Conclusion
I have had a harder time than usual writing up this conclusion. There are so many areas that this board has done right. There is one significant area where the cut back was noticed by those wishing to put the top end AMD CPU into play. Not supporting the 219 watt FX series of chips is a bit of an oversight. If a user wants one of these chips then they need to invest in the MSI 990FXA GD80 or a competing board which has the VRMs capable of powering those chips.
The back is bare, but we again see the demarkation between the audio and rest of the motherboard. This line is lit up by a handful of LEDs for a nice effect.
Having said that, the price of this board is extremely competitive considering its feature set. It is one of the few USB 3.1 boards currently available for the AM3+ market. It has excellent audio characteristics and the inclusion of the SoundBlaster software. The Killer NIC is a positive overall, though some would just assume to disable the software layer running on top of the Atheros Gig-E chip. The cooling of the VRMS and chipset is again above average and the board runs great. The firmware is fully featured and easy to overclock.
When we look at the price, my opinion certainly swings into the more positive realm. Here is a quick, full featured board that has SLI and CrossFire support. Not only that, but the overall layout and spacing of the board is excellent. Components are not crowded, there is enough room for aggressive cooling solutions, and there are plenty of fan headers and good fan control in the firmware to handle a significant number of fans.
The reat ATX plate is a nice looking affair with color coding that labels the different ports in an easy to read manner.
$129 is not a whole lot of money to pay for a board like this. Sure, it will not support the higher wattage CPUs, but it does perfectly fine with the 125 watt units that I tested it with. The FX-8350 is an outstanding deal at $175 (not including seemingly perpetual specials). The FX-8370 is a slightly worse deal at $199, but it is not horrific either. I would still personally go for the small savings and get the 8350 if I were in the market for a new AMD based system.
MSI did a very good job overall with the design considering the restrictions with the VRMs. The MSI Gaming series have become quite popular due to the look, price, and overall feature set. I had absolutely no issues with this board in the two months I have been pounding on it on a daily basis. Quality is obviously pretty good out of the box and it has been running in a slightly overclocked state during that time (in Summer weather no less). This board has everything a user could possibly want and I again must stress that the audio performance seems to be several notches higher than most of the competition.
Fan control in the firmware is a wonderful thing. MSI's implementation is very nicely done and competitive with other products out there.
The addition of USB 3.1 is going to be of limited use until we see more 3.1 peripherals. These units are coming, but for now they are limited to ultra-fast external storage solutions. Perhaps one day we will get 4K cameras recording at 30 to 60 fps that will saturate USB 3.1, but we are not at that point today. If a user is looking for a board that will last quite some time, have a great featureset, and utilize the 8 thread capable FX processors then this board has everything a user needs. If a user is looking for a futureproof solution that will support next generation AMD processors, well they need to look elsewhere. The upcoming Zen based processors will utilize a different socket architecture and AM3+ is a dead end.
Overall I am quite pleased by this board and it has withstood a daily workload that should have exposed any issues that it might have had. The color scheme is great, the quality is very good, and the price is right.
Nice to see AM3+ getting some
Nice to see AM3+ getting some LOVE.
#Joshtekk
that’s all I got
#Joshtekk
that’s all I got for now
Thanks, nice review.)
I use
Thanks, nice review.)
I use this bords, in one of my everyday workstation-pc and “sometimes as a gamer-pc”, it runs with an FX 8150 + 16gb 2400MHz and 2*MSI 390X.
“it runs everything with ease, on stock settings”
It´s a very stabile bord, and easy to oc on.
Nice day.)
Ps. When I OC my FX 8150, it
Ps. When I OC my FX 8150, it runs 4.7GHz (24/7stabile), with one 120mm AIO kit.
Nice day.)
That’s a good little
That's a good little overclock for that particular chip. I never actually got my hands on that one. First AM3+ chip I think I reviewed was a 4170 I believe?
The best AM3+ board, that I
The best AM3+ board, that I has stumble upon so far, is still the Asus Formula-Z. (I have tried with a FX 8150, FX 8370E, FX 8370 and FX 9590)
With the FX 8150 on the Z-board, I can reach 4.8GHz 24/7 stable “with tornado-sound”, and up to 5GHz non-stable. (I have only tried with a AIO-120P/P for cooling, maybe that´s why.)
Bulldozer is as dead as the
Bulldozer is as dead as the dodo.
POINT OF VIEW.)
POINT OF VIEW.)
