With the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D hitting the market strong, the X870 and X870E motherboards that launched back at the end of September move more into the spotlight. You can run the 9800X3D on the 600 Series chipsets as well, but if you are building a high-end gaming PC with the 9800X3D for your CPU you might just be looking at the latest and greatest for motherboards with all of those PCIe 5.0 lanes. I’ve already taken a look at a few options from Gigabyte and Asus but I haven’t taken a look at anything from MSI yet. Today I’m going to check out the MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi and see how it compares.
Product Name: MSI MPG X870E CARBON WIFI
Review Sample Provided by: MSI
Written by: Wes Compton
Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE
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Specifications |
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Chipset |
AMD X870E |
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CPU |
Supports AMD Ryzen™ 9000/ 8000/ 7000 Series Desktop Processors Socket AM5 |
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Memory |
4x DDR5 UDIMM, Maximum Memory Capacity 256GB Memory Support DDR5 8400+(OC)/ 8200+(OC)/ 8000+(OC)/ 7800(OC)/ 7600(OC)/ 7400(OC)/ 7200(OC)/ 7000(OC)/ 6800(OC)/ 6600(OC)/ 6400(OC)/ 6200(OC)/ 6000(OC)/ 5800(OC)/ 5600(JEDEC)/ 5400(JEDEC)/ 5200(JEDEC)/ 5000(JEDEC)/ 4800(JEDEC) MT/s Ryzen™ 9000 Series Processors max. overclocking frequency: • 1DPC 1R Max speed up to 8400+ MT/s • 1DPC 2R Max speed up to 6400+ MT/s • 2DPC 1R Max speed up to 6400+ MT/s • 2DPC 2R Max speed up to 4800+ MT/s
Supports AMD POR Speed and JEDEC Speed Supports Memory Overclocking and AMD EXPOTM Supports Dual-Channel mode Supports Non-ECC, Un-buffered memory Supports CUDIMM, Clock Driver bypass mode only*
* CUDIMM support and POR boot frequency may vary by CPU series, with manual overclocking available after boot. Certain CPUs may fail to boot, but future BIOS updates will improve compatibility. • The DIMM slots on this motherboard have double-sided latches. • Memory compatibility and supported speeds can vary depending on the CPU and memory configuration. For detailed information, please refer to the Memory Compatibility List available on the product’s Support page or visit https://www.msi.com/support/. |
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Onboard Graphics |
1x HDMI™ Support HDMITM 2.1 with FRL port, maximum resolution of 8K 60Hz* 2x Type-C DisplayPort USB4® port, supporting DisplayPort 1.4 with HBR3 over USB Type-C, maximum resolution of 4K@60Hz* *Available only on processors featuring integrated graphics. Graphics specifications may vary depending on the CPU installed. |
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Slot |
3x PCI-E x16 slot PCI_E1 Gen PCIe 5.0 supports up to x16 (From CPU) PCI_E2 Gen PCIe 5.0 supports up to x4 (From CPU) PCI_E3 Gen PCIe 4.0 supports up to x4 (From Chipset)
PCI_E1 & PCI_E2 slots • Supports PCIe 5.0 x16/x0 or x8/x4 (For Ryzen™ 9000/ 7000 Series processors) • Supports PCIe 4.0 x8/x0 (For Ryzen™ 8700/ 8600/ 8400 Series processors) • Supports PCIe 4.0 x4/x0 (For Ryzen™ 8500/ 8300 Series processor) PCI_E3 slot • Supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4
* PCI_E1 & PCI_E2 & M.2_2 share the bandwidth, and PCIe version support varies depending on the CPU. Please refer to the PCIe configuration table in the manual for more details. |
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Audio |
Realtek® ALC4080 Codec 7.1-Channel USB High-Performance Audio Supports up to 32-Bit/384 kHz playback on front panel Supports S/PDIF output |
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Storage |
4x M.2 M.2_1 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices M.2_2 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices M.2_3 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 22110/2280 devices M.2_4 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices 4x SATA 6G
* PCI_E1 & PCI_E2 & M.2_2 share the bandwidth, and PCIe version support varies depending on the CPU. Please refer to the PCIe configuration table in the manual for more details. |
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RAID |
•Supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and Raid 10 for SATA storage devices •Supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and Raid 10* for M.2 NVMe storage devices
* RAID 10 for M.2 NVMe storage devices is only supported by AMD Ryzen™ 9000/7000 series CPU. |
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USB |
4x USB 2.0 (Front) 4x USB 5Gbps Type A (Front) 9x USB 10Gbps Type A (Rear) 2x USB 10Gbps Type C (Rear) 1x USB 20Gbps Type C (Front) 2x USB 40Gbps Type C (Rear) |
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LAN |
1x Realtek® 8126 5G LAN 1x Realtek® 8125 2.5G LAN |
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Internal IO |
1x Power Connector(ATX_PWR) 2x Power Connector(CPU_PWR) 1x Power Connector(PCIE_PWR 8pin) 1x CPU Fan 1x Combo Fan (Pump_Sys Fan) 5x System Fan 1x EZ Conn-header (JAF_2) 2x Front Panel (JFP) 1x Chassis Intrusion (JCI) 1x Front Audio (JAUD) 1x Thermal Sensor connectors(T_SEN) 3x Addressable V2 RGB LED connector (JARGB_V2) 1x RGB LED connector(JRGB) 4x USB 2.0 ports 4x USB 5Gbps Type A ports 1x USB 20Gbps Type C ports |
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Wireless & Bluetooth |
Wi-Fi 7 Solution The Wireless module is pre-installed in the M.2 (Key-E) slot Supports MU-MIMO TX/RX, 2.4GHz/ 5GHz/ 6GHz* (320MHz) up to 5.8Gbps Supports 802.11 a/ b/ g/ n/ ac/ ax/ be
Supports Bluetooth® 5.4**, MLO, 4KQAM |
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LED Feature |
4x EZ Debug LED 1x EZ Digit Debug LED 1x EZ LED Control switch |
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Back Panel Ports |
USB 10Gbps Type-A Flash BIOS Button Clear CMOS Button Smart Button 2.5G LAN 5G LAN Audio Connectors HDMI™ USB 40Gbps Type-C USB 10Gbps Type-C USB 10Gbps Type-A USB 10Gbps Type-C Wi-Fi / Bluetooth Optical S/PDIF Out |
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Operating System |
Support for Windows® 11 64-bit |
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Box Contents |
Motherboard EU Regulatory Notice |
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PCB Info |
ATX 243.84mmx304.8mm |
Packaging and Accessories
The box for the MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi has a large picture of the board across the front which is always great to see. Over that they have the model name and in the bottom right corner is the standard AMD wrap-around which lets you know that this is an X870E motherboard as if it being in the model name didn’t already and the wrap-around lets us know this is an AM5 motherboard has support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. The big elephant in the room however is on the bottom left corner, that big warning label. We now know that this will burn in as little as two hours, can cause death or serious injury if ingested, and that you should seek immediate medical attention if you swallow or insert into any part of the body. The back of the box has a second picture of the X870E Carbon Wifi and then next to that, they have icons and names of a few of the key features for the board. The back also has a specification listing and a line drawing of the rear I/O. This is good information to have, along with the pictures of the board itself for anyone shopping in person.
When you open the box up, it comes wrapped in its static protective bag and is tucked in a cardboard tray with cardboard over part of the board like a blanket to keep it safe at night err… keep it from moving in transport. Up under the cardboard tray, you will find a few accessories and some documentation. For documentation, you get an EU regulatory booklet and a generic quick installation guide. You also get a color paper inviting you to post a review of your experience with the board and to register with MSI and let them know to get a $20 Steam gift card. You also get a sticker sheet which has a metallic-like finish over it. One half of the sheet is filled with labels that have pictures letting you know they are for fans, SATA cables, RGB lighting, and display connections. The other half has MSI badges and a few cute Lucky the Dragon stickers.
For accessories, you get two black SATA cables, a 1 to 2 RGB extension cable, EZ front panel cable, aRGB extension cables, and the 1-3 EZ conn cable. You get a USB drive with the MSI logo on it. There is an EZ M.2 Clip II and then the key is the EZ M.2 Clip II remover.
