MSI 990FXA-GD80 questions

[doveman]

I'm planning to get the MSI 990FXA-GD80 as it's the only board (other than the more expensive ASUS Crosshair V Formula) that has the right slot layout for me, allowing me to run one GPU (6950 at the moment) in the 2nd from bottom x8 slot, and add another for Xfire in the top x16 slot later. I like silence, so my 6950 has a Accelero Xtreme Plus II fitted, making it a 3-slot card, and with the cards in these slots they'd have a slot between them, helping with airflow.

Anyway, just wanted to check that (a) my TRUE rev.c with 120mm fan will fit no problem and (b) it doesn't have the same stupid bug as my Biostar TA790GXBE, where it resets when resuming from standby if the FSB is overclocked!

If anyone's got one of these boards with the FSB overclocked and could check this, I'd be very grateful

 

[a c i d.f l y]

Here's a big tip for you: the slot your second card will be in is actually an x16 slot (the second slot is x8 slot, the fourth is an x4 -- x16/x8/x16/x4 ). The problem with this is the extra distance between the cards. The board comes with three longer SLI connectors, but lacks extended CrossfireX connectors. MSI's support will handily provide a longer CrossfireX cable if you provide the following bit of information to Jane Gao at MSI support.

Product Name: 99FXA-GD80 (911-7640-036)
Part Number: 911-764900036
Serial Number: **This is found on your box**
Home Address: *************
Request: Extended CrossfireX connector.
Reason: Not included in box.

Jane Gao's e-mail is [email protected]


HEATSINK -- this will easily fit up to a Noctua NH-D14, which is the biggest heatsink I've seen on the market. The TRUE doesn't overhang the RAM slots, so you have nothing to worry about there.


FSB -- I'm assuming you have a locked processor? The 790 chipset was substantially less stable when boosting the FSB as the 890/990 (same thing). As long as you're backing down your HTT and NB multipliers to take into account the boost in FSB, I've personally run up to 250MHz. No point, as I have an unlocked processor and garnish better gains using the multiplier.

 

[doveman]

Hey, thanks for all the useful info.

That's great if the second from bottom slot is x16, although I'm a bit confused by your signature as it says " x16/x8/x16(@x8)". Is there any difference between a x8 and a x16(@x8) slot?

Cool to know MSI will provide the longer CrossfireX cable and that my TRUE rev.C will fit

There doesn't look to be any more space between the RAM and CPU than on my Biostar, and on that the fan on the TRUE overhangs the nearest RAM slot, although I guess a low-profile stick might fit in there. It's a shame board makers don't consider this more but the only board I've seen that might avoid this problem is the Asrock 890GX Pro3

Yeah, I'm running an Athlon II X4 630 at the moment, so can only overclock with the FSB. It's running great and stable at 250Mhz (yeah, had to tweak everything else), there's just this problem with resuming from standby if the FSB is overclocked by even 5MHZ. Someone told me this issue seemed to be related to the Award BIOS, so I asked Biostar about it and all they said was "when system resume, it will check many places include voltage and clock also bios have problem to program the OC frequency and voltage after resume please don't use standby while OC it might cause problem", so I'm steering clear of their boards in future!

 

[a c i d.f l y]

That's great if the second from bottom slot is x16, although I'm a bit confused by your signature as it says " x16/x8/x16(@x8)". Is there any difference between a x8 and a x16(@x8) slot?

If you have any other cards in the 2nd or 4th slot, it will reduce the bandwidth of the 3rd slot to x8. There is no performance difference until you reach resolutions spanning 2-3 monitors. I have a PhysX rendering card in my second slot so it runs at x8; if it was in the 4th slot, it would run at x4 and my third slot would still run at x8.

Also, I don't like how Standby works with any setup. Generally it takes almost as long to resume from Standby as it would just to boot from scratch.

You may be able to reorient the direction of your heatsink; such as point it up instead of back. But yes, low-profile RAM is always optimum. Those oversized heatsinks make absolutely no difference to overclockability and nothing has ever been proven as to their capacity to extend the life of the sticks. It should tell you something when Corsair will sell the exact same chips/sticks in two formats -- one with the guaddy heatsinks and one "low-profile"/standard height.

**Important point: your current motherboard is DDR2, this board is DDR3 -- you're going to have to replace your RAM as the slots are wholly incompatible.

 

[doveman]

If you have any other cards in the 2nd or 4th slot, it will reduce the bandwidth of the 3rd slot to x8. There is no performance difference until you reach resolutions spanning 2-3 monitors. I have a PhysX rendering card in my second slot so it runs at x8; if it was in the 4th slot, it would run at x4 and my third slot would still run at x8.

Ah, I see. Thanks for explaining that. The manual for the GD80 says absolutely nothing about which slots run at what speed, which is a bit poor.

Also, I don't like how Standby works with any setup. Generally it takes almost as long to resume from Standby as it would just to boot from scratch.

Resuming from hibernation I'd agree (although it still saves me a fair bit of time as the programs don't have to all load/initialise) but resuming from standby is a lot quicker than booting from scratch (or hibernation) in my experience. Not only are the programs already loaded, but I don't have to wait for POST and boot menus.

