MSI 790GX-G65 Motherboard Reviews, Tests, Overclocking

MSI 790GX-G65 Motherboard Reviews

User Reviews

70% of the people who bought this mobo from newegg rated it above average.
A few very positive customers from tigerdirect gave it the highest ratings.

Overclocking

An X3 720 @3600.1MHZ, besides that there are images of the test setup, 3dMark and HDtune results.
Again an X3 720 @3.511GHZ

Problems and Solutions

Lots of issues on the official MSI forum

Foreign Sites (translated by Google)

Danish site hwt.dk has the following conclusion: The MSI 790GX-G65 the most complete AM3 motherboard we have tested to far, because of the overclocking potential and many other features. In overclocking they pushed an X3 720 to 3928 MHz with a NexXxoS X2 High Flow Plexi watercooling.
Japanese site dosv.jp compared the 790GX-G65 and an X3 810 with an Intel DX58SO and a core i7 940.
Hungarian site prohardver.hu compared the Asus M4A78T-E, Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P and the MSI 790GX-G65, all with a phenom II 550.

Motherboard WinRAR v3.7
KB/s (higher is better)

Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P
1530

MSI 790GX-G65
1523

Asus M4A78T-E
1518

The results in other benchmarks like x246, Photoshp CS3 and Cinebench are also very close.
Italian site pchs.it tested the following benchmarks: Sisoft Sandra, SuperPi, Everest, Winrar, Cinebench, Aquamark3, 3DMark 2005 and 2006. Their Phenom X3 710 was tested @2.6GHZ and @3.0GHZ.

Processor WinRAR
KB/s (higher is better)

Phenom X3 710 @2.6GHZ
1803

Phenom X3 710 @3.0GHZ
2243
Italian site vbcportal has the following conclusion: We found excellent stability in the test, the BIOS allows you to easily oveclock the system.

Professional Reviews

overclockersclub tested this DDR3 mobo with a Phenom II X3 720 and compared it to a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H (DDR2). There are lots of detailed images from board, bundle and included software as well as many BIOS screenshots. They also tested many benchmarks for science, data and games, the X3 720 was also overclocked @ 3.690GHz, and was included in the benchmark results. Below are their results for Cinebench 10.

Motherboard Cinebench 10
(higher is better)

Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H
6723

MSI 790GX-G65
7093

MSI 790GX-G65 OC
9114

Conclusion:
- Pros: DDR3 results, good and stable overclocker.
- Cons: Area around the CPU and memory is really tight and that could be a problem when installing a large CPU heatsink.
legitreviews also compared this board to a DDR2 mobo, the Gigabyte 790GP-DS4H. In allmost all benchmarks the MSI 790GX-G65 outperformed the Gigabyte. legitreviews got an extreme overclocing result (5163MHZ) because the used extreme cooling.

Conclusion: A solid board to enter the AM3 market that will satisfy probably 95% of the consumers, it's affordable, stable, fast and besides that it was the #2 in the AMD Overclocking Contest by Toms Hardware.
motherboards.org has a detailed review with many images of the package, OC software, BIOS and board and it was compared to the ASROCK M3A790GXH, also a DDR3 mobo.

Overclocking: They've reached a 15% increase over the standard clock speed by using MSI's Overclocking Center utility and a stock cooler.

Conclusion: MSI has put together a solid package with good features and very decent overclocking capabilities.
bjorn3d compared this board with four socket 1366 mobos and one socket 775 in 3dMark.

Conclusion: This mobo has high overclocking abilities, excelent positioning for SATA and front headers and has a good IGP, excellent board for mainstream users and budget gamers that want high performance. RAM slots however are a bit to close to the CPU socket.
trustedreviews tested it together with an Asus M4A78T-E also a board with DDR3 memory. The HD3300 IGP was also included in the test results. Remarkable was the fact that the MSI IGP could still perform in 3dMark Vantage while the ASUS mobo failed.
expertreviews UK got an increase of 2% at the most after comparing this board to their DDR2 reference board.
hardwarezone compared 3 790GX boards, the ASUS M4A78T-E, the BIOSTAR TA790GX A3+ andMSI 790GX-G65, to complete the test the results for MSI's 790GX-G65 big brother the 790FX-GD70 were also included. An AMD Phenom II X4 810 was used in all three mobos and the following benchmarks were tested: SYSmark 2007, PCMark05, SPECviewperf 9.0 and finally AquaMark3. There are also a lot of detailed pics from all the boards.
Overclocking: Using the built-in overclocking tools for BIOSTAR and MSI resulted in a failure to produce any decent results, thus it had to be done manually.
atomicmpc gives a good description of the board, has a chart with overclocked ram and a large image gallery.
pcquest.ciol.com has a short review with the following conclusion: A good performer at a competitive price.

MSI 790GX-G65 BIOS Screenshots

Advanced BIOS Features	CMOS Setup Utility	Hardware Monitor
Integrated Peripherals	Overclocking	Power Management Setup
SATA3	System Information	system overview

****** YouTube ******

A promotional video for the AMD 790GX chipset. Click here to view this official AMD video.

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A commercial video by computerTV explaining you the board.

Photographs in a slideshow of a complete system with a phenom II X2 550 Black Edition.

Overclocking (promotional) video.

All BIOS screens in a video.

Flashing the BIOS.

Specifications

Layout