MSI RS480M2-IL: My review

[drvarunmehta]

The MSI RS480M2-IL is pretty much the only mobo available for the Athlon64 socket 939 proccy's that has integrated graphics.
I find a lot of forum members comparing the MSI RS480M2-IL and the nForce4 series. I recently purchased a rig with the MSI RS480M2-IL.
My first choice was an nForce4 based mobo but I couldn't afford to add a graphics card right now, so I bought this instead.
So am I satisfied with it? Lets find out.

My rig:
MSI RS480M2-IL mobo
Athlon64 3000+ S939 Venice
Transcend 2x512 MB DDR400 RAM (3 3 3 8 )
Seagate 80 GB SATA HDD 7200 RPM
VIP ATX cabinet with 400w PS
(No additional cooling in the case)
Other components don't affect the performance so no use mentioning them.

I think this rig is fairly similar to what most of us would be considering purchasing right now.


Features:
Socket 939 proccy
PCI-E x16 slot
3 PCI slots
Integrated Radeon Xpress200 graphics
4 DIMM slots (upto 4 GB memory)
Supports dual channel mode
Onboard RAID 0 or 1
Onboard AC97 6 channel sound
2 IDE channels
4 SATA ports
8 USB 2.0 ports
1 Firewire port
10/100 Mbps ethernet integrated
SPDIF connector
S-video out
Composite video out
1 Serial port


Performance:
I don't believe in synthetic benchmarks, so no 3DMark and Sandra scores here.
I've used Fraps 2.6.3 to test the FPS in a few games.
All scores are calculated without disabling essential programs during testing (avast!, Spyware Guard, Spybot-SD resident) as that is how the PC is mostly used.
All games were tested at the maximum possible PLAYABLE frame rate.


GTA San Andreas:
Visual FX quality: High
Anti aliasing: Off
Resolution: 1024x768x32
21 FPS

Might seem a little less, but I found the gameplay quite smooth.


No One Lives Forever 2:
Visual quality: Max
Effects (AA/AF/Bump mapping): On
Resolution: 1024x768x32
37 FPS

37 FPS with everything at max.


NFS Underground 2:
Visual quality: Medium
Effects (AA/AF/Bump mapping): Off
Motion blur/Particle system/Light trails: On
Resolution: 800x600
22 FPS

Playable, but not without disabling a few effects.


Unreal Tournament 2004:
Visual quality: High
Anti aliasing: Off
Resolution: 1024x768x32
39 FPS

Very quick load times and no lag during gameplay. The quality can be pushed higher, but this seems good enough.


Half-Life 2
Visual quality: High
Anti aliasing: Off
Resolution: 1024x768x32
29 FPS

We know Half-Life 2 obviously works well with ATI graphics, but this was just incredible.


C&C Generals Zero Hour:
Visual quality: High
Resolution: 1024x768x32
30 FPS

I couldn't figure out how to disable the frame limiter. But what matters is that it delivered the max possible FPS throughout the test at the highest settings.


Positives:
Reasonably priced socket 939 mobo
Great graphics (by integrated graphics standards)
PCI-E x16 slot
Firewire port
SPDIF connector
S-video, composite video connectors
Runs very cool without any additional cooling
Comes with good quality round IDE cables
Enough space around the socket for a larger heatsink
Supports 4 GB RAM in dual channel
Really easy to update/flash the BIOS


Negatives:
No overclocking
Dosen't match up to the nForce4 chipset
Integrated graphics uses up system memory
No SATA2 support
No support for NCQ
No Gigabit ethernet
No PCI-E x1 slots
Really old sound chipset (AC 97)


Conclusion: Quite obviously it loses out to the nForce4 in pretty much all performance benchmarks. But if you have a shoestring budget and can't afford a graphics card right now, this is the board for you. If you intend to use a dedicated graphics card, the nForce4 is a much better buy.

Note that I don't exactly have the fastest RAM (3 3 3 8 ). I haven't disabled my antivirus and antispyware applications. Expect better performance by disabling all other applications.