You may be able to reorient the direction of your heatsink; such as point it up instead of back. But yes, low-profile RAM is always optimum. Those oversized heatsinks make absolutely no difference to overclockability and nothing has ever been proven as to their capacity to extend the life of the sticks. It should tell you something when Corsair will sell the exact same chips/sticks in two formats -- one with the guaddy heatsinks and one "low-profile"/standard height.

**Important point: your current motherboard is DDR2, this board is DDR3 -- you're going to have to replace your RAM as the slots are wholly incompatible.

I may be quite happy to stick with 8GB, but it's nice to have the option. You'd just think that nowadays, with people using large coolers and heatsinked RAM, the board makers would allow room for that, particularly the boards marketed at enthusiasts/overclockers who are more likely to be using such parts. I wouldn't want to rotate my cooler, as I like having it blow out towards the rear exhaust and there's always a chance that the heatsink pipes will clash with a heatsink or something on the board anyway.

Thanks for the warning, but I'm sorted and already bought 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3. Yeah, that gaudy stuff

 

[doveman]

Just read this review http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/sabertooth-990fx-990fxa-ud7-990fxa-gd80,review-32314-17.html which does throw up some problems with overclocking on this board:

"MSI’s low score was caused by voltage drop that resulted from MSI’s voltage compensation mechanism removed from its first AMD Bulldozer firmware."

"MSI’s apparent misfortune is caused by boot failures whenever we attempted to manually lower its CPU-NB ratio, which climbed past the edge of stability in “Auto” mode as we pushed up the CPU base clock."

I still bought it, because the layout suits my needs best and also because I found e-buyer are selling them for £102

I just have to bear in mind that I probably won't be able to push the FSB past 240, as doing so would require dropping the CPU-NB ratio which apparently causes the board not to boot. I'm keeping my eye out for a cheap Phenom II X4 BE to replace my Athlon II X4 and then it won't be an issue.

 

[doveman]

Hmm, just noticed the manual says that I have to put my two sticks in slot 1 (nearest the CPU) and slot 3 for dual-channel operation. This will be impossible with my TRUE rev.C and fan (and I imagine most large coolers). My current board lets me put two sticks in the slots furthest away from the CPU, avoiding this problem.

Even with low-profile RAM I think the fan would be resting on it, which I wouldn't be happy about and most RAM seems not to be low-profile (including that which I've already bought), so I don't know what MSI were thinking.

I actually asked them if this board was compatible with my TRUE the other day and they told me it was, which isn't really correct if it means I can't install my RAM (which is on the QVL list).

I know what you said about the TRUE not overhanging the RAM slots, but it doesn't look like there's any more space between RAM and CPU on the MSI than on my Biostar TA790GXBE and the fan overhangs the nearest RAM slot on that:

http://www.msi.com/pic/product/five_pictures1_2400_20110531112742.jpg

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=419#

 

[doveman]

If you have any other cards in the 2nd or 4th slot, it will reduce the bandwidth of the 3rd slot to x8. There is no performance difference until you reach resolutions spanning 2-3 monitors. I have a PhysX rendering card in my second slot so it runs at x8; if it was in the 4th slot, it would run at x4 and my third slot would still run at x8.

I just read this article which says that one of the advantages of the 1090FX chipset will be 2x16 CF, so I'm confused again as you've said the 990FXA-GD80 already does this!

 

[doveman]

I also wanted to ask about RAM for this board. I need to buy 8GB low-profile DDR3 (and sell of the Corsair Vengeance I already bought which won't fit!) and so I'm looking for some advice on what will work and overclock (i.e. give the best speeds) with this board.

I can get 1.35v Mushkin Blackline for £36

or 1.65v Corsair XMS3 for £30

or 1.5v Corsair XMS3 for £41.76

I've also seen some 1.5v Crucial Rendition, which would be the cheapest at £26 for 8GB, but I think I'd prefer something with some sort of cover/heat spreader http://www.ebuyer.com/291000-crucia...y-module-cl9-1-5v-rm51264ba1339-rm51264ba1339

All of these are 9-9-9-24 sticks

I realise the Rendition is 1333Mhz whilst the rest are 1600Mhz, but the tests I've seen don't seem to show much benefit and there's no guarantee anything would run at 1600Mhz with a Phenom II X4 (which only officially supports 1333Mhz) anyway. If I recall correctly, running 1333Mhz with tighter timings (i.e. tighter than 9-9-9-24) gives more of a boost, so if anyone knows if any of the above (or something else) will run at tighter timings, that would be useful information as well.

 

[MSIINOZ]

I planned on building a HTPC using this Mobo & a 6 core CPU late last year and it is now up & running & I am very happy with my new super HTPC Checkout my build thread>
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=689196

For those of you that may be unaware the MSI 990FXA-GD80 with an FX-6100 set a new world record>

http://hexus.net/tech/items/mainboa...mainboard-sets-new-overclocking-world-record/

http://www.bjorn3d.com/news/MSI_990..._Sets_New_Overclocking_World_Record/1289.html