MSI P67A-GD65 Sandybridge Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. MSI P67A-GD653. Bios and Testing Methodology4. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra5. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.5 64 bit6. Synthetic: Aida 647. Synthetic: PCMark Vantage8. Synthetic: 3DMark 119. Real World: BluRay Playback with Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 Ultra10. Real World: Flash HD Performance11. Real World: Media Encoding with Cyberlink Media Espresso12. Real World: File Copying with Kingston HyperX Max 3.013. Image Quality: HQV Benchmark V2.014. Gaming - 1 Screen: Alien V Predator15. Gaming - 1 Screen: Far Cry 216. Gaming - 1 screen: Resident Evil 517. Gaming - 1 screen: Lost Planet 218. Gaming - 3 screen: Colin McRae Dirt 219. Gaming - 3 screen: Crysis Warhead20. Gaming - 3 screen: F1 201021. Technical: Overclocking22. Closing Thoughts23. View All Pages

KitGuru has covered the Sandybridge platform fairly regularly in the last month, analysing Intel's K processors, and pushing them to their limits. Today however we are taking our first look at an MSI board, the fully loaded P67A-GD65. This features MSI's clever Icy Choke Technology.

These MSI chokes run up to 20c cooler than normal chokes and when combined with the ‘high c' capacitors that MSI use they allow the company to shrink the heatsinks and offering smaller, more compact VRM cooling.

This can be benefical in many ways, especially as the CPU socket has more physical space around it for mounting larger coolers.

Features:

• Military Class II components: Top quality & stability
• OC Genie II: Auto OC to boost performance in 1 sec
• ClickBIOS: Easy-to-use UEFI BIOS interface
• Super Charger: fast charge iPad/iPhone/smartphone
• THX TruStudio PRO: deliver the fullest audio experience
• Support USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s

The MSI P67A-GD65 arrives in blue and white box which highlights the use of ‘Military Class II' components. We have covered this many times before on KitGuru. MSI use HI-C Capacitors with Tantalum cores which extremely high conductivity and up to 15x less leakage. This is apparently the same material which is used on Space Shuttles. MSI are also utilising Super Ferrite Chokes with 10% better power efficiency and 30% higher current capacity. This can aid the overclocking capabilities.

The bundle is comprehensive, with driver discs, literature on the product, back plate, converter cables, sata cables, SLI cable and a USB 3.0 adapter.

The ATX board layout is mainly positive with plenty of room around the CPU for oversized coolers.

MSI include overclocking ‘friendly' features, such as the onboard power and reset buttons, and an OC Genie button. There is also a clear CMOS button on the rear I/O panel, which is just as well because a dual slot graphics card covers the CMOS switch and makes removing the CMOS battery impossible when fitted. This is a bizarre decision, but thankfully it is slightly negated by the rear mounted button.

Thera are eight SATA ports on the board, four of which support SATA 6Gbps. They are well positioned in a parallel configuration meaning they take up the least amount of room possible.

As we discussed earlier, the CPU socket has a lot of space around it, thanks to MSI reducing the size of the cooling sinks.

There are two PCI-E Slots. One will operate in 16x, but if two are connected it drops to 8x speed. There are two PCI slots and a single 1x PCI-E slot. The board can take a maximum of 32GB of DDR3 over the four slots at speeds up to 2,400mhz. Sound is covered by Intel HD Audio across the Realtek ALc892, offering 8 channel support. Networking is handled by the Realtek 8111E Gigabit Ethernet connection.

Rear connectivity is strong, with 8 USB 2.0 ports (14 total) and 2 USB 3.0 ports available. There are also two eSATA connectors, a reset CMOS switch, a PS2 port for older devices, gigabit lan and Firewire. Audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF and coaxial out are also present.

The MSI bios is fully loaded and just before we started testing, MSI sent us a new version E7681IMS.18B which resolved a few issues.

For testing today we are using an Intel Core i7 2600k processor, HIS HD6970 Turbo Edition with Kingston 2133mhz memory.

