Quick Preview of MSI 990FXA-GD80 Motherboard

[Mafio]

did some testing under single stage, the cpu looks quite good, 32M stable at 5230 MHZ with some room for improvements.



BTW, bios here needs some improvements:

• 32M performance isn't what i expect from a top end board
• compatibility with Elpida Hyper based DDR3 could and should be better

[BeepBeep2]

did some testing under single stage, the cpu looks quite good, 32M stable at 5230 MHZ with some room for improvements.



BTW, bios here needs some improvements:

• 32M performance isn't what i expect from a top end board
• compatibility with Elpida Hyper based DDR3 could and should be better

Example of still non-efficient run for comparison:
I would expect a Deneb CPU at Mafio's clocks to be doing ~13:05...

[Mafio]

and what about this?



1th core is ok, but the others ALWAYS run at default multiplier.

[ah_khoo]

@ sir chew*

pardon me for postin d screeny late, couldn't find d old one (or my memory playin tricks on me ). slightly less than stock clock (CPU) coz i'm not stressin d chip much since my cooling is really sucks.

I really appreciate you getting back to me on this! I do have another question though.... can MSI's software be set to automatically manage the settings for those fans - in a similar way to the way Asus manages CPU and Chassis, or Afterburner can control GPU fans?

i think no, it's either u set 50%, 75% or 100% for each fan. there's another profile which u can set, called silent. it's nothing but to set all fan @ 50%.

and what about this?



1th core is ok, but the others ALWAYS run at default multiplier.

hmmm.... like what i expected, this bug is just d same as what my friend (whose using gd65 + x2 555be) claimed. time for MSI BIOS team to have a look into this issue...

[chew*]

thx ah_koo, will give another bios a try before i post up some other stuff.

[ah_khoo]

thx ah_koo, will give another bios a try before i post up some other stuff.

np sir, d pleasure is mine. just found out vimc adjust in control center is not workin as well. i use cc to lower d vimc to 1.29xv & prime, nothing goes wrong. but if i reboot & set d same vimc in bios & prime again, all workers stop...

edited:

vdimm adjustment in cc also not working...

[BeepBeep2]

np sir, d pleasure is mine. jsut found out vimc adjust in control center is not workin as well. i use cc to lower d vimc to 1.29xv & prime, nothing goes wrong. but if i reboot & set d same vimc in bios & prime again, all workers stop...

Maybe it's not setting, or not setting correctly(?)

[ah_khoo]

Maybe it's not setting, or not setting correctly(?)

don't quite get what u mean beep, but if cc is working well (in my case vimc), i should get instant failure on all workers no? maybe i should try lower vimc (@ 3k imc freq) coz usually this will cause instant reboot when d volt is too low.

when it comes to windows tweaking tool, asus turbo v is one of d best (if not d best)...

[Mafio]

we need working bioses not crappy windows tools

[ah_khoo]

we need working bioses not crappy windows tools

lol... so far what problem u have w/ d beta BIOS mate? other than "save & exit" only save & doesn't exit (just hang there, i need to manually press reset button), i have no issue at all.

windows tools is important (at least to me) coz i do voltage fine tuning in windows.

[Mafio]

lol... so far what problem u have w/ d beta BIOS mate? other than "save & exit" only save & doesn't exit (just hang there, i need to manually press reset button), i have no issue at all.

windows tools is important (at least to me) coz i do voltage fine tuning in windows.

the problems are:
1- poor support for Elpida Hyper based memory
2- multiplier changes only on the first core and, to be honest, i'm not that sure that it is correctly setted also for the first core.
the board cannot be 1 minute slower than the old 890fx ones at the same cpu frequency, so probably there is something wrong also with the first core multiplier.
too bad that here i don't have any other AM3 mobo to make comparison and try to figure out what's going on.

uhm, save and exit here works without problem

[True Brit]

this was the board i was going to pick up as a keeper for a while, but i was getting grumblings from a few freinds that the bios was titchy, memory support was also discussed. i have a play with one coming up, so will judge for myself, at first looks and rad, it seems solid as well.

as they say, looks can be decieving.

[ah_khoo]

the problems are:
1- poor support for Elpida Hyper based memory
2- multiplier changes only on the first core and, to be honest, i'm not that sure that it is correctly setted also for the first core.
the board cannot be 1 minute slower than the old 890fx ones at the same cpu frequency, so probably there is something wrong also with the first core multiplier.
too bad that here i don't have any other AM3 mobo to make comparison and try to figure out what's going on.

uhm, save and exit here works without problem

i don't have any Hyper sticks to test, but after tested 3 different kits (Dom GT w/ psc, Winova w/ relabeled unknown Elpida chip set & Team Xtreme LV 1600 w/ BBSE), my comment is d board is a 'lil picky on ram. Dom GT & Team Xtreme worked fine, but d Winova is having problem doing what can be done on Asus 990X EVO or even d 880G EVO.

as for multiplier issue, can I say that it affects only non Thuban chips? My SuperPi 32M @ 4.1GHz result seemed normal. I'm sucks when it comes to SP optimization. Screeny here: http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?ac...ost&id=2305453

perhaps these issues which we are having can be ironed out by having BIOS update, hopefully MSI will release one to fix all these bugs ASAP...

