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MSI Z77A-GD65 ATX Motherboard Review With Sandy Bridge

Eric Garay
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What is Z77 and what does it do? It’s Intel’s latest motherboard chipset (codenamed Panther Point) that supports Intel’s 2nd Generation Sandy Bridge processors, but was actually designed for their new Ivy Bridge LGA1155 3rd Generation parts, which we’ll touch on a bit later. For now, our focus is on MSI’s entry to the Z77 arena, the Z77A-GD65 Military Class III motherboard which sports a new UEFI BIOS and updated desktop software.


We previewed this board a few weeks ago to give you a quick taste of what big features MSI had coming. While we can’t show you any Ivy Bridge benchmarks as of yet, we are going to see if some of the new features like PCIE 3.0 as well as overclocking with Sandy Bridge Processors, will make this board a worthy upgrade for anyone still clutching a P67 based board.

Features and Specifications

Those familiar with MSI know about their easy to use OC Genie II overclocking button plus an automated OC Genie II option in the BIOS which now includes customizable profile settings. The ClickBIOS II offers a new GUI along with a new layout. These are supported by new Military Class III VRM which should add an extra level of overclocking stability. As a Z77 board, it also has native USB 3.0 ports, along with the return of Intel Smart Response, and Intel’s Quick Sync to speed up video encoding on LGA1155 processors.

The included Lucid Virtu MVP technology builds upon the original Lucid Virtu that came on Z68. The new version helps to increase frame rates with the new HyperPerformance Technology which reduces redundancy in GPU rendering, and pairs that with Virtual VSync which gives you increased picture quality without sacrificing frame rate. It’s like having Vsync on without the down sides. We’ll look at this more in depth in a later article.

MSI will be starting with four of the Panther Point family chipsets. The peformance series will include Z77 and a more cost effective Z75. For the mainstream market, we’ll see a an H77 geared more towards multimedia, and a B75 chipset respectively geared more towards business. As of right now, pricing for the Z77A-GD55 starts at $169.99 and Z77A-GD65 at $189.99 US/CA.

UEFI and ClickBIOS II

The new EUFI BIOS is well organized and easy to use. It’s broken down in to six appropriately labeled tabs. Interacting with the mouse is very easy and more responsive than before. However, there aren’t any onscreen explanations for individual settings within the tabs. Those unfamiliar with certain settings will require the manual. The EUFI BIOS image is large enough to hold detailed data for a better user experience so hopefully we see that in a later update.

The Settings tab contains all the chipset triggers which includes expansion, peripherals, storage and hardware monitoring. The OC (overclocking) tab contains CPU, memory, OC Genie and voltage options. The ECO tab has all the settings for controlling power consumption. The Browser tab will allow you message and mail once you install the software. The Utilities tab has options for accessing Live Update and M-Flash for updating the motherboard BIOS. Security is there for setting up a protective password, chassis intrusion and U-Key which makes a USB flash drive your magical key needed to access the system.

Using the ClickBIOS II in Windows wasn’t as fluid. It took my test system about 85 seconds (1 minute 25 seconds) to load the program. As the program loads, the system sometimes seems unresponsive which is okay given it’s communicating with some very sensitive motherboard code. Once it’s running, you can manipulate most everything that’s in the UEFI BIOS, but from the Windows Desktop. This is useful for those times when you want to change a setting that isn’t worth rebooting for. Like disabling serial ports or something.

Test System Setup

Since Sandy Bridge CPUs are supposes to fly on all Intel Z77 chipsets, I’m including scores gathered from Intel’s DZ77GA-70K motherboard. Both of these boards should impress us with their elite numbers. The Intel DP67BG Extreme motherboard is also being used as it’s the chipset I recommend upgrading from if you need more expansion and performance and are looking at Z77 as a cost effective option.

We’re curious if the MSI Z77A-GD65 really does support Sandy Bridge as nicely as we’ve heard. One side of engineers say overclocking will be just as good as P67/Z68 or even better. The other side says that Z77 is more tuned to set records with the new Ivy Bridge so don’t be surprised if our 2600K doesn’t do as well. Bullshavick! Let’s find out.

Benchmark Notes

SANDRA Mathematical and Multimedia, Graysky H.264 4.0 Benchmark, Cinebench R11.5, PCMark7, Media Espresso 6, Batman Arkham City, AVP Benchmark and Unigine Heaven will all be in the mix today. Keep in mind that most of the system performance is due to the processor given that everything is completely integrated in to the CPU. What we’re interested in is whether Z77 is passive or actually improves performance overall.





Overclocking the MSI Z77A-GD65

As experienced with the original Z68A-GD65, OC Genie II took the Core i7-2600K straight to 4.2 GHz without a single error over 24 hours of stress testing. CPU voltage didn’t seem to top 1.32 volts at all in the report which seems to be par for the course with my particular Sandy Bridge chip. Using OC Genie II in Windows is fine for users looking to get 4.2 to 4.4 GHz without fuss.

However, manual UEFI BIOS tuning is always where the best results are earned. Sticking with 1.45 volts VCore, the system could lock down the 48 multiplier for 4.8 GHz without touching any other settings. Selecting a higher VDroop level, disabling Turbo and using 1.46 VCore, the system locked down the 49 multiplier, beating after beating. It’s very likely that the system can reach 5 GHz at 1.5 VCore if you’re willing to push it and are using adequate cooling. Keep in mind that we’re using the NZXT HAVIK 140 which is a very good high performance CPU cooler to keep temperatures down.

