 Sierra FEAR 1.08 |
Source: Sierra |
|
FEAR is
Sierra's latest first person shooter which relies heavily on DirectX 9 features.
With its "Soft Shadows" feature enabled, even the fastest videocards run at a
crawl, FEAR is definitely the new benchmark for future FPS games to
follow.
 Sierra FEAR 1.08 |
| Minimum 640x480: |
Points |
Ranking |
| Asus Striker II NSE (NF 790i SLI 333/1066
GF 8800GTS 320MB) |
553 |
   |
| Asus P5NT Deluxe (NF 780i 333/1066 GF
8800GTS 320MB) |
568 |
|
| Asrock Penryn1600SLIX3 Wifi (NF 680i
333/1066 GF 8800GTS 320MB) |
565 |
|
| MSI P6N Diamond (NF 680i 333/1066 GF
8800GTS 320MB) |
545 |
|
| Biostar TF7150V-M7 (GF 7150 333/1066 GF
8800GTS 320MB) |
558 |
|
| MSI X58 Platinum (X58 133/1066) |
646 |
|
 MSI Eclipse Plus (X58
133/1066) |
646 |
   |
| Asus P5E3 Premium/wifi (X48 333/1333) |
568 |
|
| Gigabyte GA-X48DS5 (X48 333/1066) |
562 |
|
| MSI X48 Platinum (X48 333/1333) |
567 |
|
| Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 (P45 333/1066) |
567 |
|
| ECS P45T-A (P45 333/800) |
559 |
|
| Biostar TPower I45 (P45 333/1066) |
553 |
|
| Intel DG45ID (Intel G45 200/800 C2D E6750
GF 8800GTS 320MB) |
542 |
|
| Asus P5Q-EM (Intel G45 200/800 C2D E6750 GF
8800GTS 320MB) |
559 |
|
| Asus Maximus Extreme (X38 333/1333) |
563 |
|
| Foxconn DigitaLife X38A (X38 333/800
DDR2) |
575 |
|
| Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 (X38 333/1066) |
554 |
|
| Asus BLITZ Formula (P35 333/1066) |
572 |
|
| Foxconn MARS (P35 333/1066) |
551 |
|
| MSI P35 Platinum Combo (P35 333/800 DDR2)
|
545 |
|
| Maximum 1024x768: |
Points |
Ranking |
| Asus Striker II NSE (NF 790i SLI 333/1066
GF 8800GTS 320MB) |
123 |
|
| Asus P5NT Deluxe (NF 780i 333/1066 GF
8800GTS 320MB) |
137 |
|
| Asrock Penryn1600SLIX3 Wifi (NF 680i
333/1066 GF 8800GTS 320MB) |
137 |
|
| MSI P6N Diamond (NF 680i 333/1066 GF
8800GTS 320MB) |
134 |
|
| Biostar TF7150V-M7 (GF 7150 333/1066 GF
8800GTS 320MB) |
122 |
|
| MSI X58 Platinum (X58 133/1066) |
172 |
|
| MSI Eclipse Plus (X58
133/1066) |
174 |
|
| Asus P5E3 Premium/wifi (X48 333/1333) |
123 |
|
| Gigabyte GA-X48DS5 (X48 333/1066) |
135 |
|
| MSI X48 Platinum (X48 333/1333) |
134 |
|
| Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 (P45 333/1066) |
134 |
|
| ECS P45T-A (P45 333/800) |
137 |
|
| Biostar TPower I45 (P45 333/1066) |
134 |
|
| Intel DG45ID (Intel G45 200/800 C2D E6750
GF 8800GTS 320MB) |
133 |
|
| Asus P5Q-EM (Intel G45 200/800 C2D E6750 GF
8800GTS 320MB) |
133 |
|
| Asus Maximus Extreme (X38 333/1333) |
124 |
|
| Foxconn DigitaLife X38A (X38 333/800
DDR2) |
130 |
|
| Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 (X38 333/1066) |
124 |
|
| Asus BLITZ Formula (P35 333/1066) |
125 |
|
| Foxconn MARS (P35 333/1066) |
126 |
|
| MSI P35 Platinum Combo (P35 333/800 DDR2)
|
135 |
| |
Gaming gives the slightest of edges to the MSI Eclipse
Plus. The Core i7 lets FEAR scale to even higher levels than were previously
levels.
Whew! Reviewing this motherboard has been a
big job, but we're finally reaching the home stretch. Let's see just what to
make out of MSI's most extreme motherboard.
Conclusion: an
X58 Motherboard that's easy to recommend!
The MSI Eclipse Plus motherboard can be a
little overwhelming to take in. Overall it's one of the most feature-complete
Intel X58 Express motherboards on the market right now, and one of the fastest
platforms PCSTATS has tested in the past year. MSI has
decided to throw in everything you could possibly want from a motherboard, and
more!
The 'and more!' bit is where things get
tricky.
