MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi: Basis in above-standard features

What it looks like in the BIOS

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

After two X870 motherboards (TUF Gaming X870 Plus WiFi and X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7), we finally get to a model with the X870E chipset. The “E” (Extreme) at the end signifies the use of two Promontory 21 chips, which gives the board more PCI Express lanes and therefore wider options for connecting all sorts of stuff.

MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi

The second best-equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that MSI has to offer. The first is the MEG X870E Godlike at about double the price. Of course, the MPG Carbon WiFi is also one of the more expensive motherboards and not everyone will take advantage of its capabilities. But some users will definitely find them useful.

MSI sticks to the ATX format (i.e. 305×244 mm) for the X870E Carbon WiFi, so the individual connectors are quite densely packed. However, the spacing between the first and second PCI Express ×16 slots is quite large – 80 mm between their centers. The second PCIe ×16 slot (physically… electrically it’s ×4) will thus be usable even in the case of installing an excessively thick graphics card.

For more convenient removal of expansion cards from the first PCIe ×16 slot, the board has a mechanical button to remotely release the latch.

The PCIe ×16 slot latch is robust, with metal elements, with a compression spring.

Both the first and second PCI Express ×16 slots support PCIe 5.0. The third and last PCIe ×16 slot (electrically a 4-lane one), which is brought out of the chipset, supports only PCIe 4.0.

The motherboard has four M.2 slots for SSDs, two of which are connected to the CPU (PCIe 5.0 interface) and two, the third and fourth, to the X870E chipset (PCIe 4.0). Above all of these is then a cooler with a side latch that you push to release, and then remove the cooler by lifting it up. The first M.2 slot has a smaller separate cooler (84 grams), and slots M.2_2 to M.2_4 have a shared cooler – a single monolithic piece of aluminum weighing 195 grams.

There are a handful of angled connectors on the bottom right side. These are four SATA (III) connectors, USB-C (3.2 gen. 2×2), and 19-pin USB 3.2 gen. 1 for connecting the front panels of cases. These are in a pair, which means everything works out well for cases with four 10-gigabit USB Type-A connectors. Cheaper boards tend to be ready for only two of these connectors.

The power delivery is 21-phase, with 18 phases for Vcore (two for SOC and one for MISC). The specified current load capacity per phase is 110 A. However, to achieve high power efficiency, the VRM must be significantly oversized and loaded only fractionally. This is also in order to be able to cool critical components to sufficiently low operating temperatures with relatively simple coolers at all.

A look at the rear panel will especially please those who like USB ports. Fast USB ports. The slowest of the 13 total ports is the 10-gigabit port, there are ten of those (ten Type-A plus one Type-C). There are two USB4 (USB-C) ports.

Part of the USB ports are connected to the motherboard via a separate PCB with a Realtek RTS5420 controller. Also soldered to this small board are the Flash BIOS, Clear CMOS buttons and the Smart button, which is a multi-purpose programmable button for reset, LED off/on, Safe Boot or Turbo Fan. You can assign the selected function to it in the BIOS. By default, the Smart button is used to reset the motherboard.
Two RJ-45 connectors mean two network adapters – a fast one (2.5 Gb Realtek 8125) and a faster one (5 Gb Realtek 8126). Network connectivity is also made up of a wireless module (Qualcomm NCM865) with WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

On the cover between the VRM and the external I/O connectivity of the rear panel is an illuminated dragon logo typical of MSI. Its colors, effects and brightness intensity can be customized traditionally via Dragon Center and the (A)RGB LED management app.

Please note: The article continues in the following chapters.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

What it looks like in the BIOS

The UI of the MPG X870E Carbon WiFi has also undergone some visual transformation (like the MAG Z890 Tomahawk WiFi). The upper left quadrant includes toggle buttons for activating a memory profile (EXPO) or “Game boost” of the CPU. With it, the CPU cores are overclocked to higher clock speeds in game workloads where the CPU is typically not limited by power consumption. That is, of course, as long as those can be kept cool enough, which is not difficult with AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs, even with more affordable coolers. Even when using the top model Ryzen 9950X with sixteen cores.

Then, within EZ Config, a few buttons have been added to quickly manage, for example, PBO or optimization for X3D Ryzens (X3D Gaming Mode). In EZ Mode there are also basic switches (on/off) for TPM, fan failure warning or RZ LED Control and so on. There’s lots there. And then to the right is basic diagnostics for CPU, RAM, storage and fans. Boot priorities are under the bottom navigation. I can’t help but conclude that the layout is logical and well intuitive. Valid for BIOS v 1.A17.

