon 7770's in crossfire with this board.
frenzy55 - Wednesday, January 28, 2015 - link
Also, their site claims x16 + x8.Phartindust - Thursday, January 29, 2015 - link
Yeah Ian, the board does support AMD GPUs too. LOLecuakd - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
can this motherboard handle 4k fine?arizona - Monday, October 19, 2015 - link
hey averyone i got something to ask does this motherboard can it run windows 7 please let me knowvikash124 - Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - link
msi 970 usb 3.0 drivers not working please help