 

[AlienTech]

You also need to add some small extras, 1 is getting CPU FSB or CPUZ to over clock it to 220MHZ FSB or 229FSB with CPU COOL by enabling the spread spectrum option in the bios.. Rightsmark CPU clock RMClock will use the AMD quiet and cool to adjust the CPU multiplier form 5x to 9x so it keeps the CPU cooler, It runs @ 50C with it and 59 without it under normal load so there is a big difference ... Another 2 things would be a heat sink for the south bridge and a small fan for the north bridge in case you over clock and set the GFX chip to run @ 300 MHZ async instead of the default 200MHZ sync modes so you need this even if you don't over clock the CPU and memory.

Also using the memory slots closest to the CPU gives you increased speed as the other slot adds an extra wait state. Difference of 200MB bandwidth.

Memory is cheap now so what if the GFX takes some of it? 512K costs 2500.

The board is very close to the performance of NForce4. Considering the ATI runs @ 199MHZ while the NF4 runs @ 201MHZ. There is a 2-3% performance difference at the most.

Also using the NEW ATI drivers shows quite a big performance difference in graphics.

Of course if I were a gamer I would not get this board. I would get some of the others that let me over clock to 300MHZ FSB which gives more performance than anything else as well as faster graphics with the external card. Then again, I could have saved 50% on this by just getting a 2800 sempron and a 754 NF3 board for 7500 but then I wont be able to install xp64 on it.

 

[drvarunmehta]

You also need to add some small extras, 1 is getting CPU FSB or CPUZ to over clock it to 220MHZ FSB or 229FSB with CPU COOL by enabling the spread spectrum option in the bios.. Rightsmark CPU clock RMClock will use the AMD quiet and cool to adjust the CPU multiplier form 5x to 9x so it keeps the CPU cooler, It runs @ 50C with it and 59 without it under normal load so there is a big difference ... Another 2 things would be a heat sink for the south bridge and a small fan for the north bridge in case you over clock and set the GFX chip to run @ 300 MHZ async instead of the default 200MHZ sync modes so you need this even if you don't over clock the CPU and memory.

The purpose of the review was to show that you get playable frame rates at a decent resolution (1024x768) with most new games. I could run all the games I tried at 1042x768 except NFS:UG2. Someone who is using his system only for casual gaming is not likely to overclock, so I used stock settings.

It would be great if someone with a similar rig overclocked his graphics core and posted what kind of framerates he gets, so we know if its worth OCing the graphics or not.

Also using the memory slots closest to the CPU gives you increased speed as the other slot adds an extra wait state. Difference of 200MB bandwidth.

I didn't know that. Point noted.

Memory is cheap now so what if the GFX takes some of it? 512K costs 2500.

What I was trying to imply was that the graphics core could have come with its own dedicated memory, but it dosen't.

The board is very close to the performance of NForce4. Considering the ATI runs @ 199MHZ while the NF4 runs @ 201MHZ. There is a 2-3% performance difference at the most.

At stock settings. Not after you're done OCing on the nForce4.

Also using the NEW ATI drivers shows quite a big performance difference in graphics.

MSI recommends the use of their own drivers rather than standard ATI ones.

 

[AlienTech]

//MSI recommends the use of their own drivers rather than standard ATI ones.//

This might very well be. Because I upgraded to BIOS V3.5 and now the system gets real slow. I haven't been able to trace it down yet. The CPU load shows over 50% even if nothing is running and task manager don't show what is taking up so much CPU power. Yet system idle process shows 95-98%. And 3Dmark went from 6000 to 2000 now. I also noticed they removed the Chassis fan speed control among a few others. MSI seems to be the only company I know off that removes options with each upgrade. Seems they haven't changed much in 10 years. My P2 MSI mother board kept loosing functions at each new upgrade.

Since I was not keeping track of everything not sure where it went wrong. URGH!!!!

//What I was trying to imply was that the graphics core could have come with its own dedicated memory, but it dosen't. //

You think they give it away for free? Cheaper for you to add this memory than if they do it. There is no performance difference between UMA and dual channel MB memory.