Then of course the X870E Carbon Wifi comes with a wireless antenna, it's in the product name. This is the same antenna that I’ve seen MSI use for a while now with one change. The cable now has snap-on connections where they used to have to be screwed down. MSI’s snap-on design is different from what I saw with Gigabyte and Asus, they didn’t use any plastic here, it's just metal clips which should hold up better. Not that you should be removing them often. The antenna itself comes in two parts and you have to put it together. It has a V-shaped base and then the antenna part. The base has rubber feet on it and two holes to hang it if you want as well which could be very useful.
Board Layout and Pictures
The MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi isn’t MSIs highest-end X870E motherboard, they have the Godlike for that role. But the X870E Carbon Wifi is slotted high up in the product stack and with that it has a premium look with large heatinks covering most of the board. For styling they kept things very neutral with a blacked-out board and all of the heatsinks are black as well. They then just have a few shades of grey used to get the MPG branding all over the board. Where some of the early Carbon boards featured a fake carbon fiber look for that gaming look, this board is simple enough that it could be at home in any style of PC. The only exception to that is the big MSI dragon logo, I know they like to include that but it’s the only thing taking away that simple styling here.
As I just mentioned, in addition to a wide feature set. The heatsinks for a board make or break things both with styling and cooling. The X870E Carbon Wifi has an 18+2+1 DRPS VRM configuration which stands for Duet Rail Power System which is a teamed power stage setup and it supports 110A. With so many they have them packed together all along the left and top of the CPU socket. Both have finned heatsinks right on top of them with the heatsink to the left of the socket being the larger of the two and is handling more of the power stages. Both the top and bottom of the heatsinks have groves in them to get additional surface area. Given the setup I expected the two VRM heatsinks to be tied together with a heatpipe but I don’t see any indication of one so it will be interesting to see if they end up running around the same temperatures. The left VRM heatsink has the rare I/O cover over it at all but that cover is all plastic so if anything it is blocking airflow. A lot of boards have integrated the heatsink to be the cover as well for more surface area, I’m surprised they didn’t do that here. The rest of the cooling on the X870E Carbon Wifi is dedicated mostly to the M.2 slots with a little also for the chipset which is tied into that same setup. There is one independent M.2 heatsink for the top slot, it is low profile and runs from the rear I/O to the memory slots. The other M.2 heatsink is the large heatsink which handles the other three M.2 slots. I will touch on the setup more later on. All of these heatsinks are low profile to not get in the way of PCIe devices like your video card including the chipset heatsink which is on the right side. When you look up under that one I was surprised that MSI has integrated fins on the underside to get as much surface area as possible.
Starting in the top left quadrant, let's check out some of the features visible on the X870E Carbon Wifi. This section is mostly filled with the CPU socket, the VRM heatsinks, and the rear I/O. Like with most boards the X870E Carbon Wifi does still have its CPU power connections tucked up in the corner between those heatsinks and to power everything it has two 8-pin connections. I’m not sure when we went away from it, but I do miss seeing a fan header tucked in this area or right below the rear I/O for when you have a rear case fan to hook up. This view also gives us a peak that behind the rear I/O the VRM heatsink has large fins to get as much surface area as possible.
Where the top left doesn’t have much going on, the top right quadrant always has a LOT going on and that’s no different here with the X870E Carbon Wifi. You have four DDR5 DIMMS. Then above them, there are three 4-pin PWM fan headers. One is labeled for your water pump, one is for a CPU fan, and one is for a system fan. Just around the corner, there is a four which is a second system fan header. With that, the white header is the addressable RGB for your lighting. Then you have the EZ Debug LEDs which let you know what part of the boot stage it is on to help diagnose boot issues. The code display is also right here. Then you get a 24-pin motherboard power connection. Below that is the EZConn connection, specifically the JAF_2 version. This can work with other MSI products like addressable RGB fans or water cooling using the included adapter cable.
