Following the footsteps of P67A-GD65 and P67AGD55, MSI releases its newest iteration of Sandy Bridge mainboards. With richer features and more sophisticated designs, introducing the new P67AGD80 (B3).
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Recognize the P67 Platform Despite design and architectural similarities between the Intel Series 60 chipsets for the brand new LGA1155 processors and the previous Series 50 chipsets for LGA1156 processors, none of them are compatible. In addition to the integrated GPU, the Sandy Bridge is equipped with more demanding OC restrictions. That is to say, it is less flexible than any LGA1156 processors.
Easy OC for Sandy Bridge ~ OC Genie II Previously, MSI provided OC Genie to simplify overclocking for the P55 mainboards. Today, MSI’s Sandy Bridge boards feature the next generation OC Genie II. Since Sandy Bridge base clocks are now limited, the new OC Genie II will take CPU ratio, CPU voltage, and XMP into consideration when overclocking various CPUs. With a press of a button, the OC Genie II will overclock the CPU beyond what is possible with Intel Turbo Boost.
P67 with Multi-Graphics Cards ESR Comparison Hi-c Cap < 5 mΩ Solid Cap 5 mΩ EL Cap >20 mΩ ESR (mΩ) P67A-GD80 (B3) is equipped with three PCI-E x16 slots to support 3-Way CrossFire as well as 2-Way SLI, allowing users to maximize their gaming experience with Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. Lower is better SFC To reach the lower power consumption, P67A-GD80 (B3)’s PWM adopt Green Choke design, SFC (Super Ferrite Choke), utilizing the latest material technology - iron core.
ATI CrossFire 3DMark Vantage Benchmark Comparison 1-Way P18174 2-Way P25156 P27427 3-Way Reach the Higher SATA6Gb/s Performance from Sandy Bridge Unlike previous Intel chipsets that only supported SATA 3Gb/s, the Sandy Bridge P67 now has two native SATA 6Gb/s ports. MSI’s Sandy Bridge series can utilize the full potential of solid state drives to deliver high performance read and write. Note that SATA 6Gb/s ports are now indicated by their white coloring.
Power Super Speed USB USB 3.0 has become the accepted standard for high-speed transfer. As a response to the growing demand of USB 3.0, the P67A-GD80 (B3) breaks through previous limitations by including two NEC USB 3.0 chips as well as a VIA USB Hub chip to increase the number of USB 3.0 ports possible. The P67A-GD80 (B3) has a VIA USB Hub chip in addition to the two NEC USB 3.0 chips. This combination increases the number of USB 3.0 ports on the mainboard to ten.
Manual OC Overview Starting from the Sandy Bridge series, MSI will now adopt the new UEFI BIOS as well as Click BIOS into its products. Previously, overclocking options were listed in the “Cell Menu” those options can now be accessed by clicking on the “Overclocking” picture. Frequency Setting Limitations of CPU base clock introduced by the Sandy Bridge series means that there will only be a limited range of adjustment.
Advanced Memory Timing Setting After selecting DRAM Timing Mode, the Advanced DRAM Configuration menu can be used to adjust memory settings. The left side shows the memory’s default settings while the right side can be used to change the memory’s timing. OC Ability Reference Now, taking the P67A-GD80 (B3) mainboard with the Intel’s latest Core i5 2500K CPU as an example, we will set Core Speed and Memory Frequency as overclocking items to introduce some points and notices to users for reference.
Max Memory Frequency Memory overclocking on the Sandy Bridge is limited by the Memory Ratio. Memory frequency can only be set to 800MHz, 1066MHz, 1333MHz, 1600MHz, 1866MHz, or 2133MHz. In other words, the most stable memory overclock that can be achieved with XMP is 2133MHz. To increase the frequency even further, the Memory Ratio will need to be adjusted along with CPU base clock and voltage. Reference setting : DDR3-2242MHz • CPU Voltage: 1.4V • CPU IO Voltage: 1.35V • DRAM Voltage: 1.
Other Features on P67A-GD80 (B3) Click BIOS With the new UEFI technology, graphical user interface as well as mouse control, games, and media can now be integrated into the BIOS. Super Charger The first USB pin header on the motherboard also supports Super Charger. Super Charger will support the charging of iPad and iPhone. In order to deliver the fastest charging speed, Super Charger will also be able to automatically detect the optimal charging mechanism to use.
6 Pin Onboard VGA Power Tow Power Plane dedicatedly for VGA could provide stable and Extra demand for hard core user scenario. The 6-pin onboard VGA power stabilizes the graphic performance of high-end graphics cards. Front USB3.0 Connector There are 2 Front USB3.0 connectors to transfer more 4 USB3.0 ports for using. APS Active Phase Switch (APS) is a power saving solution. There are LEDs on the motherboard, LED status is real-time and dynamic switching to let user monitor the status of power usage.
Conclusion P67A-GD80 (B3) is not only the flagship Sandy Bridge chipset from Intel, it is also MSI’s most competitive product. The CPU built-in memory controller significantly increases the stability and performance of memory overclocking; that, combined with other high performance features such as SATA 6Gb/s and ample PCI-E Gen 2.0 lanes, makes the P67A-GD80 (B3) the definitive LGA1155 mainboard for a completely fresh user experience.