In EZ Mode, you may miss the Re-Sizable BAR management button a bit. You can only manage this technology via the Advanced Mode (which you can enter by pressing F7) in the PCIe Subsystem Settings tab. Relatively worse accessibility (if we consider the absence of it in EZ Mode as such) can probably be partially justified by the fact that most users do not turn off ReBAR. It is enabled in the factory settings. It only makes sense to turn it off if active ReBAR would degrade gaming or rather application performance. Such a situation can also eventually occur.

The advanced mode also opens the way to detailed PBO settings. In our tests, we measure the way the motherboard manufacturer sees it and then in the mode with the TDP reduced to 105 W, with the PPT at 142 W.

There are different ways to adjust the power limits. One is to manually adjust by entering the exact PPT values (and current limits) on the Precision Boost Overdrive tab. Then there’s also the Advanced CPU Configuration sub-tab in the Overclocking tab with preset TDP profiles in different levels (45, 65, 95, 105, 120 and 170W) or a third option – AMD CBS. Here you no longer enter the value in mW (as in the PBO settings), but in watts, i.e. three digits. For 105-watt TDP, it is 142 W (PPT).

The advanced overclocking settings also allow, of course, to adjust the clock speed by changing the multiplier. This is unlocked on AMD Ryzen 9000 processors, and the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi motherboard allows you to adjust it.

The 9000 Ryzens as well as the 7000 Ryzens that can be fitted to this motherboard support, among other things, 512-bit vector instructions (you can see their impact in Handbrake in this test), which you can optionally disable. This may be, for example, to reduce power consumption in critical situations or for other reasons.

If you have not already enabled the memory profile (AMD EXPO) in EZ Mode, it can be enabled in Advanced Mode. And next to that, Infinity Fabric or Uncore bandwidth is also customizable. Its default setting (at least with the AMD Ryzen 9950X processor) is 3000 MHz.

The Hardware Monitor for fan management is also dressed in purple-black colors. Now it’s also possible to create curves by entering the exact values (degrees Celsius and DC voltages or PWM duty cycles) into a table, similar to what Gigabyte has had for a long time. This is more convenient than the drag and drop technique of dragging points directly on a two-dimensional graph.

Before you start creating the curve, it is worth paying attention to the settings of which temperature source the fan speeds will be based on. For example, the default CPU Core sensor (probably based on the hottest core?) can be switched to “MOS”, i.e. to some strategic point probably on the Vcore of the power delivery. Or you can leave the control on the CPU Core sensor, however you need it…

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Gaming tests…

The vast majority of tests is based on the methodology for processors and graphics cards. The choice of games is narrower with motherboards, but for this purpose there is no need for more of them. The vast majority of the tests are based on the methodology for processors and graphics cards. The choice of games is narrower for motherboards, but for this purpose, there is no need for more of them. The processors we use are the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, Core i9-13900K or on AMD platforms it’s the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and on older boards it’s the Ryzen 9 7950X. These processors highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of any motherboard well. In the past we have tested with two processors, including a cheaper, more low-power model, but we don’t do that anymore. The hypothesis that more expensive motherboards might give an “advantage” to cheaper processors in performance has not been confirmed, so it’s rather pointless.

We’ve selected five titles from games we’re testing in two resolutions. There are significantly fewer games than in the CPU or graphics card tests, but these are just enough for the motherboard tests. Few people consider performance in a particular game when choosing a motherboard. But an indicative overview of which motherboard shapes gaming performance in what way (compared to another motherboard) is necessary. To avoid significant discrepancies over time, we’ve reached for relatively older titles that no longer receive significant updates.

These are Borderlands 3, F1 2020, Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War Saga: Troy. With newer games, there might be some performance changes over time (updates) and especially in high resolutions with high details. This is one of the test setups (2160p and Ultra, or the highest visual detail but without ray-tracing graphics) that focuses on comparing performance, for which the bottleneck is the graphics card. In other words, it will be clear from these tests which motherboard can affect the performance of which graphics card to what extent for any reason. In contrast, a setup with Full HD resolution and with graphical details reduced to “High” will also reflect the CPU’s contribution to the final gaming performance.

