MSI X870E CARBON WIFI Review [Gaming, Thermals, Power & VRMs Tested!]

[@aleksdeveloper698]

Why is nobody doing a review of Asrock Nova x870e?

[@cepin_real]

Because that board sold out

[@buzzman4860]

Because you can't buy it

[@wiggyg7337]

Something seems off with gaming benchmarks. A ten percent fps swing purely based on x870 top end chipsets seems odd, motherboard of that caliber shouldn’t have such a wide variant on fps with everything else being the same

[@Wizard-kk4lz]

Nice review, thank you. Lovely board: that new bios does look really sweet. Totally out of my price/use range and ATX. Pity the performance is not there. Don't understand it though. Was thinking MSi was a bit conservative with their stock voltages, but the VRM temps does not reflect that, so confused. Let see if the Tomahawk does better.

[@GETNAKD]

I've been thought to buy this one but the benchmark results are halted me. Are these problems fixed yet with latest BIOS update?

[@SquerQ]

what was the test platform? what processor?

[@R6ex]

Waiting for ACE!

[@jonathanlopez3315]

they not making ace

[@Pabula]

No X870 ACE, only X870 Godlike in the horizon.

[@SahajPS]

That sponsor ad tho😂

[@dfbreyes]

What are the shortcomings or faults of the MSI x870 carbon wifi?

[@kelvinjinxd]

No dual pcie x8 slot.

[@NicolasElon]

hello why do you don 't use a an external thermal tool to compare with CM sensors ?

[@bigblack2295]

Scores are very irreleative, is the bench setup stable? Same cpu & same chipset but scores are very diffirent between motherboards.

[@jvidia]

The new MSI BIOS is in Full HD as the Asus ones?

[@robertsharp6072]

how can there be such massive performance differences between mobos?

[@zackw4941]

Huh. It seems pretty bizzare to see such wild variations in performance between motherboards.. To the point that something weird might be going on here. At any rate, they *should* all fall very close.. So prospective buyers really just need to look at the block diagrams and decide which board best fits their use case. This Carbon is a good all around board. If you pay attention to what goes where, you can run your GPU, three M.2 drives and an extra PCI-E 4.0 device, all at the same time, all at full bandwidth.

[@Games_and_Tech]

Have they fixed the error that killed nmve on the x670e boards? and the customer service?

[@delon-96]

what do you think of the price it's between 420 and 430£

[@NeoDon1]

I just bought this board and I think it's the best looking board at this price, it converted me from the ASUS CH HERO VIII. New Strix looks bad to me.

[@thelasthallow]

can you populate all 4 M.2 slots and see what PCI E slots it disables and if it truly reduces the main PCIE Slot down to 8x like the listings says it does?

[@fourwheelerjock]

You can run 1 Gen 5 and 2 Gen 4s while still have 16x.

[@Ronin-Wilde]

It'll switch to x8/x4/x4 if you use the second m.2 or x16 slot. Unless you go through the chipset, thankfully most use cases won't need full gen 5 x16 bandwidth.

[@thelasthallow]

@@fourwheelerjock whats the point of that? then get a regular X870 board with only 3 M.2 slots then

[@fourwheelerjock]

@thelasthallow I agree. But thing is if yoy run 2 Gen 5 M.2s it'll revert the GPU PCIE to 8x. That being said you'll see little or no difference at all when gaming or some times in productivity work loads when running 8x PCIE. There is some articles and videos on this, Now when GPUs starting getting fast enough or enough bandwidth then it'll matter. We just ain't there yet.

[@rickgear2579]

I am trying to remember a time when a brand has made their latest product this unappealing as AMD has with Zen 5 and X870

[@IndigoSun-hz6cq]

PG NOVA 870 doesnt share lanes with gpu at all. £339 in UK, sold out US.

[@Ronin-Wilde]

What's wrong with lane switching?