For the bottom right quadrant the chipset/M.2 heatsink fills a lot of this area but just above them next to the memory is a push button. That will release the lath for the top PCIe slot to make removing a large video card a lot easier. Up under the chipset heatsink they have hidden a few right-angled connections. You have a 20Gbps USB connection then four SATA ports. Below that are two 5Gbps USB 3.2 connections as well. I’ve also found that these connections can be broken easily are a little stronger when they are right-angled like this. I’ve pulled the plastic right off of the pins with the other configuration. The bottom edge has a backlit power button and a reset button. There are two USB 2.0 headers here. The front panel connection is on the bottom right corner and near that, you also have a small switch that turns the RGB lighting off completely without using any software.
In the bottom left quadrant, our last section the PCIe and M.2 slots take up most of the space and I will get to those in just a second. Along the bottom edge though you have three more 4-pin PWM fan headers for a total of 7. MSI has given the X870E Carbon Wifi a PCIe 8-pin power connection to feed in extra power. Then you have one more addressable RGB header giving a total of two and I was happy to see one legacy 4-pin RGB header as well which all of the other boards I have seen lately haven’t had. There is a thermal sensor plug to add in a probe to keep an eye on somewhere in your PC. Then in the bottom left corner, we have the front panel audio header.
For PCIe and M.2 slots, with this being a full ATX board, the X870E Carbon Wifi is loaded. It has three full-length PCIe slots and four M.2 slots. That said to fit all of those there is some lane sharing taking place. The top two PCIe slots are both PCIe 5.0, at least when using a CPU that supports it. Both have metal shields on them but, interestingly, the shield design is different between the two. Those should give a little more strength to deal with the weight of today's video cards and help block out some interference. The top slot is a full x6 lane slot but the second one, while the x16 length has x4 lanes. Then down at the bottom, the non-shielded slot is a PCIe 4.0 slot with a x16 length and x4 lanes. For M.2 slots there are four in total with the top two being PCIe 5.0 and the bottom two being PCIe 4.0. They all support 2280 and 2260 length drives but the third one down also supports longer 22110 length drives as well. As for the lane sharing, the top two PCIe slots AND the second M.2 slot all share lanes. MSI has a whole table breaking it down but if you are running a 9000 or 7000 Series CPU you get x16 in the top slot if it’s the only one used but x8 when either the second PCIe slot or second M.2 slot are used. If you have an 8000 Series CPU that doesn’t support PCIe 5.0, the top PCIe slot only gets x8 lanes for the 8700/8600/6400 and x4 lanes for the 8500/8300. In the end, you only get three M.2 slots and one x4 PCIe slot unless you want to give up the full bandwidth for your GPU. The best part about this area though is how easy the M.2 slots are to use. Both heatsinks have a nice metal latch on the left side that you push on and the entire heatsink pops off. Then for the drives themselves, MSI has a metal snap on latch that you push down on to release. Not only is it easy to use, but being metal it's solid.
The rear I/O on the X870E Carbon Wifi comes with the shield pre-installed and has a black finish. MSI has also labeled each of the plugs with an easy to read font. Over on the far right, there are three connections for the onboard audio. One is an optical S/PDIF and then you have a microphone in and an audio out and it all runs on the Realtek ALC4080 Codec. Next to that are the two wireless antenna connections for the Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 Wifi 7. Then you get two wired network connections with one being the slower Realtek 8125 2.5G LAN and the second being the Realtek 8126 5G LAN. In the center, there are three large buttons. The left button is for flashing the BIOS, the middle is for resetting the CMOS, and the right button can be set in the BIOS to multiple functions. Over on the left the X870E Carbon Wifi slips in one onboard display connection, an HDMI port but two of the Type-C connections also support DisplayPort over Type-C. Speaking of USB connections the X870E Carbon Wifi is loaded with them. There are a total of 9 Type-A connections and all of those are USB 3.2 Gen 2 which can do up to 10Gbps. There are then four Type-C connections along the bottom. Two are also USB 3.2 Gen 2 but the two on the left are both USB 4 which is four times as fast with support for up to 40Gbps.
The back of the X870E Carbon Wifi has a lot going on, without having anything going on. You can see the flat black finish on the PCB which looks good and near the center they have all of the certification logos printed on it. MSI has warnings where some motherboard standoffs go to make sure you don’t accidentally run them and damage the board. Beyond that, you can see the audio circuitry is mostly isolated except for about an inch in the center.
