BIOS and software
The MSI 970 Gaming inherits the latest ClickBIOS4 found on the MSI Z97 series. The user experience is simplified into a tile-based interface with each tile expanding into a larger menu of more advanced options. The OC Tab holds all the settings related to CPU and memory frequencies and voltages.
The layout is, on the whole, clean and simple to follow in the majority of the tiles. In the OC section the usability is compromised by a few strange quirks such as only allowing the user to add a voltage offset and then displaying the incorrect base voltage that the offset is added from. The baseline voltage is touted as 1.05v while most decent overclocks need 1.375-1.5v to reach the 4.5-5GHz region. It is, therefore, tempting to add a large offset but the user should be wary since the base voltage is actually 1.325v.
Embedded within the BIOS is a graphical fan interface similar to what ASUS delivers under the alternative name of EZ Fan Tuning wizard. It isn't quite as advanced but gives the same base functionality of custom fan profiles, temperature targets and fan curves.
MSI's software package revolves around its Command Center application which unifies various functions such as on-the-fly overclocking, fan profile tuning, the auto-overclocking wizard OC Genie and even a free RAMDisk. MSI strongly pushes a secondary application called Live Update 6 which is, in theory, designed to maintain all motherboard drivers and software up to the latest version. In practice Live Update 6 isn't as strong as it should be since, in our case, it auto-detected most drivers and the BIOS as either not being installed, or as using the wrong version.
