Audio

Normally we use a benchmark that compares audio performance numbers. Sadly we have been experiencing issues with this software and it isn’t giving consistent results. Because of that, I had to go old school and reply on my personal audio testing. I ran through a variety of songs on each of the four motherboards. Just to make sure I had something to compare too, I also tested with a high end sound card as well. First things first, with all four boards having the build in headphone amplifier, I am extremely impressed with how things have progressed over the last few years when it comes to built in audio. In the past there wasn’t any thought given to it and now manufactures like MSI have really been stepping things up with quality caps, dedicated PCB’s, and headphone amps. So how did they all perform? Well the B85M came in at the bottom of the pack with fairly standard audio. The other three are comparable to a mid-ranged sound card with the Gaming 9 sounding a little better than the others.

I tried to test out the USB Audio Boost feature but frankly I didn’t notice a difference between when I was using it and when I wasn’t. I suspect that the only time you would have an improvement is when you are plugging a lot of devices into your USB plugs. I also feel that anyone who cares enough about their audio to hook this up would most likely prefer to use a sound card or at least the sound card built into these boards, USB sound cards aren’t exactly known for their performance.

 

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garfi3ld replied the topic: #35311 13 Aug 2014 17:31
Things have been a little quiet around here but that is because I have been busy with both the upcoming LAN and working on reviews like this that take a little more time than normal to put together. Check out this four motherboard review of most of MSI's current socket 1550 gaming boards!

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