MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 (Intel Z68) Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. MSI Z68A-GD80-G33. MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 (Super High Res Gallery)4. MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 (Bios & Overclocking)5. Testing Methodology6. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra7. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.5 64 bit8. Synthetic: Unigine Heaven Benchmark9. Synthetic: PCMark 710. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage11. Synthetic: 3DMark 1112. Image Quality: HQV Benchmark 2.013. Real World: BluRay Playback Performance14. Real World: MKV Playback Performance15. Real World: Flash HD Performance16. Data Throughput: SSD Performance17. Gaming: Alien V Predator18. Gaming: Call Of Duty; Black Ops19. Gaming: Dead Island20. Gaming: F.E.A.R. 321. Gaming: Dirt 322. Gaming: F1 201123. Gaming: Far Cry 224. Closing Thoughts25. View All Pages

MSI have been releasing a steady stream of well priced, performance oriented graphics cards and motherboards this year, and today we are looking at their Z68A-GD80-G3 which supports the next generation of PCI Express graphics cards.

We have always had good experiences with MSI motherboards, their MSI X58A-GD65 has been at the heart of our main graphics card test system now for the last year. The new Z68A-GD80-G3 is loaded with ‘Military class' components and is supplied with a new graphical user interface and touchscreen support.

Key features:

• Military Class II components: Top quality & stability
• OC Genie II: Auto OC to boost performance in 1 sec
• ClickBIOS II: 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 motherboard arrives in a traditionally designed MSI box with a list of key selling points.

The bundle is good, there are several manuals, 4 x SATA 6Gbps capable cables, an SLI bridge, back plate, software discs and a USB 3.0 header.

The board itself also follows a traditional MSI blue and dark brown colour scheme with some oversized heatsinks to aid with cooling proficiency.

The MSI board is equipped with three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. If the top slot is used in a single mode, it will run at x16 bandwidth. If two are added, then they both run at x8 bandwidth. Using the top slot with the bottom slot allows for a x8 x4 configuration.

The last slot should really be avoided if possible as it will negate the use of an eSATA port, one of the SATA ports and a USB 3.0/Firewire port.

Along the bottom of the board are audio connections and a FireWire header. Next to this are reset, power and the OC Genie button. Along the left are USB 3.0 headers and three USB 2.0 headers.

The board has seven SATA ports. The black ports are SATA II capable, and the two on the right run from the Z68 chipset, they are SATA III capable. The vertically mounted SATA port is SATA III and is powered by the Marvell 88SE9128 controller.

A full list of the internal connectors is as follows:

• ATX 24-Pin power connector
• 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
• 6-pin ATX 12V VGA connector
• CPU x 1 / System x 4 FAN connectors
• CD-in connector
• Front panel audio connector
• Front panel connector
• 1 x chasis intrusion connector
• 3 x USB 2.0 connectors
• 1 x USB 3.0 connectors
• 4 x Serial ATAII connectors
• 3 x Serial ATAIII connectors
• 1 x IEEE1394 connector
• 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
• 1 x SPDIF-out connector
• 1 x TPM module connector
• 1 x Voltage Check Point
• 1 x Power button
• 1 x Reset button
• 1 x OC Genie button

The MSI motherboard supports 4 x DDR3 memory sticks, up to 32GB and at 1066/1333/1600/2133mhz (OC) speeds.

The CPU socket has enough space to fit oversized coolers, and there are two large heatsinks to help maintain stability during overclocked situations – with ‘Military class' branding. There is an 8 pin CPU power connector, close by. The board is populated with quality Hi-C capacitors, these are made of the rare element Tantalum often used on space shuttles and satellites, these sustain high temperatures and deliver excellent electrical conductivity. MSI are also using Super Ferrite Chokes, which operate at an (apparent) 35 degree Celsius lower temperature than regular designs.

The I/O panel is fully loaded. Here is a list of the connectivity options:

• 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard port
• 1 x Clear CMOS button
• 1 x IEEE1394 port
• 2 x RJ45 LAN Jacks
• 4 x USB 2.0 ports
• 1 x eSATA port
• 2 x USB 3.0 ports
• 1 x DVI-I port
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x 6 in 1 audio jack

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.

The MSI Click Bios II really is a stand out software implementation, offering a new level of user interaction and intuitive design. There are six clearly labelled sections, three on either side, to help navigate the user to the correct area. If you have a touch screen panel then you can interact not only with the mouse, but with your hands.

Along the top right is the boot priority section. The first icon on the left will be the first boot device, lowering in priority as it moves to the right. These icons can be dragged in position to suit individual demands. This is one of the best implementations we have seen.

Overclocking the board is extremely easy, and we hit 5ghz with the Core i5 2500k, by increasing the core voltage and a few other voltage settings.

