MSI Z77A-G43 review

MSI Z77A-G43 Performance Analysis

If you’ve looked at the graphs on the previous four pages then you’ll know that what we’re going to say here isn’t going to make for particularly happy reading for MSI. That’s because the G43 performed very poorly in comparison to the other Z77 boards that we’ve seen cross our test benches.

It’s score of 1,787 in the image editing portion of our Media Benchmark was very poor, so poor in fact that we actually had to check that the benchmark was running correctly. After a little investigation we found that the board wasn’t turbo boosting as aggressively as others that we’ve tested, much like the ASRock Fatal1ty Professional-M that we saw a few weeks ago.


This lack of Turbo Boost aggression is only half the story though, as the similarly conservative ASRock board still out performed the G43 in all of our tests, indicating that the underlying performance of the MSI board leaves a lot to be desired. This trend of less than spectacular results continued throughout our Media Benchmarks, culminating in a final stock speed score of 2,197 - a full 8.5 per cent slower than the £150 Asus Maximus V Gene.

Switching to games testing did little to improve things for the G43, as it returned the poorest results we’ve seen for a Z77 board in Arma II. Things improved slightly in the Shogun 2 CPU test however, where the board drew with the Fatal1ty Professional-M.

Given that the G43 couldn’t hit the 4.8GHz maximum of our test i7-3770K CPU, it’s overclocked results were also rather forgettable. The 2,553 points that the board returned in our Media Benchmark suite was 10 per cent slower than the ASRock board. Our games testing at overclocked speeds told much the same story, with the results in Arma II again being disappointing.

Conclusion

It seems harsh to call the MSI Z77A-G43 a bad board, but it doesn't fare well when we look at the quality available in the market at the moment. Yes the boards we’re comparing it to here are 60 odd pounds more expensive than it, but you’re getting tangibly more for your money, both in terms of features, base performance and overclockability.

The only time we can envisage that you may consider the G43 is for a budget build with a non K-series LGA1155 processor, as this mitigates some of its flaws. Even here though we’d still suggest that you invest in a better board, as opting for the G43 reduces the potential potency of a future upgrade to a K-series CPU. To us then, the G43 looks like a false economy, sadly.