Results: SiSoft Sandra 2014 SP3

The problem with motherboard reviews is that we do not see the performance deltas that we used to due to the integration of so much functionality onto the CPU.  Instead of comparing memory controller designs from VIA, Intel, and NVIDIA we are now left with the units built into the processors.  AM3+ still uses HyperTransport to connect the CPU to the northbridge, and then onto to the PCI-E bus.  FM2+ gets rid of HyperTransport and uses PCI-E to communicate between the APU and the FCH.  As such, it is good to see if there are any particular variances between boards even though so much performance and functionality is already integrated into the CPU.  We also take special note of I/O performance, as it can be affected quite a bit by a poor BIOS implementation.

CPU performance is essentially even across the board.  Neither board has an advantage here.  The only real difference is in memory performance.  The Asus board is around 1.5 GB/sec faster than the MSI offering.  It is faster, but as we will see later it does not affect overall performance to any great degree.

SATA 6G performance across both boards is again nearly identical.  In a couple of write tests the MSI board is slightly faster, but the differences are minimal at best.  When we look at USB 3.0 performance we do see the VIA chip on the MSI board being quite a bit faster overall than the ASMedia controller on the Asus board.  We will see that comes at a particular price in the next testing section.

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