I also want to buy MSI 990
I also want to buy MSI 990 fxa gaming motherboard, and I already have amd fx-8150 processor, I want to ask that is it running good with these combinations? Plz reply, it will be appreciated.
It’s a nice way to clean out
It’s a nice way to clean out all the old am3+ crap left in the warehouse 🙂
Send it off in style.
Without good power handling,
Without good power handling, the board will be a bad choice for anyone on the AM3 platform looking for an upgrade. Due to AMD making a ton of mistakes, the AM3 platform has not really seen anything new. if you have an AMD CPU, you pretty much have to overclock, and it is not uncommon to see voltages as high as 1.55V. A Phenom II x6 1100t overclocked to 4.3GHz at 1.55-1.56V, can easily pull 200-230 watts
An FX8350 at 5GHz will also pull well over 200 watts.
Any attempt to market to users on the AM3 platform, will need a board that caters to achieving the highest possible overclock.
The Phenom II x6 and 8 core FX CPUs form AMD can still offer a great computing experience if overclocked. The Phenom II x6 has a much higher IPC than the FX series, and when overclocked well, they do not bottleneck things too much.
The root of the issue is that unless they can significantly lower their price or use higher quality VRMs, most (if not all) users would rather buy a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK (good for supporting both new and legacy stuff) and a Core i5 4690K and overclock that. It will be a large upfront cost, but it would also make for a 90+% performance boost for about 2.6 times the cost of this board.
90% ….science confirmed!
90% ….science confirmed!
Most people go FX for budget
Most people go FX for budget gaming. Even i3s can cost a pretty penny in comparison.
This board is actually great for what it needs to be. If a user is buying a 8350 or even a 9590, then it’s far more beneficial to just spend a little extra cash and just go with one of the recent i5s.
Now, if someone were to go for a 6300 or 6350, the VRMs here are plenty to get a nice overclock out of those chips. The board is at a great price point to offer lots of gaming features so that combined with the aforementioned skus, it offers a lot of bang for the buck.
I would still recommend that if someone was looking to upgrade now, that they just wait till next year with Zen, but with the cost this board needed to be at, I don’t think MSI could afford to put a larger VRM into it.
Every single I5 dies in
Every single I5 dies in multitasking from every single FX x8 cpu. And that 90% performance boost are some mirages hahah. There are lot informations on internet in multitasking FX8350 can outperform i7 4790K, so don`t speak bullshits inferior fanboy..
no support for the 9590 kind
no support for the 9590 kind of kills it…
you can use the FX-9370 &
you can use the FX-9370 & fx-9590 with bios 1.1 Released 8-6-2015
But the website says it does
But the website says it does support fx 9590 and 9370 but a special thermal is required http://www.msi.com/support/mb/990FXA-GAMING.html#support-cpu
Huh. I was told, directly,
Huh. I was told, directly, that I should not run a 9590 with this board. They are correct though that you do need a heavier duty cooling solution for that particular chip.
on there site says you can
on there site says you can use the FX-9370 & fx-9590 with bios 1.1 Released 8-6-2015
is there going to be an
is there going to be an update to the reviews to confirm the chips work ,FX-9370 & fx-9590 with bios 1.1, and also added full support NVMe booting. would love to see the Intel 750 PCIe NVMe to see if it works now. had my eye on the 400gb one as a boot drive… link below where it say World’s first AMD motherboard with NVMe support.
http://us.msi.com/news/100110.html
This is the kind of board you
This is the kind of board you use when your building a show machine. The black PCV is beautiful, the board components look higher end than most, and while the chipset heatsinks are functional but beautiful, the cap with MSI written on it on the bottom WILL get in the way of a full size video card. There will be hell to pay if someone tries to stuff crossfire on here.
I just put a second, large
I just put a second, large card on that board in the CF/SLI secondary slot. The lower heatsink doesn't impede it at all. In fact, the SATA headers stand higher than the heatsink does.
Latest BIOS update indicates
Latest BIOS update indicates support for the 220W CPUs.
http://us.msi.com/support/mb/990FXA-GAMING.html#support-cpu
Intel terminated North Bridge
Intel terminated North Bridge in 2011 with Sandy Bridge, eliminating QPI. AMD still has it with the FX series (HT) in 2015. It’s just sluggish.
With a gold-pile who is
With a gold-pile who is worth, 100times more then what AMD have, and this is what they can come up with.. Now that´s is just “sluggish”
Hey, buddy. You are
Hey, buddy. You are everywhere!
Maybe, somebody has a
Maybe, somebody has a all-seeing eye.)
Nice Day.
