MSI 970A-G43 Possible Issues

[3key]

I've had this board for a few months and when playing games, such as GTA V, my CPU usage never goes above 75%, even in my decent sized sanctuary in Fallout 4, and during this, unless in a stressful area, my GPU does the same. Specs:
MSI 970A-G43
Sapphire RX 470 4GB
AMD FX 8320@4.16Ghz
EVGA 650GQ (80+ Gold)
1x8GB Crucial Ballistx Sport, 2x4GB GSkill Ripjaws, All @1600Mhz
Zalman CNPS5X Performa Cooler

The CPU shouldn't bottleneck anything and I had the same issue with my R9 270 2GB.

VRM cooling shouldn't be an issue as i have the side panel of my case off and have a few heatspreaders. (Temps never go above 80C, throttles at 100C)

I have a Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 lying around, but makes a strange squeaking noise (No the speaker making error codes, passes POST) and was causing my PC to crash, but this was years ago, my CPU was overheating and I didn't know what I was doing with ocing, so it may be ok.

If anyone has a solution to both of these issues, please post below.

 

[RCFProd]

Well to me VRM throttling is still an easy possibility. Taking your side panel off is not really going to affect that. The 970A-G43 should imo not be used with CPU's over 95W TDP, (FX8320 + Overclock = 125w+ TDP) as the motherboard uses only a 4+1 power phase design, really not ideal.

 

[madmatt30]

An overclocked 8320 on a g43 board with a cnps5x (which is not good enough anyway) is a recipe for disaster mate.

That board is simply not good enough to run anything past a 95w chip (as in known to catch fire not good enough)

 

[3key]

An overclocked 8320 on a g43 board with a cnps5x (which is not good enough anyway) is a recipe for disaster mate.

That board is simply not good enough to run anything past a 95w chip (as in known to catch fire not good enough)

Really? CPU temps are never above 70C, usually around 65C, VRMs don't cause throtelling. I have been VERY careful with the voltage, so that should not be an issue. When i say lower performance, i don't mean dropping to 30 fps for 10 seconds and going back to normal, I mean fps staying low at anytime i go into a cpu intensive area. E.G. In fallout 4, if you look into an area with a lot of stuff going on with a high draw distance. GPU usage stays around 40%, this would show a cpu bottleneck, but cpu usage is about 70% whilst the FPS is at 40FPS-50FPS, CPU temps are at 65C, gpu is at 79C (Throttles at 90C), VRMs are at 75C. Why?

 

[3key]

Well to me VRM throttling is still an easy possibility. Taking your side panel off is not really going to affect that. The 970A-G43 should imo not be used with CPU's over 95W TDP, (FX8320 + Overclock = 125w+ TDP) as the motherboard uses only a 4+1 power phase design, really not ideal.

I am VERY careful with voltage and i have decent VRM cooling, a case with great airflow and i have the side panel off to show off my parts, would a Gigabyte 78mlt-USB3 be ok?

 

[RCFProd]

Well to me VRM throttling is still an easy possibility. Taking your side panel off is not really going to affect that. The 970A-G43 should imo not be used with CPU's over 95W TDP, (FX8320 + Overclock = 125w+ TDP) as the motherboard uses only a 4+1 power phase design, really not ideal.

I am VERY careful with voltage and i have decent VRM cooling, a case with great airflow and i have the side panel off to show off my parts, would a Gigabyte 78mlt-USB3 be ok?

Sorry for such a late answer, the 78MLT-USB3 is a better board and will handle an FX-8320 more easily. Wouldn't recommend overclocking for good stability though.

 

[3key]

Well to me VRM throttling is still an easy possibility. Taking your side panel off is not really going to affect that. The 970A-G43 should imo not be used with CPU's over 95W TDP, (FX8320 + Overclock = 125w+ TDP) as the motherboard uses only a 4+1 power phase design, really not ideal.

I am VERY careful with voltage and i have decent VRM cooling, a case with great airflow and i have the side panel off to show off my parts, would a Gigabyte 78mlt-USB3 be ok?

Having the exact same issue on gigabyte, CPU@4ghz and voltage is at 1.285V, temps are below 65C, I have taken a screenshot of fallout 4 with RivaTuner in corner:


Sorry for such a late answer, the 78MLT-USB3 is a better board and will handle an FX-8320 more easily. Wouldn't recommend overclocking for good stability though.

Same issue on gigabyte @4ghz, cant oc anymore as the CPU goes VERY unstable, even when at 4.1ghz with 1.32V, and if I oc FSB (Even by 1mhz) the temps rocket to 74C, temps are usually below 65C. When i disable cores the usage gets higher, up to 100% with 4 cores, but performance is obviously lower, can't OC anymore with less cores due to the same issues. Here's a screenshot with 8 cores in fallout 4. (Have a VERY big settlement so should stress CPU, Vsync limit is 75fps:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/3keyness/screenshot/261594672026337404