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Thread: Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

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    Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

    Meet the motherboard with more.
    Read more.

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    Anti-Viral Pleiades's Avatar
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    Re: Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

    Not sure *any* X99 board is really suitable for mere gaming tbh... why not save £200, go with a Z97 and use that money for a better GPU?

    I know a lot of techheads will buy whatever is deemed the top of the tree as it were - but it just seems wasted on gaming when the X99 is shurely more for workstation jobbies & suchlike...
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    Valar Morghulis

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    Treasure Hunter extraordinaire herulach's Avatar
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    Re: Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

    Quote Originally Posted by Pleiades View Post
    Not sure *any* X99 board is really suitable for mere gaming tbh... why not save £200, go with a Z97 and use that money for a better GPU?

    I know a lot of techheads will buy whatever is deemed the top of the tree as it were - but it just seems wasted on gaming when the X99 is shurely more for workstation jobbies & suchlike...
    This, small arguments about potential longevity aside an i7 4790 isn't going to be outmatched by even the next couple of gens of GPUs unless you're talking quad SLI and such. and I'd be surprised if memory bandwidth ever really matters in games (other than a few % round the edges).

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    Re: Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

    I must say that I agree with you both - this mobo and the Intel Core i7-5960X cpu together alone cost more than my Z97 mobo, i7 4790K build and I reckon I really won't notice that I won't have a stratospheric frame rate on games I play!

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    Re: Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

    For me the streaming engine was the most enticing feature on this motherboard. It made the board stand out from other X99 boards. Does shadowplay really reduce the FPS by only 2%? If so then the Streaming Engine is pointless. I was going to upgrade from a GTX 590 to two GTX 980s anyway... Now the matter of choosing the right motherboard is more difficult.

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    Re: Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

    Quote Originally Posted by herulach View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Pleiades View Post
    Not sure *any* X99 board is really suitable for mere gaming tbh... why not save £200, go with a Z97 and use that money for a better GPU?

    I know a lot of techheads will buy whatever is deemed the top of the tree as it were - but it just seems wasted on gaming when the X99 is shurely more for workstation jobbies & suchlike...
    This, small arguments about potential longevity aside an i7 4790 isn't going to be outmatched by even the next couple of gens of GPUs unless you're talking quad SLI and such. and I'd be surprised if memory bandwidth ever really matters in games (other than a few % round the edges).
    To be honest you'd struggle to find games where the (now 6 year old) i7 920 at stock speeds would be a limiting factor.

    I'm fairly sure the Q6600 I still use at work would be maxed out by many games.

    The extra cores afforded by X99 would be a big benefit for anyone doing lots of media work too, and in that sense it would make a good all-round gaming machine, but yes, it's a waste in most cases.

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    Treasure Hunter extraordinaire herulach's Avatar
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    Re: Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

    Quote Originally Posted by Axle_Grease View Post
    For me the streaming engine was the most enticing feature on this motherboard. It made the board stand out from other X99 boards. Does shadowplay really reduce the FPS by only 2%? If so then the Streaming Engine is pointless. I was going to upgrade from a GTX 590 to two GTX 980s anyway... Now the matter of choosing the right motherboard is more difficult.
    On my system (6300 @ 4.8 and twin 970s) it's not even 2%. Admittedly that's in a heavily cpu limited scenario.

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    Re: Reviews - MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC

    Was this a review or a marketing piece? I couldn't tell. Tarinder is a "fan" of the styling and considers the "Enhanced Audio" as a Pro. Sounds a lot like marketing to me considering that no quantifiable tests were done to assess the motherboard's audio prowess. The board still receives a Hexus "Innovation" award even though "performance is still down when compared to the relatively budget Core i7-4790K" errr wasn't this a "gaming" motherboard. Not very innovative is it?

    Maybe it is very good at overclocking? "but Asus is the only manufacturer able to run 3,000MHz-plus stably" oh dear. WTH is "stably" anyway (this complain is actually lower down my "list of criterion").

    As everyone else has pointed out, this product is not worth it for gaming unless you are trying to show off. But this is odd as LAN parties are dead and you won't be using this board to go to OC competitions.

    Here's my award.


    Can I have a paycheck and a bunch of freebies now?

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