I am extremely curious what
I am extremely curious what the 1090FX was going to be before AMD cancelled it. HT isn't really holding back the FX platform. Sure, a couple of cycles of extra latency in there, but nothing huge. I'm just not entirely sure why AMD didn't refresh the 990FX northbridge with the A88X acting as the south. In theory that is possible since the A88X communicates via 4x PCI-E.
I wanted to see the 1090FX
I wanted to see the 1090FX too but, 990 was a slight revamp of the 890, notable for SLI compatibility integration. I don’t see how they would have made 1090FX that interesting, apart from adding PCIe 3.0 support which Intel has had since 2012. Maybe change their weird 38 lane PCIe configuration? We’ll never know.
A88X as south bridge sound interesting. I can’t, however, find any solid info about the SB950. I know it was a rebadged SB850, but other than that, data is vague. It seems to only have a 2x PCIe connection since even with a multi SSD RAID, it is unable to crack 1 GB/s.
The 990FX and SB950
The 990FX and SB950 communicate through the A-Link Express III connection. This is a 4x PCI-E 2.0 solution. The A88X communicates with the APU through a 4x PCI-E 2.0 solution known as UMI. Unless there is some low-level changes made by AMD, you would think that the A88X could connect to an older generation northbridge? I've asked AMD a number of times about this, but nobody has ever gotten back to me about the particulars behind the tech.
Well, I was looking at this:
Well, I was looking at this: http://bit.ly/1OAzsNE
The RAID results seem a bit inconsistent and don’t seem to scale well, but that could be down to anything when 6 SSDs are involved.
At any rate, since both SB950 and A88X use the same communication method with the same bandwidth, I don’t think it would have been difficult for AMD to make a 990FX refresh with the latter southbridge.
They have shifted focus to Zen though, so for all intents and purposes, AM3+ is at the end of the line.
You know, when they were switching from AM2/AM2+ to AM3, they had to implement both DDR2 and DDR3 controllers on the processor to be backward compatible with older AM2/AM2+ motherboards. From my understanding, Zen is a brand new architecture. They don’t have to worry about backwards compatibility (And lets face it, AM3+ is way long in the tooth coming up on it’s 4th anniversary), They’re going straight for DDR4 on socket AM4 which looks like it will also support their APUs on the same socket. A bit unusual but I like the flexibility of the platform if the rumors are true.
Incidentally, I can’t tell from the preliminary die shots if they will be integrating the PCIe controller in the CPU. You’ve got any info on that?
I don’t have concrete
I don't have concrete evidence of the PCI-E controller on the CPU, but it would make sense if they did. I'm pretty sure that they will to simplify design and increase performance.
Now, all i would want and
Now, all i would want and love would be a motherboard to have some built in WIFI (ala the AMD nForce 590 of old) and a gol’darned M.2 slot. Why does Intel get all the love?! All serious joking aside, would the processor on an AMD platform be a bottleneck for M.2 or is it just a cost effectiveness thing.
Many thanks,
T3hderk
See, I can easily tell you
See, I can easily tell you guys suck, because my 9590 has been very happy, stable, and @ 5Ghz ever since I updated the BIOS. Be sure to check everything when you make a statement. So, the 990FXA Gaming plays very nicely with the 9 series CPUs.
Thats great news! you say it
Thats great news! you say it runs at 5ghz? is that overclocked or stock?
Hi,
I’ve got question for fan
Hi,
I’ve got question for fan control – is it possible to lower rpm for fans without pwm (only 3 cables)? I saw that Asus did something really nice with their latest z170 series for skylake cpu’s (with adaptation and some fancy software) – is it similar for this motherboard?
Thanks for any hints,
Best Regards,
T.
Waddup, Playas,
Yo, I gots a
Waddup, Playas,
Yo, I gots a question fo y’all. I wanna git dis muthaboard n’ SLI it wit two MSI GTX 760 4GB as a budget backup gamin’ rig, namsayin? I’mma put an FX8350 in it, y’all. Wut I wanna know is will da two GTX 760 wit dem Twin Frozr fans run just fine on da first two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots? I gots a small PC case, da Silverstone RVX01. Peace, y’all. West side.
– CrunkPlaya69
P.S. Yea, dis b a series question, y’all.
You asked that in a
You asked that in a profoundly stupid premeditated manner. Kill yourself.
This board with the FX8350
This board with the FX8350 will be a nice upgrade for my BT48 and Q9559 cpu.
can it support the intel core
can it support the intel core i5 processer
can it support the intel core
can it support the intel core i5 processer