Section 1 Subsystems
Memory -
Memory performance is very important on a motherboard, especially when you have a CPU with multiple cores and threads. If you have slow memory your cores and threads can become starved for data to execute. To test memory performance we run both Sisoft’s SANDRA and AIDA64. These two combine to not only give us accurate numbers but to validate each other. For testing at stock speeds the memory is hard set to 1333MHz while overclocking testing is done at the highest stable speed for the voltage of 1.65v this is due to the different memory dividers for each CPU. As such, the memory speeds will vary greatly. This means that the overclocked numbers are a little misleading and while they can show a trend are really only included to show if a board has a problem with memory performance at high clockspeeds.

The MSI X79A-GD65(8D) did well in memory performance at stock speeds. It fell in right behind our lab leader for the X79 the Asus P9X79 Deluxe and tied with the Gigabyte G1.Assassin2. Once we overclocked the X79A-GD65 it fell a little behind.

AIDA64 fills in the gaps for memory performance on the X79A-GD65(8D).

AIDA64 Stock Memory Performance	AIDA64 Overclocked Memory Performance

Drive performance -
Drive performance is also one of the major subsystems that goes to make up the performance of a motherboard.  For our testing we use Sandra and AIDA64 again.  We only test with single drives for each type of controller present on the motherboard (unless it is a professional product where we will use RIAD 5 and/or 10). We have also begun using a Seagate PS-110 USB 3 external HDD for our USB 3.0 performance.  As a side note, we include the overclocked numbers here to make sure  (again) that you are not going to see a major drop in performance due to minor instabilities at high clock speeds.

Drive performance was a little different. As you can see we have put our new Kingston HyperX SATA 3.0 SSDs into play. We are using them for both SATA 2.0 and SATA 3.0 testing. Here you can see that while there is a dramatic difference in performance on the SATA 3 controller the SATA 2 controller does not show much. In fact the GD65 is behind some of our other X79 boards in this test.

Once again AIDA64 fills in the details for our HDD and USB 3.0 drive performance.

AIDA64 Stock HDD Performance	AIDA64 Overclocked HDD Performance

ADIA64 Stock USB 3.0 Performance	AIDA64 Overclocked USB 3.0 Performance

Power -
Power efficiency is another of those misnomers that we get caught up in. We hear about idle states and power gates. But what does that mean to you and I?  On the surface having power management that reduces idle power sounds great and can be a benefit to someone that leaves their system on for long periods of time (and inactive) but how a system handles power under load and the delta between the two states is often more important than the idle power usage numbers. We use only P3 Kill A Watt instruments for measuring power.

The power draw from the MSI X79A-GD65 was actually better than we expected. Under load it came in fourth place in out testing while running at stock speeds. When we pushed the system our power efficiency dropped a little more than we would have liked although an increase in power draw is expected when overclocking.

Cooling (Board Level) -
Board level cooling is an important factor in product performance and longevity. Components like the chipset, VRM modules and even capacitors need to be kept relatively cool to prevent failure. As these parts are made of silicon, they have a thermal breakdown threshold; or melting point. At that temperature the actual transistors built into chip will begin to deform and break down. Granted, the threshold is often very high, but you still need to make sure that components stay away from this level of heat for longer product life.  

The cooling on the board was not as good as we would have liked. Under both stock and overclocked the MSI X79A-GD65 fell towards the bottom of our list. As we use water cooling and do not have any direct airflow over the PWM heat sink we are sure that once this board is in a case with good airflow you should not have too many issues with heat.

Audio -
Audio is highly subjective. What we find pleasing may sound “off” to you. That is always going to the problem with testing audio; results will vary too widely depending on the tastes of the listener. However, there are ways of measuring the audio output with an objective ear. There is also the issue of audio causing performance issues in gaming and video playback. The reason this is a potential source of concern is that all onboard audio CODECs (Compression/Decompression) are CPU controlled. This means that while the audio chip controls the audio levels and effects of the audio the actual work is done on the CPU. Usually this will not be a problem with today’s powerful CPUs. Even the lower and consumer level products can handle high-end audio these days. But again there is the chance that a bad design or software will hinder your system and performance. On the other side the limits of board space, cost, etc will also prevent the level of audio quality you can get from an add-in board.  We test all audio parts with three media types, Movie (DVD), MP3 Music, and Gaming. These are pushed to our Tec On model 55 Tube Amp to see if we can detect any signal issues in the reproduction.

The Audio on the X79A-GD65 was not all that great. It was about what you would expect from a Realtek audio CODEC. It will suffice but is not going to wow you or bring any new life to your gaming.

Networking -
This one is something that is a requirement anymore. If you have a computer, the chances are good (like 99%) that you are also connected to high-speed internet.  With this you need a good and solid LAN chip to make sure that your data flows properly out and back.

Oddly enough while the Audio CODEC is a Realtek ALC892 the LAN controller is not the typical Realtek (as it is listed on MIS’s website). Instead MSI has opted to drop an Intel 82579 Gigabit LAN controller onto this motherboard. We were a little impressed to find this and found that it was a nice improvement over the typical Realtek offerings.