We use OCAT to record fps, or the times of individual frames, which are then used to calculate fps, and FLAT to analyze the CSV. The developer and author of articles (and videos) for the GPUreport.cz website is behind both.
For the highest accuracy, all runs are repeated three times and average values of average and minimum fps are displayed in the graphs. These multiple repetitions also apply to non-game tests.

… Computing tests, SSD tests, USB ports and network tests

We test application performance in a very similar way to the processor tests. Almost all tests are included, from the easier ones (such as those in a web environment) to those that push the CPU or graphics card to the limit. These are typically tests such as 3D rendering, video encoding (x264, x265, SVT-AV1) or other performance-intensive computing tasks. As with processors or graphics cards, we have a wide range of applications – users editing video (Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve Studio), graphic effects creators (Adobe Premiere Pro), graphic designers or photographers (Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Affinity Photo, AI applications Topaz Labs, …) will find their own in the results, and there are also tests of (de)encryption, (de)compression, numerical calculations, simulations and, of course, tests of memory.

SSD performance tests are also important for motherboards. Therefore we test the maximum sequential read and write speeds on an empty Samsung 980 Pro SSD (1 TB) in the well distributed CrystalDiskMark, in all slots. We approach the USB port tests in the same way. We use a WD Black P50 external SSD to test them. It supports fast USB 3.2 gen. 2×2, so it won’t be a bottleneck for even the fastest USB controllers. We report only one result for each USB standard. This is calculated from the average of all available ports.

We won’t deprive you of network bandwidth tests either. We move large files in both directions within a local network between the motherboard network adapters and the Sonnet Solo10G 10-gigabit PCIe card. This from the aforementioned Samsung 980 Pro SSD to the Patriot Hellfire (480 GB), which is still fast enough to not slow down even the 10 Gb adapter.

The results of all performance tests are averaged over three repeated measurements for high accuracy.

CPU settings…

We primarily test processors without power limits, the way most motherboards have it in factory settings. For tests that have an overlap with power, temperature and CPU clock speed measurements, we also observe the behavior of boards with a power limit according to Intel’s recommendations, where we set PL1 to the TDP level (125 W) while respecting the Tau timeout (56 s). The upper limit of the power supply (PL2/PPT) is set in the BIOS according to the official values. For the Ultra 7 265K it’s 250W, for the Core i9-13900K it is 253 W, and for the Core i9-12900K it is 241 W. On AMD platforms with the Ryzen 9 x950X test processors, the reduced power supply mode represents a TDP setting of 105W with a PPT of 142W. Such a load also corresponds to unconstrained power supply of the Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X processors. Aggressive overclocking technologies such as PBO2 (AMD) or MCE (Asus) and similar are not covered in standard motherboard tests.

… and application updates

Tests should also take into account that over time, individual updates may skew performance comparisons. Some applications we use in portable versions that do not update or can be kept on a stable version, but for some this is not the case. Typically games get updated over time, which is natural, and keeping them on old versions out of reality would also be questionable.

In short, just count on the fact that the accuracy of the results you are comparing with each other decreases a bit as time goes on. To make this analysis easier, we’ve listed when each board was tested. You can find this out in the dialog box, where you can find information about the date of testing. This dialog is displayed in the interactive graphs, next to any result bar. Just hover over it.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Methodology: How we measure power draw

In contrast to the Z690/B660 tests, we’ll simplify it a bit and measure only the CPU power draw on the EPS cables. This means that (also for the sake of best possible clarity) we omit the 24-pin measurements. We have already analysed it thoroughly and the power draw on it doesn’t change much across boards. Of the ten boards tested with an Alder Lake processor (Core i9-12900K), the power draw at 12 volts of the 24-pin connector ranges from 37.3–40.4 W (gaming load, graphics card power supply via PCI Express ×16 slot), at 5V (memory, ARGB LEDs and some external controllers) then between 13.9–22.3 W and finally at the weakest, 3.3-volt branch, the power draw of our test setup tends to be 2.2–3.6 W.

On top of the CPU power draw, which also takes into account the efficiency of the power delivery, this adds up to some 53–66 W under gaming/graphics load and only 15–25 W outside of it, with the graphics card idle. We already know all this from older tests, and it will be no different on the new boards, and as the number of measurements increases, reducing measurements that worsen orientation is beneficial. But from the text above, you know how much to add for the total power draw of the motherboard components to the CPU’s majority power draw.

