looking to pair it with a 4690k and two gtx 970s for 1080p gaming? i heard from overclock.net that the board might be garbage though so has anyone got it ? used it ? or have an opinion ? another option for $20 more is the Z97-A from Asus
I wouldn't, always go with the best single card you can get - SLI and crossfire have their issues. If you're really wanting to go with a dual GPU setup at that price, go for 390s. They're on par with 970s and have 8GB of VRAM which you'll definitely have the power to utilize with two in crossfire. With SLI 970's you'll probably get "bottlenecked" or whatever by having only 4GB.
More on topic though... I'm pretty sure I've heard bad things about that krait mobo, someone else here will probably know more than me about it. @MisteryAngel you're a mobo nerd? :P
im tempted by the 390, but ive heard it has a lot of driver issues so that has kind of deterred me a little
Yeah either way, with the 970s of 390s you're still going to get stuttering and the like 'cause it's crossfire/SLI. It's a bit overkill for 1080p gaming anyway, a single 390'd do you fine at that resolution. FYI the 390's fine at the moment, Jayztwocents did a video not that long ago comparing it to the 970.
yeah according to this article.
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/msi_z97_sli_krait_motherboard_review/13
The board does seem to have some issues.
According to his gaming benchmarks, it falls way behind for some reason.
I assume it might have something to do with the overclock they have used in the article.
They complained about, that they needed to set more cpu voltage in the bios then usual to get it running.
i assume that the board's vrm´s and mosfets might have been overheating.
Causing those bad scorings.
But it could also have been a bios issue.
But yeah the Krait boards, are ofc cheap for a reason.
According to Msi Z97 boards in general, the Z97 Gaming 5 / 7 seems to be a sollid boards sofar.
hmm ok, well sounds like the gaming 5 board with a 390 seems to be a better option. ok thanks everyone :D ill go with that set up