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MSI 990FXA-GD65 thoughts

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manu2b

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2011
Well,

I read a lot of bad stories with this MoBo on many forums. Most of them dating back in the first month of 2012.

I got a cheap second hand combo with a 1075T and this mother board, for €140.

I am not a MSI fan, it's the third product from this brand that I own (First was a MoBo in the P3 days, second was a 6950 TFIII).

I must say I am very, very satisfied: the board goes all the way up to an amazing 310FSB, and I didn't try to higher yet. It brings my old Thuban to 4.2GHz, with a max vCore on load of 1.56v (Prime95 stable).

There is no way to calibrate the LLC, but, at these frequency, I need to set the vCore to 1.51v in the BIOS.

It moves between 1.45v and 1.56v on load.

I might get a 8350 quite soon to try it on it, but, for $120, I think it's a real good alternative to the Gigabyte UD3.
 
Manu, I hope that MSI fixed the VRM issue they were having with there boards, it seems it was mostly the AMD ones. It would be great if there were less expensive alternatives out there for the FX cpu's. I believe I have only seen 1 person show up trying to use an FX 8 series on that board, I can't remember whom though. Running a Fx as opposed to the Thuban is a big difference, from what I have seen. I hope that you will find success on that board with a 8350 so we have another mobo to recommend.
 
^Sure, but VRM's seem all right: they don't heat up at all, and with 4.2GHz/1.56v, it's quite a lot of work I'm asking!
 
On paper it looks like that motherboard should have no problems running a Fx 8350, I would believe it would with no issues.

I can only comment on what I know, I have never had a 6 core so I really don't know what the power draw compared to the Fx 8xxx is like. I'll give you an example of what I do know. I had my 955be on a M5A99X EVO, it has a 6+2 vrm power phase. I know this comparison isn't the same as what you will be dealing with, but it's what I have experienced, so bear with my babble :). Anyhoo, I could overclock my 955 be very well on the M5A99X I had it primed for 2 hours on water at 4.3. I think I've benched it as high as 4.7 with over 1.6 v core. My vrms did get a bit hot but sticking a 50mm fan on the NB and Vrm section took care of that. When I put the 8350 on that board I could only get it 2 hours primed up to 4.4. Anything higher was just a joke, instant freezes as soon as I hit the start button on prime, it didn't matter how much voltage I threw at it. As soon as I put the 8350 on my CHV all was well I have it stable at 5.1, 2 hours prime and run 24/7 @ 4.7.

With all that said, the MSI board is on paper a stouter board then the M5A99X evo and I believe the 6 core probably draws more power then the 955. I hope and believe that the MSI GD 65 will hold up to the Fx 8350 but until I see so, I remain skeptical only because of the issues Msi had in the past with the VRM section. I personally had 2 Msi boards go snap crackle pop on me trying to O/C the 955 be on them.
 
@ "manu2b", I am going to add a little to what Drake has said. Since I have done so for years, I have found I sort of keep a running total of certain boards that come thru the forum. Yeah, I know a real odd habit, just that I did it when I worked for DFI and needed to isolate a trend.

Okay, since the middle of 2011 just a little after I began hitting these forums again and hanging pretty exclusively in the AMD Cpu and AMD Mobo forum sections, i count 11 users coming into those two forum sections. If I have the users separated correctly it is 8 Users in the AMD Cpu forum section and the rest in the AMD Mobo forum section.

The two latest to come to the AMD Cpu forum section have had the MSI FX GD65. One had four core Deneb and the other had an FX-6100 if my memory is still holding up. (hate search in this forum) Each has had some minor success. The Deneb cpu clocked okay, but LLC was a pain. The other found out that there appears to be no Bios Menu for the latest APM = Disable setting and the dang cpu throttles and nothing seems to be doable to fix it.

What MSI has done is to n0t give that setting to us overclockers. That way their not so robust VRM is not so subject to blowing up like they did for over a year earlier. Note: this is an application power management setting and n0t the old Applied Power Management. The newer setting is come since the FX processors have been on the scene and not an older cpu power setting. I have heard rumors that MSI and n0w even the Gigabyte UD3 series of boards may have that setting hidden as HPC on/off. HighPerformancePC or similar.

I can pretty much say with over 99% assurance that your happiness with overclocking a newer FX 6 core or 8 core processor will not be very enjoyable if you try to push it like you have your 1075T. The board just seems n0t up to such power hungry processors, without the APM = Disable setting since the dang board will be throttling the Pee out of the pushed FX processor.

As far as I can realistically determine the sitution, that seems the deal with the GD65. H*ll I just don't think MSI gets it. With the REV 3.0 boards it seems like Gigabyte n0 longer gets it either with FX processors.

So it really boils down to about 5 motherboards that can stand-up without undue strain on itself or the user, when a 6 core or 8 core processor is in the cpu socket. You notice I don't say anything about the 4 core FX processors. That is not because I think they will do fine, but rather the majority of users that have made any "sense" in posting around and about, were all trying the bigger dog FX cpus. In traveling the forums around, I have to discard any information that was posted by those that seemed not even able to find the clear CMOS function on the mobo. I don't trust that sort of poster be the posting good or bad about a board.
RGone...
 
HPC is BS . It only makes things worse on the ud3. It just keeps your clocks up but within TDP limit. When overclocking it does nothing and at stock it crashes the whole rig because CnQ lowers the voltage but HPC keeps the clocks up
 
REV 3.0 worse than ever?

HPC is BS . It only makes things worse on the ud3. It just keeps your clocks up but within TDP limit. When overclocking it does nothing and at stock it crashes the whole rig because CnQ lowers the voltage but HPC keeps the clocks up

Dang man I knew you had those 10 issues you posted up in your thread but there you did not give this piece of information. Probably took a while to sort thru all this new Rev 3.0 crap. That just sucks man. Thanks for posting up the real deal stuff.
RGone...
 
Thanks RGone, Drake and Tungureanu.

Well, I might forget about the 8350 and keep this good old Thuban, then!
 
Thanks RGone, Drake and Tungureanu.

Well, I might forget about the 8350 and keep this good old Thuban, then!

Judging from the Video card you have, I would say you are a gamer. For just gaming, you are probably doing just fine cpu wise. You would have to have some very very heavy duty applications to run, before you would notice any great difference moving to an FX processor. That seems still the overall consensus. Crap on AMD for drying up all the 1090T and 1100T upward unlocked multiplier Thubans. Those were some awesome cpus. Wish I had gone ahead and gotten me one. Luck man.
RGone...
 
^You can find plenty of Thubans in Europe for 70 to 100€.

I got mine, with the MSI board, including stock cooler for €140. ANd it's still under warranty until 10/2014...

Well, I am not even a gamer, lol, like to bench as a hobby, and I like the fun OCing Phenoms.

I had 3 2600K's, powerful. And will certainly grab an Haswell this summer, but OCing these chips is just boring: take the vCore to the max safe value, and bring up the Multi until you BSOD, lol.
 
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