MSI X79A-GD45 Plus Review: Building Up
by Ian Cutress on February 14, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- X79
Gaming Benchmarks
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 for a single GPU, as using multiple GPUs seems to have no scaling effect.
| F1 2013, 1080p Max | ||
| NVIDIA | AMD | |
| Average Frame Rates |
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| Minimum Frame Rates |
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While there is no real scaling with multiple GPUs on F1 2013, having extra cores or PCIe lanes helps when more GPUs are in the system, even on minimum frame rates.
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.
| Bioshock Infinite, 1080p Max | ||
| NVIDIA | AMD | |
| Average Frame Rates |
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| Minimum Frame Rates |
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Bioshock seems to prefer IPC over cores, so Haswell takes the lead here on both dual card AMD and NVIDIA.
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.
| Tomb Raider, 1080p Max | ||
| NVIDIA | AMD | |
| Average Frame Rates |
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| Minimum Frame Rates |
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Tomb Raider seems rather unaffected by cores, MHz or lane allocations.
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chuonglb - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
goodkizi: http://www.kizi10games.net
friv: http://www.friv200jogos.org
yepi: http://www.yepi10games.org
The PC Apologist - Saturday, February 15, 2014 - link
1) How many times have you seen me in the comments?2) Is complaining about poor English or bad grammar inherently bad?
3) Are my complaints illegitimate/inappropriate (calling good grammar bad)?
4) Do you come to this site expecting a pep talk or a well-written article?
5) Does you loathing me count towards the calculus of anything?
Thank you.
Ian Cutress - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Commonly people like to point out that I refer to companies using plural terms, as is the standard in the UK and persistent throughout my UK upbringing. No matter how hard I try and convert into singular style common in the US, it requires a complete reworking of my brain which I cannot do on the fly. So any attempt to try and patch the difference ends up half-baked, as it were.If you have specific suggestions, feel free to email by clicking on my name at the top of the article.
Ian
The PC Apologist - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
No worries Ian.I appreciate the candor and sincerity. It’s nice to know that you’re open enough for constructive criticism and room for improvement, which can’t be said for everybody. But as far as writing goes, I suspect that the problem lies beyond just the confusion of singular vs. plural. Such can just be attributed to carelessness and be called honest mistakes. Rather, sometimes, there seems to be a lack of deeper substance and coherent flow. Other times, the language is simply not “beautiful,” but rather mundane and unenthused.
But like I said, for the time being, no worries. What’s important is that you’re open to suggestion and change. Writing is, among other things, an art, and it’s rather difficult to codify the formula for success. But with the correct attitude, one will eventually evolve and improve with practice, lots of reading (of good writers), and rigorous analytical thinking.
- The PC Apologist
Nfarce - Sunday, February 16, 2014 - link
PCA - just go start your own blog and STFU. We don't need your distractions, pompous jerkwad.khanov - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
I think you are used to reading 'Americanese'. There is nothing wrong with Ian's English.The PC Apologist - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
I think you are used to being "nice." There is nothing wrong with being honest from time to time.DMCalloway - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Unfortunately, the i7 2600k wasn't included in the benchmarks. This would have given the reader a clear overview of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation i7 performance for comparison.Ian Cutress - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Most of the results from other processors were derived from the retest required for the 2014 benchmark suite, initiated by the AMD Kaveri review. In time I will be going back and testing older CPUs when the backlog of review hardware falls to a reasonable level.The_Assimilator - Saturday, February 15, 2014 - link
Can you guys please start deducting points for motherboards that still include COM headers?