MSI System Build:
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600k
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD65
Memory: 6GB Kingston 2133mhz
Graphics: HIS HD6970 Turbo x 2
Hard Drive: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB & Kingston HyperX Max 3.0
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay SBC-06D1S-U
Cooler: CoolerMaster V8
Chassis: BitFenix Survivor
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 900W
Monitors: 2x Prolite B2712HDS & Dell U2410

System Validation available here.

Intel Core i5-2500k System:
Processor: Core i5-2500k
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600mhz
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Extreme4
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX460 OC
Drive: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit

Intel Core i7-2600k System:
Processor: Core i7-2600k
Memory: GSkill Ripjaws 4GB 2133mhz
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Fatal1ty Pro
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Graphics: Inno3D GTX570
Drive: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit

Intel Core i5-655k System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 655k
Memory: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock P55 Deluxe 3
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD6850
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD

Intel Core i5-760 System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 760
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock P55 Extreme4
Graphics Card: AMD HD6870
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD

Intel Core i7 950 System
Processor: Intel Core i7 950
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock X58 Extreme6
Graphics Card: AMD HD6850
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD

Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit Enterprise Edition
Catalyst 10.12
Aida 64
Fraps Professional
SiSoft Sandra
CPUz
GPUz
CPUID Hardware Monitor Professional
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
CyberLink PowerDvd 10 Ultra
Cyberlink Media Espresso
CrystalMark
HDTach
HQV Benchmark V 2.0
PCMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage
Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Games:
Alien V Predator
Far Cry 2
Resident Evil 5
Lost Planet 2
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Crysis Warhead
F1 2010

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Native ports for all major operating systems are available:

• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
• Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
• Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
• Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)

All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:

• SMP – Multi-Processor
• MC – Multi-Core
• SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
• MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
• GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
• NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
• AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
• IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit

A very strong initial showing from the 2600k processor running on the MSI P67a-GD65 motherboard.

CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.

A score of 6.8 with a reference 2600k is pretty much in line with previous tests, although this board seems a little slower at reference clocks than the ASRock Fatal1ty we tested last month.

AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

AES performance, in line with the SiSoft Sandra testing, is staggering. Significantly improved over the last generation of processors.

PCMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed for Windows Vista offering one-click simplicity for casual users and detailed, professional grade testing for industry, press and enthusiasts.

A PCMark score is a measure of your computer’s performance across a variety of common tasks such as viewing and editing photos, video, music and other media, gaming, communications, productivity and security.

From desktops and laptops to workstations and gaming rigs, by comparing your PCMark Vantage score with other similar systems you can find the hardware and software bottlenecks that stop you getting more from your PC.

A good set of results from the P67A-GD65 and HD6970.

3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.

The MSI board with HD6970 scores 5256 points which is a great result for this performance system.

Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 is one of the finest solutions for the Blu-Ray experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the Bluray Disc of Avatar, one of our favourite sci-fi films in recent years.

Average load is around 11 percent, which is going to ensure that the processor has plenty of time left for other tasks.

We recorded CPU demand over a specific period of time to get a ‘real world’ rolling scale of activity.

Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online.

Flash isn't an ideal platform for video as it is still quite CPU intensive. That said, this particular system powers through the Flash HD content without any problems.

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.

Now you can easily playback and display your favorite movies, songs and photos not just on your on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.

We are using a 3.3gb MKV file today at 2 hours and 12 minutes in length. We are converting to a final output for an Apple Media Player, a real world situation facing many people.

Graphics card acceleration is disabled, so we are solely weighing in processor performance. We are using the latest beta which has optimisations for the Sandybridge architecture.

A great set of results for the 2600k powered MSI P67A-GD65, taking half the time when compared against the Core i5 655k system.

We are now going to test the USB 3.0 and 2.0 speed, so we used the fastest drive we have, the Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 128GB, which is an Toshiba based SSD product within a USB 3.0 capable enclosure.

Today for testing we first copied a 3.9GB MKV file to and from the Kingston HyperX USB 3.0 drive.

USB 3.0 performance is excellent recording over 140MB/s when reading from the drive. USB 2.0 performance is as good as we have seen.

HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.

There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we.

This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.

Read our initial analysis over here.