Many users don't want to mess with bios settings, no matter how straightforward they are, so MSI have a simple means to get a 100% stable overclock. At the bottom of the motherboard is an O.C. Genie button (see image above). Turn the system off, push it in. Reboot.

By simply pressing a physical button on the board, the system gives a healthy overclock of 900 mhz. Simple as that. System validation can be seen over here. This is how we will test the system today, as we know not everyone is a bios guru.

Today we have built the MSI system paired up with the excellent Intel Core i5 2500K processor.

Processor: Intel Core i5 2500k @ 4.2ghz (via O.C. Genie button).
Cooling: Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 CPU Cooler.
Graphics: Sapphire HD6870 Dual Fan Overclock Edition.
Motherboard: MSI Z68A-GD80-G3.
Chassis: Silverstone Raven 3.
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory.
Storage: Intel 80GB SSD (boot) / Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD.
Monitors: Dell Ultrasharp U2410 Rev A00.

Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit

Unigine Heaven Benchmark.
PCMark Vantage.
PCMark 7.
3DMark Vantage.
3DMark 11.
Fraps Professional.
Steam Client.
FurMark.
HQV 2.0 Software.

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Nikon D3X with R1C1 kit
Olympus E-PL1
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter

Games:
Alien V Predator
Call Of Duty: Black Ops
Dead Island
Dirt 3
F.E.A.R. 3
Far Cry 2
F1 2011

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.

Some game descriptions and information are taken with courtesy from Wikipedia.

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

Performance falls in line with what we would expect at these overclocked settings.

Cinebench R11.5 is the newest revision of the popular benchmark from Maxon. The test scenario uses all of your system’s processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral “No Keyframes” animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various different algorithms to stress all available processor cores.

In fact, CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. The test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects containing more than 300,000 total polygons and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights and shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is given in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

At these speeds, the Core i5 2500k can be used as a rendering station. A final score of 6.56 points is very healthy.

Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

• Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
• Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
• Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
• Multicore CPU support
• Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
• Powerful C++ API
• Comprehensive performance profiling system
• Flexible XML-based data structures

We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11.

The system, powered by the Sapphire HD6870 Dual Fan overclock edition manages to average just over 33 frames per second. A good result for this intensive Direct X 11 engine.

PCMark 7 includes 7 PC tests for Windows 7, combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed to cover the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 7 offers complete PC performance testing for Windows 7 for home and business use.

The Solid State drive helps improve the overall result, scoring 4,884 points. An indication of excellent overall system performance.

Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.

The system scored 21,585 points from the overclocked Core i5 2500k processor, and the Sapphire HD6870 overclocked edition weighed in at 17,275 points, lowering the total score a little to 18,182 points. Still, we can't complain with these results.

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 system scores 4,520 points, which bodes well for performance with the latest Direct X 11 titles.

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

	Sapphire HD6870
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

196 points is pretty much in line with other AMD based hardware with the latest drivers. This is a class leading score.

Our good friends at Cyberlink kindly supplied the software for our BluRay and conversion tests.

Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 is one of the finest solutions for the BluRay experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the Blu-Ray Disc of Avatar.

The current K processors have no problems handling 1080p content, especially when supported with the hardware acceleration of an AMD HD6870 graphics card.

The Matroska Media container is a very popular, open standard Multimedia container which is usually found as .MKV files. It is a very popular format in enthusiast circles and can be played directly in Windows Media Player with suitable codecs installed. We use the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP).

We ripped our BluRay disc of Sniper Reloaded to 1080P MKV and use Windows Media Player to playback the file.

MKV contained HD content is a more demanding test for partnering hardware, but we experienced no problems with the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 system, demanding between 10 percent and 35 percent CPU time.

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. Full hardware acceleration is enabled.

Hardware acceleration helps to reduce the demand on the processor, averaging only 10 percent utilisation.

To test, we attached a Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD to ascertain SATA 6Gbps performance.

A very important part of overall system responsiveness is down to hard drive performance. We use two of our favourite benchmark utilities Crystalmark X64 Edition and HD Tach to rate the Samsung SSD from the onboard SATA controller.

We tried all the ports and various cables but these were the best results we achieved, not the greatest we have seen from this particular drive.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

Again the results weren't that impressive. We checked driver updates and various cables, but this was the best we could achieve with the drive. Surprisingly we got better results with the drive from the budget Gigabyte board we reviewed earlier this week.

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 system we used a 1080p resolution with DX11, Texture Quality High, MSAA Samples 0, 0 af, ambient occulsion off, shadow complexity medium, motion blur on.

