To add all this into the mix, there is no load line calibration option here either, meaning that any voltage drop across the CPU under load is going to happen and the system does not allow for the user to correct for it, potentially ending up with higher voltages for a similar overclock than other motherboards.Īdjusting the DRAM options is a little difficult as well, given that for whatever speed is chosen, there is no real indication of where the memory should sit or what the suggested values should be for a given XMP profile. Moral of the story is to try with small voltages first – do not rush in. When I made the offset to +0.01 volts, it came down to 1.335 volts in the operating system, showing that is does work in part. This is because the stock voltage for this FX-8150 CPU is actually 1.325 volts, but for some reason it says 1.000 volts at stock. So above it shows that our CPU voltage is 1.000 volts, but when I place a +0.200 volt offset, it moves up to 1.525 volts in the operating system. Secondly, the system actually reduces the voltage when at stock settings without telling you. Firstly is that without knowing the stock voltage of the CPU, it will be difficult to guess the voltage needed when starting to overclock. There are two points of confusion that go on here. This varies from -0.350 volts to +0.500 volts and up, with the graduation between voltages changing between 0.001 volts through 0.01 volts depending on what range you are dealing with. With this motherboard we are unable to set a fixed voltage,and instead have to rely on an offset. Secondly, and perhaps more important, is the CPU voltage option. Firstly, the XMP listing has ‘Intel Extreme Memory Profile’ as a menu option, which might seem a little odd on an AMD-based motherboard. In the newer BIOS iterations these are aligned, which would have worked well here.Ī couple of items are worthy of note. What order we do have starts with frequencies, then turbo modes, DRAM frequencies, sub-DRAM timings, HyperTransport speeds, voltages and then a couple of extra features. The OC tab from the main screen is where all the cool kids overclockers hang out, but unlike the latest implementations from MSI, the 970 Gaming goes back to the long list of overclocking options with no discernable order. The Advanced menu option from the Settings tab gives more of a wider range of BIOS options, such as the Integrated peripherals option which allows users to switch SATA modes between RAID, AHCI and IDE or to disable controllers:įrom the Advanced menu there are also the Fast Boot options, useful for users with compatible graphics solutions and Windows 8 to increase the POST loading times.īack out in the Settings tab we also have the Boot options for boot order:Īs well as Save and Exit for a simple one-time boot override: For the future, MSI might think about adding in a per-DIMM list to show which memory slots are occupied as well. The System Status menu option is more akin to a normal entry point for a BIOS, showing more of the same information at the top of the screen along with a list of drives installed in the SATA ports. The info tab next to the help screen will list some of the system voltages, although this information should be easier to source. The options for each section are placed in the middle of the screen, which squeezes them into a relatively small space.įor example, the Settings tab gives the above options, with the help screen explaining each option on the right. On the sides of the main image are the main BIOS tabs which enter the other sections of the BIOS. Also worthy of note is that the CPU voltage is not listed, which might be useful for overclockers, and neither is the CPU fan speed, in case the CPU fan is not plugged in properly. Unfortunately MSI has not added its XMP button in the top left hand corner alongside OC Genie, perhaps because XMP is an Intel named process and AMD’s equivalent, which is essentially the same thing, is somewhat ambiguous in its naming (others call it AMD Memory Profile, for example). On the positive side we get the name of the motherboard, the BIOS version, the CPU installed, the CPU frequency at POST, the DRAM size and frequency as well as the CPU temperature and an OC Genie option. Those that are familiar with the MSI package in general will recognize this main screen setup, featuring the dragon Gaming Series logo on the front and the top banner containing a number of useful bits of information. That being said on the AMD 970 platform overclocking is possible but is not the main focus - MSI still adds the options in anyway. Because of when the MSI 970 Gaming was released, and the amount of versatility of the MSI BIOS ecosystem, the motherboard gets an almost fully updated BIOS package to play with. There are a couple of features that we see on the latest Intel platforms which are missing here, which is a little unfortunate for overclockers especially.
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