If you aren’t quite sure about risking your CPU, you might want to look in to Intel’s “Get Out of Fail Free” CPU warranty.

SANDRA Math and Multimedia

Beginning with SANDRA CPU tests, you can see that there’s very little change between the chipsets. That’s because the bulk of the performance comes from the CPU. However, Math scores were a bit higher revealing a little bit of the Z77 chipset optimizations at work.

Graysky 4.0 Benchmark

Media Encoding is one area that Z68, X79 and Z77 chipsets raise their colors. Again, the Z77 boards were close with the MSI Z77A-GD65 holding a slightly higher average. The P67 doesn’t have the same tricks at its disposal, scoring much lower by the second pass. This is one area worth jumping from P67 to the newer chipsets for. Especially if you do a lot of video encoding.

Cinebench R11.5

Here, the Z77A-GD65 provides a noticeably more aggressive turbo than on previous platforms. While turbo influences a single core score, it was seemingly more aggressive when pushing the 4 cores resulting in faster Hyper Thread response. Overclocked settings were included just for a little comparison.

PCMark7

These averaged scores are really close between the two Z77 boards due to resources favoring the Sandy Bridge CPU as well as each board’s specific tuning and software support. Sandy Bridge saves the P67 on a couple areas, but we really can’t wait to show you what happens when you slap a 3rd Generation Ivy Bridge onboard.

Batman Arkham City

Can the Z77A-GD65 game? You bet your frame rates it can! It was very easy to work with when running benchmarks in both standard 2D and 3D mode. When running 1080p maxed settings, SLI is the only way to go and the Z77A-GD65 can handle it in this fun gaming title.





Media Espresso 6

Intel Quick Sync destroys media encoding  tasks when hardware acceleration is enabled. It’s not exactly slow without it but a 34 second drop is impressive. Especially if you regularly encode many hours of footage. The Z77A-GD65 shows better tuning here and achieved lower accelerated scores on average.

IO Performance

It’s pretty uneventful here since SATA3 and USB 3.0 are both chipset side. However, the Z77A-GD65 has an extra ASMedia 1061 SATA3 controller for extra connectivity while the Intel DZ77GA-70K and DP67BG does not. Given ASMedia’s better tuned controllers, it’s a smart move. It’ll be interesting to see if ASMedia chips end up on ASUS boards since they are actually sibling companies.

Audio Performance and Quality Control

I spent a lot of time trying to find the optimal settings for testing the Realtek audio and how THX software influences performance. Unfortunately, RMAA seems to disagree with the audio implementation, whether it is set at 24-bit 48 or 192 Hz. To the naked ear, any noise or distortion isn’t as easily detectable until the volume was pushed about 50 percent. The THX TrueStudio software makes the lower volumes more vibrant but again adds to the noise as the volume is increased. The implementation definitely needs a bit of work.

During testing, the Z77A-GD65 motherboard itself was monitored for noise and high component temperatures. No unusual EMF or noises were detected during any level of operation which is very important for system integrators and professional users who require a very quiet platform. The circuits and heat sinks around the board, including the heatpipe, didn’t get very warm at all.

Final Thoughts (So Far…)

What does all this mean? It simply means that the MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard is a solid new platform for Intel’s 3rd Generation and especially 2nd Generation processors. Stability continues to be top notch and performance favors Sandy Bridge just a bit more than previous generation boards thanks to better VRM and power management. The BIOS is equally lean and has a nice GUI that enthusiasts will appreciate. However, some foot notes on the screen would help inexperienced users be more confident in their build. While integrated audio continues to be a cost effective solution, it isn’t difficult to ensure equally clean audio. MSI will need to watch their backs on this as ASUS and GIGABYTE have improved in this area a lot within the last year.

In terms of features, the Z77A-GD65 is pretty lean without any extras outside of their previous OC Genie II. OC Genie II works just well with Sandy Bridge processors and was capable of pushing my Core i7-2600K to 4.2 GHz with the press of the button. SSD caching isn’t unique to the MSI as the feature is native to the Z77 chipset. Like it was on the Z68.

The simplicity behind the Z77A-GD65 is reflective in current pricing. Some of the usual online retailers have the boards available for $169.99 instead of the $189.99 MSRP. That’s a pretty good deal for out of the box stability. Overall, the board’s backbone is more than enough for us to recommend to those looking for a reliable, no frills board, to keep their 2nd Generation Sandy Bridge CPU running.

We’ll be back later to show you just what this board can do when INTEL’s Ivy Bridge 3rd Generation CPUs is onboard.

Pros

  • Solid, stable performance
  • OC Genie II offers Push of the Button Performance
  • Attractive, yet conservative, color scheme
  • SSD caching and NVIDIA SLI/AMD CrossFireX
  • PCIe 3.0 (when paired with Ivy Bridge)
  • More aggressive CPU turbo
  • Fairly good bang for buck value

Cons

  • No new features added
  • No PLX PCIe 3.0 support for Sandy Bridge (2nd Gen processors)
  • Where’s the Military Class III theme?

Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10.0

 

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