BIOS
Rather than have stacks of pictures I put together a basic video that just goes through and clicks on each menu option in the BIOS so if there is anything you want to check out you can see it and pause when needed. The BIOS for the X870E Carbon Wifi starts off in MSIs EZ Mode. On the right side, this shows what CPU you are running, the memory used along with its speeds and slot it is installed in, your installed storage, and all of your fan speeds. They have a few options here like fTPM, lighting controls, and turning on EXPO for your memory or game boost for the CPU. You can also drag and drop your boot order down along the bottom edge.
Once you switch to advanced mode up top you land on the system status page. This shows the system time, installed devices, and other information. All of the advanced mode pages have your CPU clock speeds, memory speeds, temperature, and voltages over on the right. Where a lot of boards have their overclocking section right at the start, MSI has the advanced section first. This has all of the system and board options in one location with pages for each sub-system. This is also where you will find the AMD overclocking menu. I don’t know why this isn’t in the overclocking menu, however. Funny enough, the overclocking menu does have an AMD Overclocking page as well inside of the advanced CPU Configuration page. Alongside that, you have the AMD CBS menu, I am happy to see that inside of the overclocking section, Gigabyte and Asus both don’t have it in their overclocking sections. Beyond that, though the overclocking menu has your BLK settings, memory speeds, lots of RAM configuration, voltage controls, and anything else you might look for when overclocking.
Next up is the security menu, this is where you can set up admin or user passwords or set up a U key. Chassis intrusion settings are here, trusted computing, and secure boot as well. The last menu option is the boot menu. This has startup options like if the logo is displayed or the post beep. You can also change all of the boot priority around here but that is still a lot easier in the EZ Mode where you can drag and drop. Up along the top, there are icons on each page for a few options. One of those is M-Flash, the BIOS update tool. You also have a gauge icon that lets you quickly change the PBO setting from enabled or Auto. The smart button options from the rear I/O and for the front panel reset button are here. You can have the buttons do the rest, turn the LEDs on or off, go right to safe boot, or turbo the fan. The turbo fan mode is a great use for this or if you are constantly fighting with issues the safe boot is interesting. You can save and load BIOS profiles, this can be useful when overclocking especially if you want to save a known good profile or have profiles depending on the time of the year (lower overclock when it's going to be warmer in your house). The hardware monitor page shows all of the temperatures and is also where you can set up your fan profiles. You can pick different temperature sources as well. The fan profiles have four points total which is lower than the 8 that Asus has on their boards this generation. I don’t know if 8 is needed, but I would like more than the 4 that you get here. It’s fine for a basic profile but if you are like me and try to fine-tune your fans to keep things cool and quiet it will be harder without as much control.
Test Rig and Procedures
Test System
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D – Live Pricing
Cooling: Corsair H100i RGB Platinum - Live Pricing
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste - Live Pricing
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5 16GBx2 6000MHz - Live Pricing
Storage: Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD- Live Pricing
Video Card: Nvidia RTX 4090 FE - Live Pricing
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200 - Live Pricing
Case: Primochill Wetbench - Live Pricing
OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Live Pricing
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Motherboard Testing |
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Passmark Performance Test 11 |
Overall PCMark score |
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PCMark 10 |
PCMark 10 standard test, not the quick or extended versions |
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3DMark |
We run the newer Speed Way benchmark, Time Spy on its regular setting, and Time Spy Extreme |
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In Game Tests |
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Watch Dogs Legion |
4K, In-Game Benchmark, Ultra detail |
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Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands Breakpoint |
4K, In-Game benchmark, Ultra Detail profile |
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Far Cry 6 |
4K, In-Game benchmark, Ultra detail setting |
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Subsystem Testing |
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Network Testing |
OpenSpeedTest local server |
Performance
When it comes to performance testing, typically motherboard to motherboard we aren’t going to see any big performance difference when running the same components and clock speeds. The exception to that is when boards are auto overclocking of course and there are a few areas where components can make a difference like with ethernet and USB controllers. For testing the X870E Carbon Wifi I ran through a few basic 3DMark benchmarks, PCMark, and Passmark Performance Test 11. I also tested in a few games. The X870E Carbon Wifi performed well in all of those tests, falling in line but a touch on the high side compared to the other 4 boards tested. I also ran networking tests, once with the wired connection which the X870E Carbon Wifi has a Realtek 8126 5G NIC. It came in at 4884.7 Mbps which is in line with what you would expect to see there and was a hair faster than the X870E-E that also has a 5G NIC. The second connection runs on the Realtek 8125 2.5G LAN and was a little slower than the Intel 2.5G NICs tested on the other boards but was still not bad at 2355 Mbps. For wireless the X870E Carbon Wifi uses a Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 Wifi 7 wireless NIC and it supports 320 MHz wide bands. Our tests were done on a 6E network which means there is still performance on the table. But you can see that it was a little faster than the X870-I which also supports 320 MHz.
