Msi Motherboards & GPUs

[Static]

How good are they, compared to GIGABYTE & ASUS? Are they pretty much there in terms of quality parts and reliability, as well as software utilities?

Reason is because I'm planning to make a new build, probably in the next two weeks, and I'd like to try a different manufacturer. I mean, most of my builds were actually from ASUS and frankly, I'm kind of getting bored from them and want to try something a bit different. About two months ago I made a Gigabyte build for a friend. Tried it with him and it's pretty solid build. What I got in mind is the GD-65 Gaming, as well as their GTX 780 Twin Frozr since both of them are available in my local store, so I thought I'd ask you guys what are your thoughts and opinions regarding Msi.

I'm gonna come back to this thread later tonight since I have a lot of thing to do and won't be free until later on.

Thanks in advance.

[Jakexe]

It's no secret I fucking love the MSI g45 and g65. They're my pick for Z87 boards for most people. They're great for gpu's too, unfortunately Ive only played with the lightning but if thats anything to go by the twin frozer will be fine.

And the standard disclaimer, New Radeon cards are now out/coming out. Wait for them before buying a gpu atm.

[Deleted]

kinda also depends what you are looking for. (high end overclocking just screams ROG/MSI high end boards imo)
however i'm very glad i switched to my Z77-Mpower from MSI compared to my three other gigabyte mobo's that died out of nowhere. (3 mobo's in just over half a year)
as for GPU there is very little differences between brands these days. it mostly boils down if a company makes the card that fits your needs. (for example classified/lightning for uber overclocking , other high end cards are mostly on par with eachother)

[Deleted]

Don't get the GTX780 as there's the Radeon R9-280X/290X TF variants coming out - benchmarks and gaming seem to show that the 280X is roughly equivalent to the GTX770 in price, and in some games, even surpasses the GTX780 unOC'ed.

[Deleted]

Compared to Gigabyte and Asus? MSi are fan-fucking-tastic.

MSI have been my choice of motherboard manufacturer since 1996 - long before Gigabyte and Asus became popular for home builds.
They tend to come bundled with some decent software, and are in my experience more reliable than any other motherboard manufacturer out there.

As for GPUS, pretty much the same thing - except that their cooling isn't brilliant if you're planning to overclock. It's fine if you keep things running at the speeds they're designed for, though.

[Deleted]

After reading this

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...Gaming/31.html

MSI's new cooler doesn't seem to be such a great implementation for this card. While it just runs pretty hot under gaming, reaching up to 87°C, which is no problem by itself, we've also seen very high VRM temperatures, well above 115°C. This suggests that the cooler does not properly cool the voltage regulation circuitry, despite having a baseplate that should do so. As a result, in many of our non-gaming stress tests, the card did end up throttling; game performance seems unaffected, though.

I would read some reviews regarding their cooler. I think in general it doesnt cool the VRMs that well.

[Fascinate]

290 close to the 770 in price? I was told the 290's are gonna be like 600 bucks or more.

[potis]

290 close to the 770 in price? I was told the 290's are gonna be like 600 bucks or more.

290X is there to battle 780/Titan and will cost over 600-700$

290 is there to outperform 770 (Note, outperform, 280X is there to complete with 770 since the difference is tiny) which will be countered by 770 Ti sooner or later and will probably be around 400-500$

Dont confuse the cards.

Also OP.

As everything hardware related its about what you got lucky with.

As example i have P67 GD65, is it good? Yes, does it have issues? Yes.

The last bios for Sandy Bridge aka 1.19 has something bugged with USB controller and it causes the PC to cold restart during the first boot of the day at around 1 out of 10 times, which hasnt been fixed after 1.5 years and i am pretty sure its why my mouse and keyboard randomly freeze or send the command 10 times about twice per month and all because there is something wrong with the USB controller and the BIOS.

Gonna buy MSI for my next build? Probably not, since i am gonna go with ASUS because of the above reason, i dont like Gigabyte, and Asrock is the daughter company-cheap ASUS (Well it was since a few years ago, even if its not anymore you get the point ;D) so i find it pointless to get Asrock over ASUS.

GPU wise no matter what they say, MSI cards have been proven to be some of the strongest along with very good cooling at most cases which makes them awesome cards as everything hardware related someone might have had issues, or some model might suck but it doesnt change the fact that some of the strongest cards for the last 3-4 years is: Hawk/Lightning from MSI, EVGA OCed cards and AMP version from Zotac along with some Gigabyte cards mostly because they are cheaper and perform almost as good with decent cooling like the Windforce version they are preferred over giving +50-80$ for 3-5% speed.

[Static]

Lovely responses, guys. Thank you very much.