The Eclipse Plus does indeed have
everything you could want if you bought a socket 1366 Intel Core i7 CPU,
starting with the Intel X58 Express chipset. Intel's first chipset for its new
Nehalem processors has both connectivity and bandwidth in spades. The 12.8GB/s
QPI link between the CPU and the X58 core logic has effectively eliminated the
bottlenecks that plague Intel's FSB-based chipsets. The X58 express northbridge
no longer has to share any of that bandwidth with memory, thanks to the Core
i7's on-board memory controller. Finally, the Intel X58 chipset has 36 PCI
Express 2.0 lanes, which can easily handle two-way Crossfire and SLI
configurations.
Not content with just two-way SLI
support, MSI includes the NVIDIA nForce 200 SLI processor for three way SLI
support. This is an extra that we could frankly do without. This bridge
processor doubles one of the Intel X58 Express chipset's PCI Express 2.0 x16
lanes, so that 32 lanes of bandwidth are crammed into a 16 lane pipe. This
obviously introduces a bottleneck for anyone trying to take advantage of this
motherboard's advertised 3-way SLI x16/x16/x16 performance. It also introduces a
little bit of latency in regular two-way SLI and Crossfire performance, which
doesn't help overall performance.
There's also a lot of more storage
options on this board than you'd get on the standard X58 platform. While
the Intel ICH10R southbridge has six SATA II ports that can operate in RAID
0/1/5 and JBOD modes, MSI has added on another four SATA II ports, as well as a
pair of eSATA ports. Altogether that's 12 SATA devices that can be connected to
this system.
As a contrast though, there are no IDE ports
anywhere to be found on the MSI Eclipse Plus, a particularly annoying omission.
While high-performance users may turn their noses up at legacy controllers,
there are still a huge amount of IDE optical and hard drives in circulation, and
an on-board controller is preferable to mounting them externally.
Love them or hate them, MSI has thrown in an
astounding amount of extras with this motherboard. Look at this list:
8x click-connect Serial ATA
cables, 4x Molex to Serial ATA Power Cables, X-FI Audio Card, Green Power Genie,
MSI D-LED 2, 24-pin Power connector Brige, 2-port USB Bracket, 2-port eSATA
bracket, eSATA power cable, eSATA data cable, mid-board connectors, thermal
sensor, I/O shield, 3x SLI connectors, 3x Crossfire connectors.
...while I do enjoy some extra goodies thrown
in the box as much as the next guy, this has gotten silly. Especially since some
of the on-board indicators, dials and lights make things like the PORT 80
display redundant, and it's unlikely people who have shelled out for a
wattage-sucking core i7 processor, a three-way SLI motherboard and a trio of
high-end videocards that require their own nuclear generator will care about
shaving off a few Watts with MSI's Green Power Genie. Considering that each of
these baubles inflates the price of the MSI Eclipse Plus, the novelty factor
starts to wear thin pretty quickly.
In the end, the MSI Eclipse
Plus motherboard and all of these extras will set you back a hefty $400 CDN, ($389 USD, £245 GBP) which, if
you've been paying attention, is actually pretty close to the complete price of an entry-level computer system. While
the extras and goodies alone certainly don't justify the extreme price, the
overclocking performance of the MSI Eclipse Plus may yet have you reaching for
that Platinum Visa card.
Without any major voltage tweaks or
fine-tuning, PCSTATS was able to overclock the MSI Eclipse Plus base clock from
133MHz up to 215Mhz. Couple that with the Core i7 920s x20 CPU multiplier, and
you're looking at theoretical performance of 4.3GHz. Of course, this means your
CPU also has to be able to handle these kinds of speeds/heat levels, and as
always overclock performance will vary from motherboard to motherboard. Stock
performance on the MSI Eclipse Plus was pretty much on par with MSI's $268 CDN
X58 Platinum board.
Everything else about the MSI Eclipse Plus
was as good as you'd expect from a top-tier motherboard. The construction and
build quality are superb, with all-solid-state capacitors being used, heat
chipset thermal solutions and plenty of on-board buttons and controls with
lights and displays for constant system feedback.
Ultimately, MSI's Eclipse Plus
motherboard is designed for those who want more than just the best performance
numbers. They want the bragging rights of owning an X58 motherboard with the
longest list of features possible, and they don't care about the price. MSI has
complied by throwing in every extra they could think of, some of them more
useful than others. If you're the type of person who has already built a
three-way SLI system for the purpose of bragging about your 3DMark scores
online, the MSI X58 Eclipse Plus is an excellent Core i7 motherboard to
consider.
It's not intended for the faint of heart nor light of wallet. However, fence sitters will
quickly find the allure of MSI's X58 Eclipse Plus motherboard hard to pass by when installed with an
eight-core Intel Core i7 920 matched with 6GB of Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D DDR3-1600
RAM!. Recommended!
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