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3DMark – Speed Way – Overall Score |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 |
10210 |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi |
10164 |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
10185 |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi |
10144 |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi |
10189 |
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Motherboard |
Overall Score |
Graphics Score |
CPU Score |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 |
29716 |
34970 |
16051 |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi |
29375 |
34688 |
15727 |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
29268 |
34630 |
15590 |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi |
29269 |
34574 |
15658 |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi |
29394 |
34749 |
15693 |
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3DMark – Time Spy Extreme |
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Motherboard |
Overall Score |
Graphics Score |
CPU Score |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 |
17544 |
19139 |
11917 |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi |
17451 |
19098 |
11724 |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
17472 |
19093 |
11798 |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi |
17450 |
19085 |
11750 |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi |
17476 |
19069 |
11863 |
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PCMark 10 Score |
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Motherboard |
Overall Score |
Essentials |
Productivity |
Content Creation |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 |
10108 |
11842 |
12221 |
19368 |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi |
10177 |
11874 |
12381 |
19453 |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
9931 |
11992 |
12325 |
17983 |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi |
10155 |
11932 |
12494 |
19064 |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi |
10273 |
12088 |
12536 |
19412 |
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Passmark PerformanceTest 11 |
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Motherboard |
Overall |
CPU Mark |
2D Graphics Mark |
3d Graphics Mark |
Memory Mark |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 |
16553.8 |
63943.3 |
1128.2 |
33342.5 |
4109.0 |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi |
16416.0 |
63743.0 |
1184.2 |
33363.9 |
3903.5 |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
16489.5 |
63858.8 |
1176.4 |
33415.6 |
3984.8 |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi |
16149.9 |
63476.9 |
1177.7 |
33281.4 |
3932.5 |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi |
16446.3 |
63908.0 |
1176.6 |
33476.7 |
3931.6 |
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Watch Dogs Legion – 4K Ultra Detail – Average FPS |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 |
122 FPS |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi |
122 FPS |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
122 FPS |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi |
122 FPS |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi |
122 FPS |
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Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands Breakpoint – 4K Ultra Detail Preset - Average FPS |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 |
146 FPS |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi |
147 FPS |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
149 FPS |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi |
148 FPS |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi |
148 FPS |
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Far Cry 6 – 4K Ultra Detail - Average FPS |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 |
142 FPS |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi |
144 FPS |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
145 FPS |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi |
145 FPS |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi |
142 FPS |
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Average Network Speed – WiFi 6E - Mbits/Sec |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 – MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 MT7925 |
1003.9 Mbits/sec |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi - MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 |
1020.4 Mbits/sec |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi |
993.9 Mbits/sec |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi - MediaTek MT7927 |
1518.7 Mbits/sec |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi – Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 Wifi 7 |
1647.8 Mbits/sec |
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Average Network Speed – wired on 10G Network - Mbits/Sec |
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Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7– Realtek 2.5GbE NIC |
2464.7 Mbits/sec |
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Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi - Realtek 2.5GbE NIC |
2437.9 Mbits/sec |
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ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi - Realtek 5Gb Ethernet |
4859.4 Mbits/sec |
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ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi – Intel I226-V 2.5GbE NIC |
2448.1 Mbits/sec |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi - Realtek 8125 2.5G LAN |
2355.1 Mbits/sec |
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MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi - Realtek 8126 5G LAN |
4884.7 Mbits/sec |
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Before finishing up my testing I did want to check out the lighting. The X870E Carbon Wifi has RGB lighting in two locations, the MSI dragon on the rear I/O cover is all lit up, and then the Carbon logo below the CPU socket on the top M.2 heatsink. I would prefer to see some styling to the lighting rather than just lighting up branding, but I am happy that it isn’t all in one area. Beyond that, the power and reset buttons are both backlit and it also has the status LED display next to the memory.