//At stock settings. Not after you're done OCing on the nForce4. //

If you follow how chips are made and tested, you would know that they are rated, The rating defines how fast something will work without problems. Companies do not take a faster chip and rate them slower to sell them cheaper. Yes sometimes they get very good yields and once they fill their quota of the fastest they mark down the rest as slower to fill those quotas, but only then. The ones marked down always have problems getting the higher rating. Just like when they started to sell 512K cache CPU's because the 1Meg cache CPU's failed and they marked it down. So you can get lucky and get one of them faster rated chips. But generally, the chip you get should work about 10% better, but the rating is around +/-5% so there is a - in there too but not in CPU's so for good measure they up it to +10% for margin of error. The more you OC, the chances of you breaking the chip goes up exponentially.

There are companies out there that will take lower rated chips and test them and sell them as higher rated chips... For less cost...


Well back to trying to figure out why the CPU load shoots sky high sometimes...

 

[drvarunmehta]

Which VGA driver are you using? Live Update shows 6476 (MSI version) as the latest driver update, but it refuses to install on my PC as it says I don't have the requisite hardware. Are you using MSI drivers or ATI ones?

 

[imjimmy]

Really old sound chipset (AC 97)

Yes i was very disappointed with the sound. Supposed to use the ALC 650 5.1 codec. But the sound is not in the same league as the new Mobo's (AMD or Intel Based) that feature the ALC 860/861 codec.

This sounded as bad as my old system on an Intel 865 chipset based mobo.[/quote]

 

[AlienTech]

Which VGA driver are you using? Live Update shows 6476 (MSI version) as the latest driver update, but it refuses to install on my PC as it says I don't have the requisite hardware. Are you using MSI drivers or ATI ones?

I was using ATI ccc Catalyst 5.7 drivers which showed almost a 50% gain in 3D marks. But now went back to the MSI RS480-AP01 drivers.

*www.rage3d.com/index.php?node=r3dtweak

I also went back to bitcomet .58 from .59... I am not sure if that was what was causing the problem but the CPU usage is now back down to under 5%. Have to test some more to see... It seems ATI has really optimised their drivers from 5.6 to 5.7. And for graphics I have noticed that even the ones from microsoft is very slow compared to the ones from ATI.


I usually just go to the MSI site and download it myself and install it.

ATI System Drivers for RX480M2, RS480M2

• ATI RX/RS480 system driver package.
• SMBus: 5.10.1000.5
• VGA: 8.12
• IDE: 5.0.0.2
• New support WinXP 64-bit OS, version: 6.14.10.6525

*www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_detail.php?UID=640&kind=1

You install the ATI drivers after you install this package since ATI dont supply the IDE/SMBUS drivers...

 

[drvarunmehta]

I was using ATI ccc Catalyst 5.7 drivers which showed almost a 50% gain in 3D marks. But now went back to the MSI RS480-AP01 drivers.

Why did you go back??
Was Catalyst 5.7 responsible for high CPU utilization or BIOS ver 3.5?

Finally which is the ideal BIOS version and graphics drivers for the mobo?

 

[KHUBBU]

Thanks varun. This wud surely help a lot of ppl.
Well plz post Sandra benchmarks also atleast memory bandwith.

 

[AlienTech]

The CPU load problem was caused by the RTL network card drivers. Dont know the fix other than going to some older version of the driver.

3D Mark 2001 gives 5500

Sandra SR2a gives 4445MB in DIMM1 slot DDR400, and around 2700 for DDR266.

Over clocking to 229FSB pushes it up to 5200MB.

 

[AlienTech]

3Dmark03 gives a rating of like 1500 IE you can watch but it is s l o w.....

Wings of fury played at full speed but battle of procycon gave 9FPS, Trolls layer was 8FPS and mother nature was 8FPS. In some scenes it dropped to 1FSP and speeded up in others.

This was with the MSI gfx drivers, have to see if the ATI ones speed it up.

 

[drvarunmehta]

I installed the new Catalyst 5.7 over the MSI drivers. Framerates are still the same in all games but UT2004 gave 5 FPS more.

btw i'm using the latest network card drivers and I don't have the high CPU util problem.

 

[darklord]

Also using the memory slots closest to the CPU gives you increased speed as the other slot adds an extra wait state. Difference of 200MB bandwidth.

