MSI A88X-G45 Gaming Review
by Ian Cutress on August 11, 2014 8:00 AM ESTGaming 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.
While behind all the Intel results, the A88X-G45 Gaming comes top of the AMD crowd.
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.
Again, another top of the AMD crowd for the MSI motherboard.
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 seems fairly agnostic to motherboard and platform.
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.
The A88X-G45 Gaming mixes it up with the Intel results, being clear of any other A88X motherboard.
Battlefield 4
The EA/DICE series that has taken countless hours of my life away is back for another iteration, using the Frostbite 3 engine. AMD is also piling its resources into BF4 with the new Mantle API for developers, designed to cut the time required for the CPU to dispatch commands to the graphical sub-system. For our test we use the in-game benchmarking tools and record the frame time for the first ~70 seconds of the Tashgar single player mission, which is an on-rails generation of and rendering of objects and textures. We test at 1920x1080 at Ultra settings.
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purplestater - Monday, August 11, 2014 - link
This really makes me want to build another computer that I don't need and can't afford.PHlipMoD3 - Monday, August 11, 2014 - link
So, the A10 7850K beats an i7 4960X in 2 gaming benchmarks, and not a word is said about that in the article apart from "The MSI motehrboard takes the lead in CoH2 comfortably."Seems fishy to me, same card, more CPU bottleneck on the A10, and yet it beats a 4960X in gaming? Shenanigans.
tim851 - Monday, August 11, 2014 - link
The games in which the A10 comes out on top are not CPU bottlenecked, but clearly limited by GPU performance. A victory there is likely a statistical fluke.PHlipMoD3 - Monday, August 11, 2014 - link
I still find it quite a weird victory, even taking into account the GPU-limited state of BF4. CoH is also a CPU heavy title, and AMD seems to do well in it more often. I would like to have seen a comparison between the 9590 and the A10 in this case, instead of the more limited benches and comparisons in this article / review.I know its a motherboard review specifically, but more comparison points can't hurt.
Ian Cutress - Monday, August 11, 2014 - link
I just removed my CoH2 results: with it being on steam and requiring an online connection to initialise first on a new system, it of course downloads updates. It would seem CoH2 had a large update that I didn't see download which has affected the frame rates quite considerably: up to 15% with an A10. I am seeing this with the motherboards I have on the test bed, and is essentially nullifying all my previous results compared to the latest.DrMrLordX - Tuesday, August 12, 2014 - link
Is the latest CoH2 update showing any speed improvements on the 4960x or other Intel processors? I understand if the new software version skews current results to the point that they are no longer comparable to older benchmark runs, but at the same time, this sort of stinks for the 7850k. AMD won a benchmark? Pull it, it has to be a fluke!If the 4960x gained nothing from the update, then, guess what: the 7850k is actually the faster chip for CoH2.
Anonymous Blowhard - Monday, August 11, 2014 - link
> why would a user purchase such an APU and then disable access by adding a discrete GPU?Because they're a complete pillock.
Now, if someone were to purchase a cheap-as-chips FM2 Athlon X4 750K, OC the living daylights out of it, and pair that with a dGPU ... well, then they'd be a savvy budget gamer, now wouldn't they?
iTzSnypah - Monday, August 11, 2014 - link
Well if AMD releases a Kaveri based Athlon X4 then maybe. Currently a G3458+H81 board is cheaper and blows a 750K/760K out of the water gaming, especially once you overclock the Pentium.StrangerGuy - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Exactly, who in the right mind would buy this $120 mobo given the Pentium AE and a H81 board is the same price? By the time you put a FM2 CPU/APU into that thing you could have well easily got a discrete card for budget gaming purposes. Of course they will be AMD tryhards deriding the AE being "loldualcore" while conveniently ignoring being massively GPU limited with AMD CPU is a universally FAR worse experience.Phartindust - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link
Wrong question. The right question is why would anybody purchase an APU and NOT crossfire it with an appropriate AMD GPU? Putting a Nvidia gpu with an AMD APU makes no sense at all