	MSI P67A-GD65 & 6970
Dial	4
Dial with static pattern	5
Gray Bars	5
Violin	5
Stadium 2:2	5
Stadium 3:2	5
Horizontal Text Scroll	5
Vertical Text Scroll	5
Transition to 3:2 Lock	5
Transition to 2:2 Lock	0
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video	5
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video	5
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed	5
5:5 FPS Animation	5
6:4 12 FPS Animation	5
8:7 8 FPS Animation	5
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)	5
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)	5
Random Noise: Sailboat	5
Random Noise: Flower	5
Random Noise: Sunrise	5
Random Noise: Harbour Night	5
Scrolling Text	5
Roller Coaster	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text	5
Roller Coaster	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Luminance Frequency Bands	5
Chrominance Frequency Bands	5
Vanishing Text	5
Resolution Enhancement	15
Theme Park	5
Driftwood	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Skin Tones	7
Total	196

The highest levels of image quality are available from the HD6970 running via the MSI P67A-GD65 motherboard.

Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.

To test the cards we used a 1080p resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. We use this with most of our graphics card testing so cards are comparible throughout reviews.

Alien V Predator is still an intensive Direct X game and CrossfireX scaling is very good with the MSI board.

Far Cry 2 (commonly abbreviated as “FC2 or “fc2″) is an open-ended first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2.

Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day East African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate “The Jackal,” a notorious arms dealer.

Far Cry 2 is still a popular game and the open world environment can be taxing on even the latest hardware available today.

Settings: 1920×1200, D3D10, Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(8x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Ultra High), Vegetation(Very High), Shading(Ultra High), Terrain(Ultra High), Geometry(Ultra High), Post FX(High), Texture(Ultra High), Shadow(Ultra High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High)

A single card can handle this engine with relative ease, never dropping below 45 fps. When another is added, Crossfire scaling is excellent, averaging around 125 fps.

Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5, is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the best-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of December, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling Resident Evil game ever made.

We remember when this Direct X 10 engine was a challenge for a system. Not so with the MSI board, 2600K processor and HD6970 graphics card.

Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates.

After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. Lost Planet 2 runs on the MT-Framework 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in several Capcom-developed games.

We are testing in DX11 mode with all settings on the highest. Direct X 11 features are on high.

A single card has a tough time with this Direct X 11 title, but manages to hold the frame rate above 25fps at all times. Adding another helps improve the overall smoothness throughout all the testing environment.

Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (known as Dirt 2 outside Europe and stylised, DiRT) is a racing game released in September 2009, and is the sequel to Colin McRae: Dirt. This is the first game in the McRae series since McRae’s death in 2007. It was announced on 19 November 2008 and features Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Tanner Foust, and Dave Mirra. The game includes many new race-events, including stadium events. Along with the player, an RV travels from one event to another, and serves as ‘headquarters’ for the player. It features a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to diverse and challenging real-world environments. The game takes place across four continents: Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The game includes five different event types: Rally, Rallycross, ‘Trailblazer,’ ‘Land Rush’ and ‘Raid.’ The World Tour mode sees players competing in multi-car and solo races at new locations, and also includes a new multiplayer mode.

We are testing across three screens in Direct X 11 mode with 4aa and 16af enabled. All settings are switched to high.

Crossfire scaling is pretty good, and the minimum frame rates improve from 27fps to around 42 fps enhancing the game smoothness throughout the testing.

Crysis Warhead, like the original Crysis, is set in the near future when an ancient alien spacecraft is discovered on an island east of the Philippines. The single-player campaign has the player assume the role of former SAS Delta Force operator Sergeant Michael Sykes, referred to in-game by his call sign, Psycho. Psycho’s arsenal of futuristic weapons builds on those showcased in Crysis, with the introduction of Mini-SMGs which can be dual-wielded, a six-shot grenade launcher equipped with EMP grenades, and the destructive, short ranged Plasma Accumulator Cannon (PAX). The highly versatile Nanosuit returns. In Crysis Warhead, the player fights North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies, in many different locations, such as a tropical island jungle, inside an “Ice Sphere”, an underground mining complex, which is followed by a convoy train transporting an unknown alien object held by the North Koreans, and finally, to an airfield.

