MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk Review

AMD has delivered a winner in their latest Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU as it smashes the competition at gaming. That makes our search for the best AM5 motherboards a matter of urgency and today we are reviewing the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk which is priced under £300 including VAT. Naturally the features include PCI Express Gen 5 and USB4 but MSI has also removed something that causes pain to a few of you, as this motherboard has no on-board RGB lighting whatsoever…

Time stamps
00:00 Start
00:49 The appearance and layout
02:38 Accessories
03:53 Board Features / VRMs / Rear IO / connectors
06:01 Test System hardware
07:58 BIOS
09:03 Geekbench 6 Multi Core
09:32 Geekbench 6 Single Core
09:52 Cinebench R23 Multi Core
10:10 CPU Power Consumption
10:32 3DMark CPU Profile
10:42 3DMark Time Spy
11:09 Far Cry 6
11:33 Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
11:59 Assassins Creed Mirage
12:15 Cyberpunk 2077
12:28 Total War Pharaoh
12:44 Leo's Closing thoughts

Key features

• Flagship VRM Design
  14+2+1 digital power phases combining dual power connectors and 80A Smart Power Stages.
• EZ PCIe Release
  An easy to access physical button release mechanism that can help remove any PCIe card with a single tap.
• EZ M.2 Shield Frozr II
  MSI’s exclusive EZ M.2 Shield Frozr II makes M.2 installation seamless.
• Fast and Future-ready Storage
  Quadruple M.2 connectors – 2x Gen 5 M.2 and 2x Gen 4 M.2
• Ultra Connect
  High Bandwidth and Low Latency Network with 5G Land Wi-Fi 7

Specification:

• Chipset: AMD X870
• CPU Support: AMD Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 desktop processors.
• VRMs: 14+2+1 x 80A Smart Power Stages
• Memory support:
  • 4 DIMMs, Dual Channel DDR5, Maximum Memory Capacity 256GB
  • 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
• Expansion slots:
  • 1x PCIe Gen 5.0 x16 slot (from CPU)
  • 1x PCIe Gen 3.0 x1 slot (from chipset)
  • 1x PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 slot (from chipset, shared with one M.2 slot)
• Storage:
  • 2x M.2 Gen 5.0 x4
  • 1x M.2 Gen 4.0 x4
  • 1x M.2 Gen 4.0 x2 (shared with PCIe Gen 4.0 slot)
  • 4x SATA 6Gbps
• USB support:
  • 2x USB 40Gbps Type-C (Rear)
  • 1x USB 20Gbps Type-C (Front)
  • 1x USB 10Gbps Type-C (Rear)
  • 2x USB 10Gbps Type-A (Rear)
  • 3x USB 5Gbps Type-A (Rear)
  • 4x USB 5Gbps Type-A (Front)
  • 4x USB 2.0 (Rear)
  • 4x USB 2.0 (Front)
• Ethernet: Realtek 8126 5Gbps LAN
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Audio: Realtek ALC4080 7.1-Channel Audio
• Form Factor: ATX 244mm x 305mm

Performance and Testing

To test the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk we built a test system using the following components:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• Motherboard: MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk BIOS 1A1A AGESA 1202b
• Memory: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000
• CPU Cooler: Phanteks Glacier One 360D30
• Graphics card: MSI RTX 4090 Ventus 3X 24GB
• Power supply: Seasonic Vertex GX-1200 ATX 3.0
• SSD: 1TB Crucial T700 M.2 NVMe
• OS: Windows 11 24H2

Closing Thoughts

When it comes to features, the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk has a fair amount in common with the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi 7 that we reviewed HERE.The price is also very similar as both motherboards are priced just under £300, which puts them in the budget category.

It is worth noting the Gigabyte uses the AMD X870E chipset while MSI has chosen the X870 and the most visible difference comes down to expansion slots. With X870E you can have multiple PCIe Gen 5 and Gen 4 slots while the Tomahawk has one Gen 5 graphics slot and a couple of tiddlers.

The appeal of the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk comes down to a combination of visual style and a minimalist nature. It offers a reasonable selection of M.2 slots along with a decent number of USB ports and it backs up those features with WiFi 7 and 5Gbps Ethernet.

The end result is a value motherboard that packs enough punch to appeal to enthusiast PC builders who are sick and tired of RGB lighting.

You can buy the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk for £280 inc VAT from Scan HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

Pros:

• Impressive value for money.
• Good DIY features for installing PCIe and M.2 hardware.
• 5Gbit Ethernet and WiFi 7.
• VRM is plenty strong enough for your Zen 4 or Zen 5 CPU.

Cons:

• Fourth M.2 slot is effectively only for show.
• A Power micro button would be nice.

KitGuru says: The MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk is relatively basic but does a good job and has no obvious problems.

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