I also put the 7850X3D in the AIDA64 CPU Stress test using the PFU workload for a half hour. I did this to heat things up and pull power to get a look at how the thermals on the X870E Carbon Wifi. The hottest temperature I saw was 58.3c up under the left VRM heatsink. Going in, I was curious how the two heatsinks would handle things without being linked together with a heatpipe and we can see there is a 2-degree difference. That’s not enough to be an issue at all, however. The plastic cover for the rear I/O is plastic and that shows here as well as it is insulating the heatsink a little bit. There is some heat to the left of the CPU in the PCB and in the top left corner which is always the hottest spot but overall the X870E Carbon Wifi’s cooling did well.
Overall and Final Verdict
Years ago, when I took a look at one of the first generation MSI Carbon motherboards, the Carbon lineup used fake carbon fiber styling and took the whole “gamer” styling up even more which is what some people dig but was too over the top for me (real carbon fiber weave would still be cool though). The Cabron lineup has changed a lot from those days, the styling for the X870E Carbon Wifi is good. I love the blacked-out look and the mix of a few different greys on the M.2 heatsink logo looks good. The only thing I’m not really feeling is the MSI Gaming dragon logo being huge on the rear. Without a doubt though, I was most impressed with the M.2 heatsink and drive installation experience. Both M.2 heatsinks hook into one end and have a nice solid metal mechanism that you push on and they pop right off. On top of that the M.2 mounting itself also has the same setup with a metal button that latches the drive in place and pushing it unlatches the drive. It feels premium, like a board like this should.
The X870E Carbon Wifi impressed with its wireless performance, not only do the wireless NICs that support 320 MHz bands perform faster, even on our Wifi 6E network, but the X870E Carbon Wifi managed to edge out a little more performance compared to the Asus board with a similar NIC which is most likely from the antenna. The X870E Carbon Wifi is loaded up with good VRMs and the cooling was solid there as well as with the M.2 drives. I also was happy with the USB configuration, you get enough connections to handle everything you will throw at it including three Type-C with two of those being new USB 4 ports with their 40Gbps speeds. I did run into a few areas that I think could still be improved on. The PCIe and M.2 configuration has two of the three PCIe slots and one M.2 slot all sharing PCI lanes meaning if you use the second PCIe slot or the second M.2 slot your main PCIe slot for your video card will drop down to x8 lanes. I know they wanted to pack as much into the board as possible but I would prefer a few fewer slots to not have to worry about potentially slowing down the most used slot on the board. The fan profile configuration in the BIOS has 4 adjustment points, I would like to see a little more there to make it easier to fine-tune your fan profiles. The last thing was just a note on the 5G NIC. It performed flawlessly. My issue is just with 5G NICs in general. If you are taking advantage of a 5Gb NIC, you most likely already have a 10GbE network. Because of that, I would prefer them to save the money for the 5G NIC and go with a second 2.5G or go all out with a 10G NIC.
No doubt about it though, the issues I had were small compared to the positives on the X870E Carbon Wifi. MSI did a great job with the board. But what will it run you? Well, you are going to have to throw down $499.99 for the X870E Carbon Wifi. That puts it right up with the Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi that I already took a look at and the Aorus Master as well. Base feature wise all three boards have a similar setup. The Aorus board has the same PCIe layout and the X870E-E has one less PCIe slot but has one more M.2 slot. All three have the shared lanes issue and the same 5G NIC. The Aorus board has fewer Type-C connections and the Asus board has one more. The Asus board has one more VRM with an 18+2+2 to the 18+2+1 on the Carbon and the Aorus has fewer with its 16+2+2. I would put the Asus board slightly ahead on features and the Aorus behind but the X870E Carbon Wifi does have a $10 rebate currently and it will just depend on what features you prioritize.
Live Pricing: HERE
