MSI 655 Max (SiS 655)

MSI 655 Max: Stress Testing

We were able to test the MSI 655 Max in several different areas and configurations, including:

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing was conducted by running the FSB at 165MHz.
2. Memory stress testing was conducted by running RAM at 333MHz and 400MHz with as many modules populated as possible at the most aggressive timings possible.

Front Side Bus Stress Test Results

Our stress tests went very well at 165MHz FSB. At this speed we were able to run 24 hours of Prime95 torture tests without error. Even more impressive was the fact that the 655 Max was able to complete Prime95 while we reran our gaming suite (Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena, Jedi Knight II) in addition to data compression and Word and Excel apps. We were able to find time to run SPECviewperf and XMPEG to further stress the 655 Max. In the end, our best efforts to bring the 655 Max to its knees at 165MHz FSB proved fruitless.

Memory Stress Test Results

This first memory stress test will gauge how well the 655 Max is capable of running Corsair XMS memory running at 333MHz DDR with all four memory banks occupied. Here were the timings we were able to achieve:

A CAS Latency of 2.5 is not difficult for most modern-day motherboards, but unfortunately that's not the case with the MSI 655 Max. However, we were able to set DRAM timing to Ultra mode, and that by itself boosted performance quite a bit. For example, in Quake3 Arena, we gained 10 fps going from Normal mode to Ultra mode. That's quite a jump, though not quite noticeable.

Our final memory stress test will gauge how well the 655 Max is capable of running Corsair XMS memory running at 400MHz DDR with all four memory banks occupied. Here were the timings we were able to achieve:

It's very impressive to say the least that the 655 Max was able to stabily operate with all memory banks filled and running in dual DDR400 mode. In the past the only motherboards capable of running in dual DDR400 mode have been NVIDIA nForce2 boards. This is a testament to how mature DDR400 chipsets are becoming.

As usual, we ran several memory stress tests and general apps to make sure all these timings were stable. We started off by running Prime95 torture tests; a grand total of 24 hours of Prime95 was successfully run at the timings listed in the above charts. We also ran Sciencemark (memory tests only) and Super Pi. Neither stress test was able to bring the 655 Max to its knees.