The situation will be a bit different on AMD platforms, for those we will deal with what is the power draw on which branch of the 24-pin, but already in a separate article that will better highlight this topic. In a large comprehensive motherboard test, these measurements disappear, they do not attract enough attention.

We measure the power draw of the CPU (and its VRM) on the power supply cables, with calibrated Prova 15 current clamps and a calibrated Keysight U1231A multimeter. The clamps measure the electric current, the multimeter measures the electric voltage. In the union of these two electrical quantities, we finally obtain the exact power draw. We measure this in different loads on the CPU. The maximum multithreaded load is represented by Cinebench R23.

Lower, gaming load by Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p@high), single-threaded load by audio encoding (reference encoder 1.3.2, FLAC with bitrate 200 kbps) and idle power draw is measured on the Windows 10 desktop when only basic operating system processes and launchers of some test applications are running in the background.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Methodology: Temperature and clock speed measurements

By far the most critical part in terms of temperatures on the motherboard is the power delivery (VRM) for the CPU. This is where we return to the Fluke Ti125 thermal imager, which produces temperature maps that can be used to locate the average temperature, as well as the hottest point. We record both these values (average and maximum temperature on the Vcore) in graphs, and we will later evaluate the efficiency of the VRM heatsinks based on the maximum one. However, we lack a suitable thermometer for that yet. Of course, the thermovision is implemented without a heatsink, and a thermocouple needs to be installed on the hottest MOSFET to detect the reduction of temperature with a heatsink. This will be added soon.

Thermal imaging always relates to operating with the more powerful of the pair of test processors. With it, the differences and possible limitations or impending risks (for example, even from thermal throttling) become more apparent. In order to have a good view of the VRM, we use an Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360 liquid cooler with the fans fixed at full power (12 V) instead of a tower cooler (from the CPU tests). The temperature tests also include CPU temperatures for completeness, and we also test the efficiency of the supplied SSD heatsinks as part of the motherboard tests. These are already included with virtually all better motherboards, and so the question naturally arises whether to use them or replace them with other, more finned ones. We will test these heatsinks on a Samsung 980 Pro SSD during ten minutes of intense load in CrystalDiskMark. Finally, the temperature of the chipset’s southbridge and the cooling efficiency in this direction is noteworthy as well.

All tests are conducted in a wind tunnel, so full system cooling is provided. This consists of three Noctua NF-S12A PWMs@5V (~550 rpm) . Two of which are intake, one is exhaust. But the three fast AIO fans also function as exhaust fans, so there is negative pressure in the case.

The temperature at the entrance to the tunnel is properly controlled and ranges between 21-21.3 °C. Maintaining a constant temperature at all times during testing is important not only for the accuracy of the temperature measurements, but also because a higher or lower ambient temperature also affects the eventual behavior of the processors’ boost. And we also properly monitor and compare the clock speeds, whether under all-core load or even single-threaded tasks. We use the HWiNFO application to record the clock speeds and temperatures of the cores (sampling is set to two seconds).

Maintaining a constant temperature at the intake is necessary not only for a proper comparison of processor temperatures, but especially for objective performance comparisons. The clock speed development, and specially the single core boost, is precisely based on the temperature. Typically in summer, at higher temperatures than is normal in living quarters in winter, processors can be slower.

Temperatures are always read as maximum (both from the VRM thermovision and average, but still from the local maximum values at the end of Cinebench R23). For Intel processors, for each test we read the maximum temperature of the cores, usually all of them. These maxima are then averaged and the result represents the final value in the graph. From the single-threaded workload outputs, we extract only the recorded values from the active cores (there are usually two of these, and they alternate between each other during the test). For AMD processors it is a bit different. They don’t have temperature sensors for each core. In order to make the procedure methodically as similar as possible to the one we apply on Intel processors, we define the average temperature of all cores by the highest value reported by the CPU Tdie (average) sensor. However, for single-core workloads we already use the CPU sensor (Tctl/Tdie), which usually reports a slightly higher value that better corresponds to hotspots of one or two cores. However, these values as well as the values from all internal sensors should be taken with a grain of salt, the accuracy of sensors across CPUs varies.