Really ???
I didnt knew that,care to explain,how is this possible ? :roll:

The board is very close to the performance of NForce4. Considering the ATI runs @ 199MHZ while the NF4 runs @ 201MHZ.

Didnt get you.Are you talking about the HTT Bus ?

Well if there is variation in the speed not being 200 exact,then i guess Mobo makers are to blame for it,not the chipset,isnt it ?

Memory is cheap now so what if the GFX takes some of it? 512K costs 2500.

You call that cheap ? acoording to you 512k costs 2.5k then how much will a stick of 512MB cost ? :roll:
Joking,i know its a typo.

Anyways,
varun, good job there.I had tested this board around 2 months back,really decent one for the price.

 

[AlienTech]

Well the ATI V5,7 drivers gives a 3D Mark 03 of get this 1375.. Its lower than the MSI Gfx drivers, but on some games where it used to be really slow on the MSI drivers like getting 1 FPS, you get 2 FPS on the ATI drivers. So I guess thats what they mean by being 50% faster. Instead of it being extremely extremely slow, its only extremely slow on some and become slower on others.

You update the service packs from microsoft and you will loose or get/have develop network problems. This is a known problem and seems its not just for the real tek drivers but others too.

I noticed microsoft removed their network loop back fix service pack. It used to drop my net connection as soon as it got installed.

//Quote:
Also using the memory slots closest to the CPU gives you increased speed as the other slot adds an extra wait state. Difference of 200MB bandwidth.

Really ???
I didnt knew that,care to explain,how is this possible ? //

I read this somewhere but I was not sure about it. Like well huh... But I tried it myself and there was the difference in Sandra... Benchmark it yourself and see. The explinaiton I saw said the motherboard makers add an extra wait state in there because the RAM is a little further away from the CPU. Seems about right as it drops 200MB bandwidth which is about what you get when you change oen of the timings.

 

[navino87]

Overclocking

I want to know what is over clocking ?


What is the use of it ?


what r the advantages & disadvantages in it?

 

[AlienTech]

oops

 

[AlienTech]

Over clocking is running something faster than it is rated at. Everything has a rated speed mechanical or electrical. You can run a 240V light bulb @ 200V and have it last for 10 years instead of 1.

But what you loose is power, It does not give as much light at 200V as 240V and consumes more electricity in the long run to give off the same amount of light.

You can run a car at higher RPM's to give more power, but instead of the engine lasting 5 years it will now last only for 1 year but the power you get in that 1 year sure is great.

Elecronics are designed to run at a certain speed. But since it is so complex not all parts can run at the designed speed. So they slow it down until all parts are able to pass the stress test of running at a certain speed. But like most things there is a also a margin of error so it can run faster than they are rated at but it is not guaranteed.

What Oc'ers expect is to find parts that are only tested at a slower speed even though they are manufactured for higher speeds. And use this to speed up their system without paying for parts that are testing at the higher speeds and cost more. Once a manufacturing process matures, your chances of finding parts that will run faster than rated becomes rather good. But in brand new products, the company will always try to find as many fastest parts as they can to fill demand and orders.

One of the problems with running things faster is they can fail much sooner, But no one expects to use a computer for more than an year or 2 even if they are rated to last 5-10 years so it is not that much of a problem. They would rather run their hyndai like it like a ferrari for that 1 year than 5 years.

Of course I would not do this if I was running something critical... Like a bank ATM machine... But for games its just fine. You cant run something slower or faster than it is designed and rated for since thats what design and rating are there for in the first place.

You can always pump in more juice to run something faster. And like anything that gets more juice it also runs down faster and you can always give something less juice to run it slower and like anything, it under performs and wastes energy.

 

[navino87]

Power Supply

what is that ATX , Micro ATX , AT etc....


What is the difference between ATX & MicroATX ? Which one is the best ?


what type of thing is this MSI RS480M2-IL mobo?atx or m atx

 

[drvarunmehta]

That is the form factor (size) of the mobo.
ATX is the larger size and microATX is smaller. You need a larger cabinet to fit a ATX mobo and a smaller one for microATX.

 

[navino87]

best

which 1 is the best?latest ?