Once the board was installed and connected up we turned on the PC and after a few seconds got into the bios (though this board does take about twice as long to complete post as any other we have used). The bios was immediately recognisable and all options were easy to find. Really no issues to report so far.

Finally we started off the Windows install which completed without any concerns. Infact since then the only Asus related problem we experienced was that the Asus driver CD automated install didn’t work particularly well for us (the sound driver install crashed for example). We have since attempted a manual install using the drivers from the CD and that completed fine.

Once up and running within windows we ran the system (in general use) for a few days and all seemed well. Next up was our plan to perform performance testing on the board, this is when we started to experience some concerns.

The first issue we found was that the Sisoft Sandra results for the system were pretty random. On one run we would score in around the expected performance and then a repeat run would show results 10x more than expected. Run it again and we were just as likely to receive a result of about 1000points less than expected. Thinking this was most likely a random issue with Sandra we moved on to PCmark05 however this resulted in more issues being highlighted. For example, hard drive performance on our SATA drive was reporting almost zero. And on occasion some tests would hang or loop. Next we decided on a few HDtach tests to identify any real HD issues and the results came in as average.

So we now had several apps giving us unexpected results. In an attempt to fix this we performed numerous installs, new CPU’s, memory, psu, gfx, heatsink/fans, drives, drivers, patches and an initial updated BIOS. You name it and we more than likely swapped it out. All the while our voltages and temps were reporting fine through bios and asus probe.

So having given up we contacted ATI (and they contacted Asus) looking for any assistance…

…a few days later we received a note from ATI with a new Bios attached. The note accompanying the bios stated that a timing issue had been found and that this was resolved by the new bios. This happened early on the 4th March which by this time was well after NDA expiry so most other reviews you’ve seen of this board use the BIOS which has timing issues.

Following the bios update we were pleased to see that the Sisoft Sandra results were fixed, we also noted that our own (real world) Photoshop benchmark was reporting much more stable results. So off we returned to PCmark05. Disappointingly there was still an issue with some of the tests and so we reported back to ATI at the same time we reported a minor bios issue which was that if you install Windows with both LAN ports enabled then reboot at any point and disable LAN1 in the bios, if you then reboot you cant get back into windows unless you re-enable the port.

ATI let us know that a clock issue was still being worked on by Asus, so again we waited on a fix before proceeding.

The next day a group of Driver Heaven readers contacted us in desperation as they had purchased the A8R32-MVP and were experiencing random performance issues, just as we were. It was obvious at this stage that we could not leave their questions unanswered and so we offered ATI the opportunity to give us an official statement on this issue. ATI reported back that this was an Asus specific concern and so there would be no official statement however they would raise it with Asus again. We therefore made a public posting of our issues with the board and the progress so far.

To say that this public posting raised the priority of the fix is probably an understatement as the next day we received no less than four emails from different contacts offering us an updated bios which was created that day to resolve at least our outstanding PCmark05 issue.

We installed this new bios, v0033 and were pleased to see that both Sisoft Sandra and PCmark05 were now performing as expected. Initial testing of games also showed promising results. We reported the findings back to our readership and also to Asus and ATI and requested that they release the bios to end users at the earliest opportunity.

Within hours Asus had recompiled the bios internally in a final package and made it available to a wider audience. Since then we’ve received many reports from end users that the majority of their issues are resolved… and so it was time to begin our own final performance testing…