Clock speed evaluation is more accurate, each core has its own sensor even on AMD processors. However, unlike the temperatures, we write the average values of the clock speeds during the tests in the graphs. We monitor the temperatures and clock speed of the CPU cores in the same tests in which we also measure power draw. Thus, sequentially from the lowest desktop idle load in Windows 10, through audio encoding (single-threaded load), gaming load in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to Cinebench R23.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Test setup

Note.: Graphics drivers used at the time of testing: Nvidia GeForce 466.77 and OS Windows 10 build 19045.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

3DMark

We use 3DMark Professional for our tests and from the tests, Night Raid (DirectX 12), Fire Strike (DirectX 11) and Time Spy (DirectX 12). In the graphs you will find the CPU sub-scores, the combined scores, as well as the graphics scores. From this you can see to what extent a given CPU is limiting the graphics card.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Borderlands 3

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: None; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

F1 2020

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Metro Exodus

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Extreme; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Highest; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Total War Saga: Troy

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.<!–more→

PCMark

Geekbench

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Speedometer (2.0) and Octane (2.0)

Test environment: To ensure that results are not affected by web browser updates over time, we use a portable version of Google Chrome (91.0.472.101), a 64-bit build. Hardware GPU acceleration is enabled as well, as it is by default for every user.

Note: The values in the graphs represent the average of the scores obtained in the subtasks, which are grouped according to their nature into seven categories (Core language features, Memory and GC, Strings and arrays, Virtual machine and GC, Loading and Parsing, Bit and Math operations, and Compiler and GC latency).

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Cinebench R20

Cinebench R23

Blender@Cycles

Test environment: We use well distributed projects BMW (510 tiles) and Classroom (2040 tiles) and the renderer Cycles. Render settings are set to None, with which all the work falls on the CPU.

LuxRender (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Adobe Premiere Pro (PugetBench)

Test environment: PugetBench tests set. We keep the version of the application (Adobe Premiere Pro) at 15.2.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

DaVinci Resolve Studio (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests, test type: standard. App version of DaVinci Resolve Studio is 17.2.1 (build 12).

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe After Effects is 18.2.1.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

HandBrake

Test environment: For video conversion we’re using a 4K video LG Demo Snowboard with a 43,9 Mb/s bitrate. AVC (x264) and HEVC (x265) profiles are set for high quality and encoder profiles are “slow”. HandBrake version is 1.3.3 (2020061300).

x264 and x265 benchmarks

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Audio encoding

Test environment: Audio encoding is done using command line encoders, we measure the time it takes for the conversion to finish. The same 42-minute long 16-bit WAV file (stereo) with 44.1 kHz is always used (Love Over Gold by Dire Straits album rip in a single audio file).

Encoder settings are selected to achieve maximum or near maximum compression. The bitrate is relatively high, with the exception of lossless FLAC of about 200 kb/s.

Note: These tests measure single-thread performance.

FLAC: reference encoder 1.3.2, 64-bit build. Launch options: flac.exe -s -8 -m -e -p -f

MP3: encoder lame3.100.1, 64-bit build (Intel 19 Compiler) from RareWares. Launch options: lame.exe -S -V 0 -q 0

AAC: uses Apple QuickTime libraries, invoked through the application from the command line, QAAC 2.72, 64-bit build, Intel 19 Compiler (does not require installation of the whole Apple package). Launch options: qaac64.exe -V 100 -s -q 2

Opus: reference encoder 1.3.1, Launch options: opusenc.exe –comp 10 –quiet –vbr –bitrate 192

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Adobe Photoshop (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe Photoshop is 22.4.2.

Affinity Photo (benchmark)

Testovacie prostredie: vstavaný benchmark.

Topaz Labs AI apps

Topaz DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI. These single-purpose applications are used for restoration of low-quality photos. Whether it is high noise (caused by higher ISO), raster level (typically after cropping) or when something needs extra focus. The AI performance is always used.

Test environment: As part of batch editing, 42 photos with a lower resolution of 1920 × 1280 px are processed, with the settings from the images above. DeNoise AI is in version 3.1.2, Gigapixel in 5.5.2 and Sharpen AI in 3.1.2.

