There are a lot of great new motherboards launching today, and you might have noticed that we have at least nine reviews going live all at the same time today. However, it’s the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WIFI I’ve been looking forward to the most today, as it looks like a really well-made gaming motherboard. Sure, it’s not quite as extreme as some of the boards we’ve got today, and far from the flagship board from MSI, but at the same time, it looks like a sweet spot between cost and features that is sure to appeal to those building a high-end gaming PC. It features support for all of the AM5 CPUs, such as the AMD Ryzen 7000, 8000 and of course, 9000 series. Plus, it comes with a very potent 18+2+1 VRM configuration with 110A SPS, making it one of the best-equipped motherboards for this chipset when it comes to power delivery and overclocking.
You get a plethora of MSI technologies too, such as their Lightning Gen5 technology for the PCIe and M.2 storage, Ultra Connect networking with 5G, 2.5G, WiFi7 and USB4 technologies, and their EZ release systems, and Shield Frozr II cooling technology. All tuned to deliver even better performance, and that should hopefully give it a performance edge over the competition, and of course, other MSI models further down the price range.
MSI MPG X870E Carbon WIFI
With its more feature-packed power delivery setup, this will surely be a punchy motherboard and will be able to overclocker hardware, maintain boost clocks longer, and generally stand up to being pushed to the limits for extended periods. The larger VRM cooling and armour aren’t just for show, allowing the board to deal with the more intense workloads without compromising performance. Or, at least, that’s how it should work, we’ll be putting the VRM through their paces later in this review.
Key Features
- 18+2+1 DRPS / 110A SPS
- Lightning Gen5 slots & M.2 support
- Ultra Connect 5G
- 2.5G LAN
- Wi-Fi 7
- USB4
- EZ PCIe Release
- EZ Magnetic M.2 Shield Frozr II
For more information, please visit the official product page here.
Memory Support
Memory support is impressive, offering up incredible speeds for these new CPUs, however, which generation of CPU you use will have some impact on the memory capabilities as you might expect, but typically they’re all over 8000 MHz.
What MSI Had to Say
Introducing the MSI AMD AM5 series motherboards for the X870E/X870 chipset, featuring the MEG, MPG, MAG, and PRO series. Engineered to pair seamlessly with the latest AMD Ryzen 9000 and 7000X3D series processors, these motherboards harness the power of AI-driven technology to deliver the best in performance and efficiency. Whether you’re a gamer, content creator, or power user, the MSI AM5 series offers the best in cutting-edge features and intelligent solutions to elevate your computing experience to the next level.
AMD 800 Series Chipset
While this review cycle we’ll be focusing on the X870E series of motherboards, of course, there’s going to be more to this series, with the X870E being the flagship models, the X870 below that, and then the B850 and the B840 being the more affordable models below those, but with some obvious compromises on the features, giving us a range of options for normal PC users, gamers, overclockers and enthusiasts.
Ryzen 9 9950X
For these reviews, we’ll be using the latest AMD Ryzen 9000 series CPU, and while we haven’t actually reviewed this CPU on its own, of course, we’ll be exploring the Ryzen 9 9950X performance through these motherboard reviews. We did a feature testing Windows 32H2 Vs 24H2 on YouTube recently, which you can check out here.
- 16 cores and 32 threads
- Up to 5.7 GHz max boost clock
- 64 MB of L3 cache
- Supports DDR5 memory up to 2x1R DDR5-5600 or 4x1R DDR5-3600
- Requires AM5 socket motherboard
- Includes Precision Boost Overdrive and Curve Optimizer Voltage Offsets technology
- Unlocked for overclocking
- Supports PCIe 5.0