The engine is still a system killer, all these years later, but modern day hardware can finally generate the frame rates we wanted when it was released !

A single card can't handle these settings, with many areas of the environment becoming juddery and unplayable. Adding a second card helps smooth the experience significantly, but there are still a few occasions when it drops to around 25fps. Overclocking the processor would help with some of the intensive levels.

F1 2010 is a video game based on the 2010 season of the Formula One world championship. It is the sequel to the 2009 video game based on the same series. It was released in September 2010 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows platforms. The game was confirmed by Codemasters on 23 April 2009. The game engine is based on the new EGO 1.5 engine, an unofficially titled evolution of the EGO 1.0 engine that was created specially for the title.

We are testing across three screens with 4aa and 8af enabled and ultra quality settings in DX11 mode.

Again, the differences between one and two cards mean that this game is playable. With a single card, some of the image quality settings would need to be lowered to help smooth out the frame rate.

The MSI board has an overclock genie button which enables the system to automatically overclock the processor to stable ‘limits'.

In this case it was nowhere near the limits of the processor, but around 4.2ghz with a slight core voltage increase. Safe and a significant boost which will appease many people who have no idea (or interest) in bios overclocking.

Even with the latest bios we had some issues with overclocking, and while we aren't using a Noctua NH D14 today, we had expected around 4.8ghz. We did reach 4.8ghz, but we couldn't get it prime stable regardless of the voltage or settings we used in the bios.

4.7ghz was the best we could achieve with a voltage setting around 1.45.

The bios, while pretty and responsive does appear to have some bug related issues. For instance, our Kingston DDR2133mhz memory would fail to post if we manually selected 2133mhz from the pop down menu in the bios. It would get stuck in a post loop, requiring a press of the CMOS reset switch on the back of the board.

Manually selecting Profile 1 from the bios however meant it would post at 2133mhz. Very confusing indeed. We also noticed that if you manually selected the memory speed  to any setting, for example 1600mhz and then used the OC Genie tool it would get very confused and decide to try a 20ghz+ overclock.

It would be nice to say we managed to get the system stable at 28ghz, but sadly not even close.

Leaving the bios on automatic settings then using OC Genie achieved around 4.1-4.2ghz and with a little effort, 4.7ghz was possible. While we weren't using the Noctua NH D14, the CPU temperatures were well within limits, so we think this is more a limitation of the board, rather than the cooler.

The MSI P67A-GD65 is a good product, however it is a little rough around the edges. If you stick to automatic settings there will never be a problem, even if you use the OC Genie tool. This is ideal for inexperienced users who want great performance ‘out of the box' and perhaps even a little extra performance, by simply pressing a button.

For veterans, this board will prove to be less of a positive experience. The bios is solid enough, but it can be tempremental. It often won't pick up the correct memory speeds, opting for 1333mhz. This won't prove to be that important to some people, but for those wanting maximum performance then manual tweaking is going to be required. If we manually set our Kingston memory to 2133mhz, then the system wouldn't post, getting stuck in a post loop, requiring a reset. Manually forcing an XMP profile cured this particular problem. Unfortunately if you touch the memory settings, then try overclocking the board with OC Genie, it decides that 20GHZ+ is feasible and gets itself caught in another reboot loop.

Inexperienced users with high performance memory will need to load an XMP profile after letting the board settle on the best automatic overclock and guru's will need to just battle against the bios to achieve the maximum manual overclocks. It wasn't the easiest board to overclock, but 4.7ghz with a CoolerMaster V8 wasn't too bad. Sure, I did manage to get this CPU to 5.1ghz on an Intel board, but for most people 4.7ghz is more than enough.

Overall, I found this board to be good, but there are bios quirks that need to be carefully and painstakingly addressed to get the most from it. We are sure that MSI will continue improving the board over the coming months, with bios upgrades, just be careful with the OC Genie and memory settings and it is actually very stable.

KitGuru says: A weird bios, but a solid, good performance board once you learn to live with the quirks. At £132 inc vat it offers good value for money.

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