[Mafio]

i don't have any Hyper sticks to test, but after tested 3 different kits (Dom GT w/ psc, Winova w/ relabeled unknown Elpida chip set & Team Xtreme LV 1600 w/ BBSE), my comment is d board is a 'lil picky on ram. Dom GT & Team Xtreme worked fine, but d Winova is having problem doing what can be done on Asus 990X EVO or even d 880G EVO.

as for multiplier issue, can I say that it affects only non Thuban chips? My SuperPi 32M @ 4.1GHz result seemed normal. I'm sucks when it comes to SP optimization. Screeny here: http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?ac...ost&id=2305453

perhaps these issues which we are having can be ironed out by having BIOS update, hopefully MSI will release one to fix all these bugs ASAP...

i've only Micron JNM, JNL and KPT and many sets of Elpida Hyper but no PSC here.
so far the only one that run past 1600 MHz are 2 sticks of Kingston HyperX 2000 cas8, too bad that they topped out around 1710/1715 MHz.
i need another 100 MHz, then i will be happy (1800/1850 MHz cas6 is the way to go when subzero).

so, you don't have any multiplier issue with your 1090T ? all cores use the multiplier you set in the bios ?
difficult to compare results made with different OS, let's see if i can find a ghost image of windows seven.

edit: here is a 32M on seven 64bit



only a bunch of seconds slower than your run, looks like both of our scores are crap

[ah_khoo]

i've only Micron JNM, JNL and KPT and many sets of Elpida Hyper but no PSC here.
so far the only one that run past 1600 MHz are 2 sticks of Kingston HyperX 2000 cas8, too bad that they topped out around 1710/1715 MHz.
i need another 100 MHz, then i will be happy (1800/1850 MHz cas6 is the way to go when subzero).

so, you don't have any multiplier issue with your 1090T ? all cores use the multiplier you set in the bios ?
difficult to compare results made with different OS, let's see if i can find a ghost image of windows seven.

edit: here is a 32M on seven 64bit



only a bunch of seconds slower than your run, looks like both of our scores are crap

i've sold d Dom GT sticks so I'm left with Winova & Xtreme LV to play with. But since d Winova sticks can't do much so all I have are d BBSE sticks. Tried running 7-9-7 @ > 2k but no luck. Elpida Hyper sticks are like white tigers, they're so rare that one can hardly find in my region (unless do direct import from d states).

my 1100T is running fine, all core multipliers are as per what set in BIOS.



lol... SP is never what I'm good at, oh wait... I'm good at nothing all...

[Mafio]

a new bios is out: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/990FXA...html#?div=BIOS

[ah_khoo]

a new bios is out: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/990FXA...html#?div=BIOS

thx for d update mate, i've flashed it lastnite, no more lockup after save & exit in BIOS. yet to try whether there's any improvement on ram compatibility, will do some tests tonite...

[ah_khoo]

finally my cheapskate winova ram can run 2k @ 8-9-8...



no more lock up after save & exit in BIOS, more responsive too compared to previous BIOSes. well done MSI...

[Mafio]

here still having some trouble with Elpida Hyper memory and CPU core multiplier...
BTW, this afternoon i did a very quick session with the last 2 litres of LN2 left yesterday.

vcore 1.95 volt in BIOS and pot only leaned on the CPU



http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1910523

[brains11]

After my 790FX GD70 and I contacted MSI for anr RMA and after MONTHS of waiting I never heard a single peep from them, So I tossed it in the bin and got a Crosshair 4 Extreme.

I'll never buy MSI again.

I get my RMA from MSI with in a couple days. From sent to recieve. Make sure you either state your problem or talk to a tech. Their office is a couple blocks from Newegg, in my neck of the woods anyways.

Hope this motherboard is nice. I have a built K9A2 Platinum, 790FX, 890FX systems. They keep getting better, however it seems with this board it is a ship without a captain for now. Also MSI support english forums are horrible. The beta german forum is nice.

[ah_khoo]

for d fun of ram clockin...



but sadly when cpu multi > 8x & imc multi > 9x, system is unbootable...

[Mafio]

last WE i had time to test my AMD setup, here is what came out...



3 cores out of 4 reach 6840 MHz, the other one looks a tad worse.
i've the feeling that should be something more in this CPU, i will retest this stuff in the next few days hoping for the big 7.



this 1M is REALLY crappy, MSI should make something with next bios.

[ah_khoo]

^ thanks for sharing sir. awesome clocks u have there...

btw, i've forwarded u the latest beta bios... check ya email...

[Mafio]

thanks alot.
i'm going to try it now, no LN2 but air is enough to see if there are some improvements regarding memory overclock.

[Mafio]

round 2 . . .

config:

Phenom II x4 955 B.E.
MSI 990FXA-GD80 :: bios 11.2 / B20
Kingston HyperX 2000 cas8 :: Elpida MGH-E-Hyper
Geffo 6200 LE PCI-E
PC P&C 1200
Seagate 120 GB sata
Guglio's CPU pot rev 2.0 :: best CPU pot ever

this MSI isn't a fast mobo, so i spent most of my time trying to get a good CPUZ validate.
after a lot of hours and effort i got a good 6960 MHz.



CPUZ valid :: HwBot link



after than this, with the latest litres of LN2, i did a Pifast.
with this not so efficient board i'm quite satisfied, 17.08 doesn't looks so bad.
CPU mch looks quite crappy and BIOS doesn't like Hyper ICs based RAM, i have to try with a different memory.



HwBot link

these results are for my friend Guglielmo and for the whole HwProject team.
i must thank also ah_khoo for his support.