We started game engine testing with the demanding Direct X 11 Alien V Predator. Results are good, averaging almost 50 frames per second, and dropping once to 30 frames per second during an intensive firefight.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops has been another huge success story selling millions of copies since it was launched. The player assumes the role of various characters during the single-player campaign, changing perspectives throughout the story. The playable characters are special forces operatives conducting black operations behind enemy lines. In this way, the player’s characters have their own traits such as voices and shadows. Each mission features a series of objectives that are displayed on the heads-up display, which marks the direction and distance towards and from such objectives. The player is accompanied by friendly troops throughout the game. Although primarily a first-person shooter, the player pilots a Hind helicopter and guides friendly troops from a SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft.

With high image quality settings, the system generates impressive frame rates, averaging around 80 during most of the game. There are a few instances when it drops to around 60, mainly when moving between closed and open environments.

Dead Island is set in the fictional island of Banoi, located off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The main characters wake up in the Palms Resort hotel to find the island attacked by zombies and mysteriously, they are immune to whatever is making people into zombies. As they try to find and help other survivors, they must also find a way to escape the island as well.

A fun game to play, and it runs exceptionally well on the MSI system averaging 125 fps with our high image quality settings.

F.E.A.R. 3 includes features such as “co-op, an evolved cover system, and more scares”, according to Day 1 Studios founder and president Denny Thorley. In the game, the players control either Point Man or Paxton Fettel, the protagonist and antagonist, respectively, from the first game, F.E.A.R.. The control system for the Point Man is the same as the previous two games, giving the player a command list typical of most first person shooter games (the ability to fire weapons, throw grenades, melee, activate/use items etc), as well as the ability to slow time.

As Fettel, the player assists the Point Man by using telekinesis, stun, possession, a melee attack unique to Fettel and other abilities. In addition to these abilities, the player also has full access to the abilities of any character Fettel possesses. Both characters have the ability to access and control enemy technology (such as mech suits).

F.E.A.R. 3 is actually quite a demanding engine at these settings. That said, the frame rates are positive, averaging 54 and dropping to 44 on a few instances. Solid performance from this system.

Dirt 3 is a rallying videogame and the third in the Dirt series of the Colin McRae Rally series, developed and published by Codemasters, although the “Colin McRae” tag has been completely removed from this iteration (having been previously been removed from American versions of previous games in the series).

We used the Ultra preset for the testing.

At these high settings the game not only looks great, but it runs silky smooth, dropping to 45 fps once with many cars on screen, churning up snow.

F1 2011 is the newest Direct X 11 racing game from industry pioneers CodeMasters. The 2011 Formula One season is the 62nd FIA Formula One season. The original calendar consisted of twenty rounds, including the inaugural running of the Indian Grand Prix before the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Pirelli returns to the sport as tyre supplier for all teams, taking over from Bridgestone. Red Bull Racing are the reigning Constructor’s Champions. Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel is the defending Drivers’ Champion, one of five World Champions appearing on the grid.

F1 2011 is another great racing game from Codemasters and we set the AA high, with the ultra profile. Super smooth results.

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).

Still one of our favourites in recent years. The open dynamic world can place a heavy demand on some hardware, but the MSI system maintains smooth frame rates throughout.

As we had hoped, the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 is a solid, stable, well equipped board which offers one of the most intuitive bios configurations we have seen this year. We doubt many enthusiast users will want to use a touch screen to navigate the panels, but the option is there.

With so many Z68 boards currently on the market, the choices can be somewhat bewildering for a customer. The MSI board delivers a fully featured, well thought out layout, offering both USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps connectivity. The back panel is populated with a wide range of ports including HDMI, DVI, eSATA and multiple gigabit lan ports. The inclusion of an external reset CMOS button is an enthusiast favourite.

Overclocking the motherboard proved painfree and we found over the course of a week that memory compatibility is very good. While we hit 5ghz with some tweaking, we know that a wide audience of inexperienced users will really benefit from the physical ‘OC Genie button' on the motherboard. By simply pressing this button into an ‘on' position and rebooting, the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 takes all the effort out of overclocking. It gave the Core i5 2500k a healthy boost of 900mhz, achieving stable speeds of 4.2ghz.

While the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 is designed for the high end enthusiast user, we appreciate the methodology with the design. Keep it simple for inexperienced users who still want some benefit from enhanced clock speeds, but offer a comprehensive bios configuration for those who want to push the hardware to breaking point.

While PCIE Gen 3.0 isn't being utilised right now, the product is futureproofed for the next generation of graphics cards.

You can buy from Scan for £188 inc vat although they are out of stock at time of publication. OCUK are selling for £200.

Pros:

• Fantastic bios.
• OC Genie button is a nice touch.
• good memory compatibility.
• connectivity is first class.

Cons:

• Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 is less than half the price.
  

Kitguru says: Fully loaded and ready to rock.

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