MSI teases G Series gaming motherboards
MSI's teaser images for the G Series hint at hardware-assisted overclocking features, special high-polling-rate mice-friendly USB ports and Qualcomm's Killer E2200 network chip.
Currently, the company is only offering teasers as to its plans with the promise of a full reveal at this year's CeBIT event in Hanover next month. The first of these teasers points to a partnership with Qualcomm to give the boards high-performance network capabilities designed specifically with gamers in mind. Based on the Killer E2200 chip, an embedded-only sequel to the Killer 2100 NIC released by Bigfoot Networks in 2010 prior to its acquisition by chipset specialist Qualcomm, the G Series' network capabilities are tipped to be top of the line.
'We are truly excited to cooperate with Qualcomm on the implementation of their unique technology on our soon-to-be announced gaming motherboards,' crowed Ted Hung, vice-president of MSI's motherboard division. 'This puts MSI in the driver's seat for gaming motherboards with a balanced line-up that hits all critical price-points for gamers.'
The Killer E2200 chip offers full compatibility with Windows 8 and Linux - something the E2100 version doesn't offer - along with an enhanced client package that allows gamers to set custom prioritisation and have finer-grained control over their network traffic. The result, in theory, is a board that offers on-line gamers a smoother experience - something that didn't really pan out during our testing of the Killer 2100.
MSI has also released an image detailing a feature it calls Gaming Device Port, which sees a red-tinted block on the motherboard's input-output (IO) section play host to a single PS/2 and two USB 2.0 ports designed specifically for gaming keyboards and mice. Unlike regular PS/2 or USB ports, MSI claims, the Gaming Device Ports are optimised for high-polling rate mice running at 500Hz to 1KHz. Claims of lowered response times - dropping from 8ms to 1ms, MSI claims without reference to how it measured such things - are hard to quantify, but the company is also packing three times the thickness of gold plating onto the contacts to increase durability. The result, MSI claims, are ports rated for ten times the connections and disconnections of rival motherboards - something LAN party addicts may find a major selling point.
Sadly, that's all the details MSI has provided thus far, but given the G Series boards are aimed at gamers it's fair to assume there will be a host of other features including dual-BIOS, hefty heatsinks, and - hinted by the presence of a small switch next to the Gaming Device Port - special overclocking features for those who like to get the most from their rigs.
MSI's G Series motherboards are to be unveiled at CeBIT 2013 early next month, with retail availability hopefully soon to follow.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyThe Killer cards though I have to say seem more of a gimmick to me, as the last one I used on a motherboard was on a Gigabyte X58 board and it was awfull, and then I tried the add in card and that was awfull to so unless there is a massive improvement then that would be a feature, I would not be interested in seeing on the boards.
I bought an 77 series MSI board for £120~ from what I remember and it had a voltage cap on overclocking of 1.35v. I'd not had such a limit on all my Asus boards before even when I only spent £70 with overclocking in mind.
In the interest of fairness though, this will be a premium board I'd imagine and not have such a restriction.
When my Gigabyte EX58-UD5 bit the dust (for no apparent reason) I had a rush to replace it; ended up with one of the G1.Killer series boards... the 'Killer' NIC on it is utter junk. I picked up an Intel PCI-E NIC and all my problems vanished.
Sure about that?
http://blog.krisk.org/2013/02/packets-of-death.html
;)
Yes it does seem gimmicky, what's the big deal about changing the polling rate of USB mice as these mobo's are aimed at gamers then any gamer buying one will almost certainly have a gaming mouse and most of them if not all of them come with driver software that allows much more configuration than just polling rates, pretty unrealistic to think that any gamer buying these mobo's is using some cheapo mouse :?
Amen brother.
And didn't ASRock and Gigabyte do these features already? And how popular were G1's and Fatal1ty's in review?
Competition is always a good thing! But, if this is all there is, it's gonna be a good Haswell launch for ASUS
Back in the old days before the memory controller and north bridge got moved to the cpu it actually mattered what mainboard you bought, but these days with so much having moved to the cpu mainboard manufacturers are desperate to somehow stand out from the masses and unfortunately that leads to attempts to charge extra for things like "killer" nic.