MSI P35 Neo2-FR: Platinum performance for under $100
by Gary Key on December 5, 2007 11:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Synthetic Graphics Performance
The 3DMark series of benchmarks developed and provided by Futuremark are among the most widely used tools for benchmark reporting and comparisons. Although the benchmarks are very useful for providing apple to apple comparisons across a broad array of GPU and CPU configurations they are not a substitute for actual application and gaming benchmarks.
In our 3DMark06 test, all of the boards are within 1% of each other. When looking at the individual tests, the MSI board scores well in the CPU and SM2.0 sections and fourth from last in the SM3.0 tests.
In the more memory and CPU throughput sensitive 3DMark01 benchmark, we again see the spread between boards is less than 1%. The Neo2-FR board scores in the middle of the pack but is only 63 points from the lead even with a slight handicap in memory settings.
General System Performance
The PCMark05 benchmark developed and provided by Futuremark measures overall system performance for the typical home computing user. This tool provides both system and component level benchmarking results utilizing subsets of real world applications or programs. This benchmark is still useful for providing comparative results, but PCMark Vantage will replace it in our next article.
Once again, all of the boards are within 1% of each other with the Neo2-FR board finishing in the middle of the test group. There's nothing interesting to report here, so let's move on.
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drebo - Friday, December 7, 2007 - link
I'll forgive your ignorant comment since you obviously do not work in retail computer sales. People aren't interested in buying adapters and add-on cards that they don't feel they should need because "their old computer had it." In a managed IT environment, yes, you can just give everyone converters and it works fine, but your average joe who walks into a computer shop with a 10-year-old dead computer and an ancient Epson parallel printer isn't ever going to understand why his old connections are going by the way-side.So, yes, legacy support in the retail market is important, even for most small business users. Not a day doesn't go by when I get a call or someone comes in needing a parallel card or serial card because the off-the-shelf computer they bought doesn't come with one. Most people don't need 16 USB ports, but I'll bet a good number do need a parallel port.
AssBall - Saturday, December 8, 2007 - link
"I'll forgive your ignorant comment since you obviously do not work in retail computer sales."Right... because a good retail computer salesperson would sell someone who is inexperienced enough to not RTFM a 10$ adapter instead of reccomending a better and higher profit margin 10 year newer replacement product for 150$ with built in factory support$
Salesman indeed...
kmmatney - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - link
Serial mice? Come-on! I used serial mice back in the day, but there is absolutely no need to get a USB mouse - I just bought a spare optical mouse for $3 at Microcenter - works great. You can get a USB-RS232 adapter for around $15 as well. Or you can buy a PCI add-on card, with RS232 and Parallel ports, for around the same price. I'd way rather have the extra USB and e-Sata ports instead of the legacy crap.I do a lot of RS-232 and RS-485 programming, and my main computer is a laptop, so I've been using USB-Serial converters for some time now.
theslug - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - link
They sell these:http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Sub...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...iption=u...
OndrejSc - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - link
Cheer up! It does exist. :-)http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&a...">http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func...=1342&am...
drebo - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - link
Hmmm, good news. I wonder when we'll have availability and what the pricing will be like.LoneWolf15 - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - link
"MSI also offers the Creative Lab's X-Fi audio codecs on their high-end boards as a nod to the gaming community."No...MSI puts the X-Fi XtremeAudio chip on the boards, which is a tweaked Audigy SE chip (note: the Audigy SE isn't even a true Audigy chip), not a true X-Fi. No hardware EAX or DirectSound3D acceleration, and the drivers, like the X-Fi XtremeAudio card, are completely different than the rest of the X-Fi line. So, serious gamers STILL need to buy a sound card.
I really like MSI and use their boards a lot, but this audio solution is really only slightly better than what is used on other boards --and those who don't like Creative might argue that the drivers actually make it worse. If MSI had used the real X-Fi chip, I'd be very impressed.
ultimatex - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - link
are u retarted ? serious gamers need to buy a seperate sound card? A real serious games would not be worrying about some sound options but more about performace of the board. I smell some Asus Gybabyte fan boys here on these forums.as long as boards have 5.1 sound U dont need no special features that dont do anything specialy for games. Serious games wear headphones.
these NERDS here are sounding like if a serious gamer has to have a sound card . Well ill tell u from a X-Cal P Css Player here. A videocard and Fps is the most important thing for a Hardcore gamer..
Etern205 - Friday, December 7, 2007 - link
Your the retarded one.If he's right and that the onboard X-FI does not have hardware accelerated audio, what it means it it uses the cpu to process the audio singal which leads to reduce FPS. Gamers needs to know where their enemies are and that's where the EAX comes in. Onboard will have EAX as well as mutli-channel speaker support (ie 5.1 surround sound) but without a higher version of EAX (ie EAX 5.0) all your hearing are just sounds coming at you with no sense of direction.
So if you got a 5.1 speaker setup but with a crappy onboard Audio or onboard X-FI with crappy EAX support then it won't help you as much as a dedicated sound card.
dazy - Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - link
Thanks for pointing out his utter ignorance before I had to, lol.[quote=ultimatex]serious gamers need to buy a seperate sound card?
as long as boards have 5.1 sound U dont need no special features that dont do anything specialy for games. Serious games wear headphones.
A videocard and Fps is the most important thing for a Hardcore gamer..[/quote]
The sheer number of stupid statements for a "gamer" in his post is outstanding. Maybe he thinks we are talking about his XBOX360? ;-)