[section_title title=”Overclocking”]Overclocking
MSI has pretty much the perfect BIOS from an amateur and enthusiasts point of view in my opinion; solid clean looks, great functionality and of course tons of overclocking/tweaking options available. The MSI Gaming 9 AC BIOS is virtually identical to other Z97 Gaming series boards, if you want to see what the BIOS looks like, please visit here – MSI Z97 Gaming 7 BIOS
So down to the overclocking, one of my pet favourite parts of any motherboard, CPU or Graphics card review as it allows me to effectively see how much the components in the heart of the product has to offer. As I have previously mentioned a couple of times, the Gaming 9 AC is equipped with a full 16 power phase support (12+4) which as I have also mentioned, is only 4 shy of the overclocking clad MPOWER MAX AC board; effectively both sides of the coin in terms of Gaming and enthusiast.
Make no mistake though, the Gaming 9 AC is of course enthusiast grade and the overclocking results yielded with our particular i7 4770k chip has generally performed very well on MSI motherboards. The Gaming 9 AC of course is no different in this regard as 5GHz was easily achievable (24/7 stable I might add) which is the difference between a good board and of course a not-so good one. Usually with Haswell, the CPU is the limiting factor but it’s motherboards like the Gaming 9 AC, the MPOWER MAX AC and others such as the ASUS MAXIMUS HERO VII that show their real weight; the MSI Gaming 9 AC is overclocking mustard for regular users in my opinion but of course might not be the board of choice for the sub-zero aficionado, try the XPOWER!
