MSI, AMD 890GX and Core Unlocking

Testing Methods

With the exception of SiSoft Sandra and Lavalys Everest, all of our benchmarks use real applications that give you a great idea of how well a product fares when performing the tasks you're likely to want it for.

We test with our own Custom PC Media Benchmarks suite which can be downloaded so you can test your own system. It uses a combination of Gimp image editing, H.264 encoding with Handbrake and multi-tasking with 7-zip file compression combined with HD video playback. Finally, for our game testing we put the board through two game tests and record the minimum and average frame rates.

Our benchmarks include stable overclocked results too, so you can gauge how much performance potential there is in the motherboard, and how much value this adds to your purchase.

Test Setup:

Motherboards:

• MSI 890GXM-G65 (890GX/SB850)
  
• Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB (890GX/SB850)
  
• MSI 785GM-E65 (785G/SB750)

Common Components:

• 2.8GHz AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition CPU (14 x 200MHz)
  
• 4GB 1,600MHz DDR3 CL8 memory
  
• 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA hard disk
  
• 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card
  
• Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
  
• PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU
  
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
  
• ATI Catalyst 10.1 WHQL

Overclocked Settings:

• MSI 890GXM-G65 (1.2 Beta 3 BIOS): 4x3.5GHz, 17.5x multiplier, 200MHz HT clock, 1600MHz dual channel DDR3 memory at 7-7-7-20-2T, 2.4GHz CPU-northbridge and 1,600MHz HT clock
  
• MSI 890GXM-G65 (1.0 BIOS): 3x3.6GHz, 15.5x multiplier, 235MHz HT clock, 1410MHz dual channel DDR3 memory at 8-8-8-20-1T, 2.12GHz CPU-northbridge and HT clock
  
• Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB: 3x3.69GHz, 11x multiplier, 335MHz HT clock, 1340MHz dual channel DDR3 memory at 8-8-8-20-1T, 2.35GHz CPU-northbridge and 2.0GHz HT clock
  
• MSI 785GM-E65: 3x3.1GHz, 15.5x multiplier, 200MHz HT clock, 1,600MHz dual channel DDR3 memory at 8-8-8-22-1T, 2GHz CPU-northbridge and HT clock.