I haven't been up to date with the new AMD GPUs, but they seem to perform pretty decent. Although, as a guy who's going to focus mostly on Blizzard games, as well as some FPS games here and there, it seemed to me that the GTX 780 is the better option since I know that Blizzard games usually favor nVidia (unless this information is pretty outdated, please correct me if I'm wrong), while being able to play those FPS games without issues. Kind of like hitting 2 birds with 1 stone. Reason why I choose the 780, and not something like the 770, is because I own 2 ASUS VG278HE monitors so I thought I'm gonna need something powerful for both monitors.

As for the motherboard..I think I'm going to choose the Msi-GD 65 Gaming, then. Pretty excited to try their UEFI and see how their utility software look like.

[Fascinate]

Thats why i choose nvidia, they usually perform slightly better in mmo's (and outside a couple rpg's, thats all i play). And unless you are gonna game on both screens a 770 is more than enough gpu horsepower. Having a second monitor for just internet and gaming on the other isnt taxing at all on a GPU honestly, its only when you spread your game across multiple monitors is when you need real horsepower.

[yurano]

Don't get the GTX780 as there's the Radeon R9-280X/290X TF variants coming out - benchmarks and gaming seem to show that the 280X is roughly equivalent to the GTX770 in price, and in some games, even surpasses the GTX780 unOC'ed.

The 280X I've seen benched the most so far is the ASUS DCUII which is factory overclocked from 850 Mhz to 970 Mhz (1070 Mhz boost, up from 1000 Mhz) and a VRAM overclock from 6000 Mhz 6400 Mhz.

In contrast, the 770s in the comparisons are at reference clocks.

[Jakexe]

The 280X I've seen benched the most so far is the ASUS DCUII which is factory overclocked from 850 Mhz to 970 Mhz (1070 Mhz boost, up from 1000 Mhz) and a VRAM overclock from 6000 Mhz 6400 Mhz.

In contrast, the 770s in the comparisons are at reference clocks.

Straight up Asus vs Asus. Theyre pretty much equal with the 280x winning some, and the 770 winning some. Except in tomb raider where it blows the 770 away.

[yurano]

Straight up Asus vs Asus. Theyre pretty much equal with the 280x winning some, and the 770 winning some. Except in tomb raider where it blows the 770 away.

The first 770 image with the ASUS cards tests Metro Last Light 1.0.0.4 with the following settings: 2560x1600 AAA 16xAF Quality: Very High, Tessellation: Very High, SSAA: Off, PhysX: Off

In contrast the R9-280X benchmark tests Metro Last Light 1.0.0.13 with the followin settings: 2560x1600 AAA 16xAF Quality: Very High, Tessellation: Normal, SSAA: Off, PhysX: Off

Given that the ASUS DCUII 770 pulls equivalent numbers at higher settings compared to the R9-280X, the 770 wins in an essentially AMD dominated game (Metro).

In the second image that shows the R9-280X review, PhysX is off for the factory OC R9-280X but on for the reference 770. WTF?

[Jakexe]

Best I could find to compare, they're from 2 diff reviews.

[Blupparen]

It should be good, most motherboards are good nowadays aslong as you pay enough for it. I upgraded to haswell a week ago and chosed between asus z87-pro and msi g45 gaming. I went with the asus because I heard the killer nic wasn't that good (equal or worse than intel nic) and you had to have some program on to use it. The asus has a intel nic that's really good. Sure it will probably not do much differense but I don't like too much bloatprograms. Both are good motherboards for their price. The asus z87-pro is a really solid motherboard, the only thing i dislike is the colorscheme. Good thing I don't have a casewindow.

- - - Updated - - -

The first 770 image with the ASUS cards tests Metro Last Light 1.0.0.4 with the following settings: 2560x1600 AAA 16xAF Quality: Very High, Tessellation: Very High, SSAA: Off, PhysX: Off

In contrast the R9-280X benchmark tests Metro Last Light 1.0.0.13 with the followin settings: 2560x1600 AAA 16xAF Quality: Very High, Tessellation: Normal, SSAA: Off, PhysX: Off

Given that the ASUS DCUII 770 pulls equivalent numbers at higher settings compared to the R9-280X, the 770 wins in an essentially AMD dominated game (Metro).

In the second image that shows the R9-280X review, PhysX is off for the factory OC R9-280X but on for the reference 770. WTF?

AMD cards can't use physX. But from what I understand 280x is a overclocked 7970 so it should be roughly as good as a 770.
http://www.sweclockers.com/image/dia...a2390aa37d06a1

Full review: http://www.sweclockers.com/recension...0x-och-r9-270x
Its in swedish but I think google translate will make it readable. Otherwise just look at the graphs.

Edit: The graph was bigger then I thought.

[Deleted]

AMD cards can't use physX. But from what I understand 280x is a overclocked 7970 so it should be roughly as good as a 770.
[.

Thing is, it is turned on for the 770. Which is unfair as it will hit performance, reducing the numbers. Making it look like AMD is better (not sure if it is, havent looked at those graphs).