MSI P55-GD65 - Mid-Range P55 for the Masses
by Gary Key on October 10, 2009 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking
The P55-GD65 offers a very good overclocking experience. Some additional BIOS tuning would make this a great motherboard for most enthusiasts.
Core i5/750 8GB Results
Our maximum stable overclock on air-cooling with the Core i5/750 resulted in a 4.2GHz clock speed at a respectable 210MHz Bclk with a variety of 8GB DDR3-2000+ kits. The primary voltages settings were 1.3625V VCore, 1.38V VTT, 1.83V PLL, and 1.65V VDimm. The VCore setting is deceiving. We had to run the board with Load Line Calibration (Low Vdroop) enabled for stability. This meant setting our voltage manually to 1.3625V with load rates rising to 1.3975V.
We could not stably run our memory above DDR3-2000 with 8GB loaded and the i5/750. We scaled back to DDR3-1683 at C7 timings which offered the same performance, if not better, than DDR3-2050 C9.
Core i7/860 8GB Results
Our i7/860 fared better clocking wise than the i5/750, with a 21x205 setting for 4.3GHz. Memory was set at DDR3-2055 with 9-9-9-24 1T timings at 1.65V.
VTT is set to 1.39V, PLL at 1.85V, VDimm at 1.65V, and VCore at 1.350V with LLC (Low Vdroop) enabled. Under load conditions VCore was +.015V~+.02V with low Vdroop enabled and -.04V~-.05V with it disabled. Our Core i7/870 clocks matched these exactly.
Core i7/860 4GB DDR3-2400 Results
MSI advertised up to DDR3-2400 speeds so we decided to verify their claim. Unfortunately, the board had serious problem running our DDR3-2400 Blade kit at 2400 with the stock 9-10-9-24 1T settings on 1.65V. We just could not dial in that memory speed. We had to settle for DDR3-2055 8-8-8-24 1T timings at 1.65V. The primary problem being that the board strictly utilizes the SPD under auto settings and the board tried setting the base 7-7-7-20 SPD settings at 2400. Even manually tuning each individual setting still resulted in a limit around DDR3-2100. Of course, our final settings is more than fast enough for application usage and let’s face it, nobody will be buying this board thinking they are going to break world records.
Thoughts
The overclocking results are very solid and certainly 4.2GHz~4.3GHz speeds are fast enough for most users. We have no concerns recommending the MSI P55-GD65 board for 24/7 overclocking use. When overclocked, the board is extremely stable. Our only concern is that S3 resume did not work properly with the Bclk set above 190.
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petergab - Saturday, October 17, 2009 - link
Do they use a foxconn socket on this motherboard?Gary Key - Thursday, October 22, 2009 - link
Yes, Foxconn socket. We are compiling a list of motherboards with each socket manufacturer along with whether they launched with the revised Foxconn socket or the old one (which seems to be the primary problem child). It has been difficult getting straight answers as you can imagine. ;)thermbug - Monday, October 12, 2009 - link
Pardon the brain freeze but what does the color coding inside the performance charts indicate?I see 3 i7's and i5 and an AMD chip for comparison.
Am I interpreting correctly that the i5 750 is the light green, dark green is the I7 860?
The utilization of color doesn't seem to be consistent on the various graphs.
The MSI board is consistently highlighted as dark green in the latter several graphs. But which CPU is being used in that case? It looks like the I7 860 is the standard test but I can't quite grok it.
thermbug - Monday, October 12, 2009 - link
Pardon the brain freeze but what does the color coding inside the performance charts indicate?I see 3 i7's and i5 and an AMD chip for comparison.
Am I interpreting correctly that the i5 750 is the light green, dark green is the I7 860?
The utilization of color doesn't seem to be consistent on the various graphs.
The MSI board is consistently highlighted as dark green in the latter several graphs. But it mentionsBut which CPU is being used in that case?
strikeback03 - Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - link
I'm guessing that all results which don't specify a processor use the 750.haplo602 - Monday, October 12, 2009 - link
OMG another P55 board review ... how about a 785G one ? there was NONE since it launched, yet you are covering P55 like the next best thing to sliced bread ...maomao0000 - Sunday, October 11, 2009 - link
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ipay - Sunday, October 11, 2009 - link
That generally sums up my experience with every MSI board I've ever used. Unfortunately, while the warts are few, they're usually significant enough that they overshadow all the good features, and you end up with a board that's frustrating to use.Buy an ASRock or Biostar instead. You'll get a similar layout, similar overclocking options and fewer "warts" at a lower price.
yacoub - Sunday, October 11, 2009 - link
My MSI P6N-SLI Platinum (c2d) board has been flawless since day one. It is my first MSI motherboard and has been running great (overclocked, no less) ever since.crab nebula - Sunday, October 11, 2009 - link
If you insert a device in the PCI Express x4 slot, then the other two PCI Express x1 slots are disabled automatically (because the mb has an extra PCI Express Gb LAN controller and a PCI Express IEEE 1394 controller). Somehow this is not mentioned in any review of this mb.