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

WinRAR 6.01

7-Zip 19.00

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

TrueCrypt 7.1a

Aida64 (AES, SHA3)

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Aida64, FPU tests

FSI (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Kirchhoff migration (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Python36 (SPECworkstation 3.1)

SRMP (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Octave (SPECworkstation 3.1)

FFTW (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Convolution (SPECworkstation 3.1)

CalculiX (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

RodiniaLifeSci (SPECworkstation 3.1)

WPCcfd (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Poisson (SPECworkstation 3.1)

LAMMPS (SPECworkstation 3.1)

NAMD (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Memory tests…

… and cache tests (L1, L2, L3)

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

M.2 (SSD) slots speed

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

USB ports speed

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Ethernet speed

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Analysis of power draw without power limits

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Analysis of power draw with power limits

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Achieved CPU clock speed w/o power limits…

… and with power limits

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

CPU temperature

… and with power limits

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

VRM temperature w/o power limits…

… and with power limits

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

SSD temperature

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Chipset temperature (south bridge)

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

Conclusion

We tested one of the most attractive motherboards for the AMD AM5 platform. Several key things can be highlighted from the results. One of the strengths is the really strong CPU power delivery (Vcore) with relatively low temperature even at the high power consumption of the Ryzen 9 9950X. This indicates good overdimensioning and possible further overclocking of the CPU. That is, if the CPU cooler allows it. The options in this regard are, as you already know from the tests of Ryzen 9000 processors, wider than they used to be (for Ryzen 7000) at the same performance, and the heat is probably dissipated more efficiently from them (Why?). At least, so report the temperature sensors on which the clock speed management of the processor is based. And the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi motherboard is well prepared for maximum clock speed stretching as well.

Even if you don’t care about overclocking (and there’s not much you will change besides activating the EXPO memory profile), there are several cases where top-notch results are achieved in both MT and ST workloads. This is despite the relatively weaker speed results recorded in Aida64. At the same time, this can be considered the only anomaly we have encountered. However, it has no impact on performance tests, or if it does, it is negligible. In principle, it is nothing important, but it had to be pointed out. Finally, it is also possible that the data from Aida64 is not interpreted correctly by the application, who knows…

On the one hand, we’ve talked about top results from speed tests, but to get a good picture of the power efficiency, you need to look at power consumption measurements. The latter is one of the lowest we’ve measured with the Ryzen 9 9950X processor under higher load. This fact also indicates very good efficiency and combined with the low temperature of the VRM we have only praise to heap on the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi.

In a single-threaded load, this motherboard’s power consumption is average, but it often does so when reaching the highest SC boost speed. So again, it is appropriate to underline the high efficiency. Although there is an extremely robust power delivery, MSI did not overdo the power consumption and tuned with the most economical operation in mind. But stability is also high – we didn’t encounter any crashes or anything that hinted at unreliability during our tests.

The big advantage is the rich connectivity. But yes, it’s true that there are fewer SATA III connectors and more than four wouldn’t hurt. But again, there are finally two USB-A 3.2 gen. 1 connectors to connect the complete front panel even with cases with four USB ports of this 10-gigabit standard. The MPG X870E Carbon WiFi is actually the only board in the already rather comprehensive database that has two network adapters. One 2.5 Gb and the other 5 Gb (you can also look through their speed results). This is also one of the reasons why this motherboard may make sense for someone. But some might better appreciate the really large number of fast USB ports on the back panel. And when we say fast, we mean fast. Within its standards, above average speeds are achieved when it comes to comparison with other motherboards.

The MPG X870E Carbon WiFi motherboard can hardly be criticized and the elegant system of (de)mounting SSD coolers is also worth praising. For many users, the relatively higher price may be a thorn in the side. However, there will surely be those who will remark – “yes, it’s a more expensive board, but the price is justified”. It always depends on what you can utilize for your purposes, and there are indeed more of those options in this case (than with the cheaper X870 models).

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

Some of the tested boards are also available in the Datacomp e-shop

>Special thanks to Blackmagic Design (for licenses for DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI) and Topaz Labs (for licenses for DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI)

• Contents
• MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi in detail
• What it looks like in the BIOS
• Methodology: Performance tests
• Methodology: How we measure power draw
• Methodology: Temperature and clock speed measurements
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Borderlands 3
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War Saga: Troy
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Photos: Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, ...
• (De)compression
• (De)encryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• M.2 (SSD) slots speed
• USB ports speed
• Ethernet speed
• Power draw without power limits
• Power draw with power limits
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperature
• VRM temperature – thermal imaging of Vcore and SOC
• SSD temperature
• Chipset temperature (south bridge)
• Conclusion