[@IndigoSun-hz6cq]

@@Ronin-Wilde Sharing gpu lanes down to 8x depending on how many drives you want to run. Nova & Taichi have 5 m.2s with their own dedicated lanes. GPU will always be x16. Plus Nova has thermally linked backplate (as does Taichi) for £339. It really is a stunning offering. Nova even has the QR for the gpu. More for £160 less.

[@Ronin-Wilde]

@@IndigoSun-hz6cq Doesn't the nova use chipset lanes for additional m.2 drives, all sharing the bandwidth of 4 gen 4.0 lanes? I thought lane switching the x16 to x8 mode made it so you could get 2 additional m.2 drives at gen 5.0 with dedicated cpu lanes for the boards that support it.

[@IndigoSun-hz6cq]

@@Ronin-Wilde So, nova/taichi has dedicated x16 gen 5 slot for gpu direct to cpu. then 1x gen5 x4 m.2 then 3x gen4 x4 m.2 then 4 sata, 6 sata on the tai. Game Tech Reviews Ep.79 has an excellent review of Gigabyte, Asus, Asrock, and MSI 870/e offerings, all the boards currently released. Hope it's not bad form to name another channel? He's tiny-subs compared to Leo!

[@Ronin-Wilde]

@@IndigoSun-hz6cq Ah, I see what you are saying. Those additional m.2's are all on the same 4 lane Gen 4.0 CPU-chipset uplink. Increased latency and they will also share bandwidth with the USB and SATA controllers on the chipset. CPU: (24 Gen 5.0 Lanes) USB4 - 4 lanes Gen 5.0 x16 - 16 lanes Gen 5.0 x4 m.2 - 4 lanes Chipset - 4 Lane Gen 4.0 Uplink (All bandwidth shared between connected devices) 3 Gen 4.0 m.2 x4 1 Gen 3.0 m.2 x2 The only way to get further high speed storage is to switch the x16 slot, to x8, for 2 additional Gen 5.0 x4 m.2's (For boards that support this like Aorus). Before USB4, you could have 2 Gen 5.0 m.2's before needing a lane switch. This has little impact on most mainstream uses, PCIe is an efficient protocol, it only uses the lanes needed to transfer the required amount of data. 4090 4k gaming estimated to range between 3-14 GB/s. 1-4 Gen 5.0 lanes 8 lanes of Gen 5.0 is currently a ton of bandwidth (32GB/s both directions). I do not think you are wrong for wanting to protect those valuable Gen 5.0 lanes though! Just personally I'll take 2 more Gen 5.0 ssds on a lane switch over chipset ssds. Looking to the future, as nvme's get higher capacity for less $, you can always swap out the lane switch drives for a bigger main drive. Getting your 8 lanes back to the x16 slot if the need for full Gen 5.0 x16 bandwidth arises. Sorry for the long response, I hope this provides some value. Lane switches increase board cost and also add increased Gen 5.0 connectivity for lanes that would otherwise sit idle.

[@kelvinjinxd]

At the same price as the asus x870e proart, I would just go with the later.

[@jayemm6840]

No Ram kits higher than 48GB in the compatibility list. So odd.

[@BillOhio73]

Is that 48gb per kit or per stick? I think on Gigabyte's compatability list the options were listed by stick.

[@jayemm6840]

@@BillOhio73 no total. 24GB x 2.

[@BillOhio73]

@@jayemm6840 Huh... yeah, weird.

[@newbiegain117]

please do all of the new AMD MOBOS

[@darielpadron6709]

Something has to be off about this test, both MSI Carbon and Asus ROG Crosshairs are close on everything. Shouldn’t the Asus be above all, MSI looks to low on way too many tests here.

[@Elimunary]

How is high speed memory support, the 8000, while it is not important for this gen ryzen but this kind of board is in for more than one gen and I doubt amd can afford not to fix fabric bottleneck for next generations.

[@darielpadron6709]

So this or the master from Aorus ?

[@Pabula]

The Aorus master is a very nice board, but imo its design toward people that do plan to use PCIe slots, and this and Aorus Extreme are more toward NVME SSDs since they can use 3x without any penalties or sharing lanes, while the Master you can only use 2x if you use the PCIe. Personally i think the Aorus Master is a really good board, but depends on your priorities.

[@arc00ta]

I just discovered the Ryzen 9000 is absolutely insane in Mechwarrior 5. My 9900X is 30-40% faster in the averages and over 50% faster in the 1% lows than my 13700K. I couldn't believe it, I ran the same mission 3 times each and logged it with Presentmon then put them all in spreadsheet to average the numbers which is as best as I can do to ensure its consistent. In other games like CP2077 the 9900X loses by a tiny margin so this is a very extreme case.

[@sinemcetin-ee5ls]

We would appreciate it if you could examine it by installing a CPU. I ran it with 8600g and 7950x, the digi-Led does not show the CPU temperature, there is no setting in the bios. I started the return process... stop making nonsense reviews...

[@MrBoboka12]

I'm not sure if your conclusion is on spot or if there is maybe something else going on but your benchmark results are not reflected by other media outlets. You are about 10% below other sources. (And this is not in the defense of MSI by any mean as they have a proven dirty track record)

[@delon-96]

what's the best mb model on the am5 platform

[@IndigoSun-hz6cq]

Taichi 870e and Phantom Gaming Nova 870 at £339. 5 lanes of exclusive M.2, zero lane sharing with gpu and backplate thermally linked to mobo.

[@Ronin-Wilde]

X670e carbon wifi, you should be able to find it on sale now too. If you want USB4, then X670e Taichi will give you that. Right now the X870 hype is causing people to pay a lot of money for boards with less connectivity.

[@delon-96]

@@Ronin-Wilde so are you saying the x870 has more lanes does that not mean better? and also what do you mean less connectivity like less ports on the back of the mobo you mean?

[@Ronin-Wilde]

@@delon-96 X870 boards use 4 CPU lanes for USB4. Previously on X670 boards without USB4 those CPU lanes could go to an additional m.2. By less connectivity, I just mean less devices can be slotted on the board that connect directly to the CPU. If USB4 is something you need then it’s a valuable feature, otherwise X870 is very similar to X670, X870 has less usable CPU lanes due to USB4.

[@delon-96]

@@Ronin-Wilde what would you say is better then just go for a x670e? i already have a b650 mobo

[@mentalplayground]

429£ Crazy !

[@buzzman4860]

Bottom line.. I am disappointed. All that engineering but games slower than cheaper boards

[@squallloire]

Some disappointing test results for a Carbon board, to be sure.

[@adamtajhassam9188]

the 9000 series are not as fast unless u oc it . i am on this board now & to stay on the positive its growing on me asa typical fun loving old school gamer/ streamer. AS for OC il report when i get on the 9k series the 7k series doesnt allow easy oc but happy w the ram boost from a 670 board.

[@Cin3q]

Who the fck buy, or test this kind of boards in default state. Jesus

[@LostInDistance]

The board is pretty new, I’m sure there will be bios updates to come that’ll improve on the performances.

[@8020Alive]

Disappointing 😢

[@mariolp2999]

500 dollars for this mb.. this is ridiculous...please don't buy it...

[@andymawby52]

I wish i had seen this review before i bought this board. However, it does do everything I need it to do with no problems. It is a good looking mobo but looks are not everything.

[@Wizard-kk4lz]

Nah, it's a lovely board. It will serve you well. The performance deltas is small in any case and if there is something untoward, it will be fixed in a future bios update. It is a Carbon after all. And if you still feel some buyers remorse, just look at the rear I/O, it's stunning....

[@lolly_bread]

@@Wizard-kk4lz Hmmm. I was keen on this board too until now, so I'm wondering, how confident are you that a bios update will bring all of those chart values back in line with the others. Alternatively do you recommend a better X870E board with similar features?