MSI B650 Tomahawk or MSI MAG x670e tomahawk (or something else entirely?)

[D-Ranged]

Just decided to upgrade to a 7800x3d, with the help of some people in the CPU section.

Just been looking at motherboards, and narrowed it down to either the, MSI B650 Tomahawk or MSI MAG x670e Tomahawk.

I have found a bundle deal for both with a 7800x3d on a different site. The B650 is just over £100 cheaper.

The x670e is over £100 more expensive, but it supports PCIe 5.0.

I have a 4080 super which I believe is PCIe 4.0. Do I really need 5.0, when PCIe 5.0 GPUs are probably quite a while away? Or are the 5.0 PCIe slots just for M2 cards?

Are there any other makes and model of motherboard that is better than these for similar price ranges?

Also, to save starting a 3rd thread in the memory section - What recommendations for RAM speed with that setup? I'd only need 32gb, and it will be for gaming.

 

[5abr3]

The PCIe5 slots on the X670E are the top x16 riser and the top m.2 slot. The rest are PCIe4.

I suspect the PCIe slots is a question of might you want/need in the future as I'm unsure what nvme drive(s) you will have. It is also worth pointing out the X670E has an extra m.2 slot vs the B650.

 

[JollyJamma]

The x670e is over £100 more expensive, but it supports PCIe 5.0.

I have a 4080 super which I believe is PCIe 4.0. Do I really need 5.0, when PCIe 5.0 GPUs are probably quite a while away? Or are the 5.0 PCIe slots just for M2 cards?

Save the money, you don’t need pci-e 5.0

It makes zero difference to performance.

 

[Tetras]

Do I really need 5.0, when PCIe 5.0 GPUs are probably quite a while away? Or are the 5.0 PCIe slots just for M2 cards?

Everyone going AM5 has to decide this for themselves, but I'd say no, unless you're planning to keep it for a long time OR you hammer M.2 drives a lot (mainly with large file copies/transfers). FYI: the max PCI-E 5.0 M.2 slots is usually 2, most only have 1 (the other slots are PCI-E 4.0).

 

[D-Ranged]

Everyone going AM5 has to decide this for themselves, but I'd say no, unless you're planning to keep it for a long time OR you hammer M.2 drives a lot (mainly with large file copies/transfers). FYI: the max PCI-E 5.0 M.2 slots is usually 2, most only have 1 (the other slots are PCI-E 4.0).

My current system is 6 years old. Only reason I've decided to upgrade now is I've got back into gaming the last year and it was starting to struggle GPU wise, hence the upgrade to the 4080, but thought I may as well get the most out of it and upgrade everything.

I cant say how long I expect to have it. But from the sounds of it, I don't think having PCIe 5 is a deal breaker for me. I don't have top end M.2 drives and probably won't be getting anymore any time soon.

 

[Tetras]

I cant say how long I expect to have it. But from the sounds of it, I don't think having PCIe 5 is a deal breaker for me. I don't have top end M.2 drives and probably won't be getting anymore any time soon.

We can say from the past that the performance loss of being a gen behind with a card that has 16 lanes is very small (a few percent) and 8 lanes somewhat small (mostly 2-5), but with 4 lanes it is rather large (well, if the card has a tiny bus and not enough VRAM!). So, I'd say if you plan on buying cards like the 4080 you really have nothing to worry about, even for the longer-term, but if you want to buy a 6050 or 7060 in the future, then this limitation might be exposed.

 

[D-Ranged]

We can say from the past that the performance loss of being a gen behind with a card that has 16 lanes is very small (a few percent) and 8 lanes somewhat small (mostly 2-5), but with 4 lanes it is rather large (well, if the card has a tiny bus and not enough VRAM!). So, I'd say if you plan on buying cards like the 4080 you really have nothing to worry about, even for the longer-term, but if you want to buy a 6050 or 7060 in the future, then this limitation might be exposed.

OK, that makes a lot more sense, thanks.

When I upgrade cards I always rather have the top end (other than a 4090 price wise) so I wouldn't go down to a 60 type.

 

[Tetras]

When I upgrade cards I always rather have the top end (other than a 4090 price wise) so I wouldn't go down to a 60 type.

The only thing I would to say that is (and I know this is contradictory to my above point), if you're spending nearly 1K on a graphics upgrade each time, is it sensible to save the £50-£100 on the motherboard, rather than just buying B650E or X670E now?

 

[D-Ranged]

The only thing I would to say that is (and I know this is contradictory to my above point), if you're spending nearly 1K on a graphics upgrade each time, is it sensible to save the £50-£100 on the motherboard, rather than just buying B650E or X670E now?

Yeah you're right. It's probably worth just getting something a little bit more expensive. I'll have another look at boards, unless there's any you can recommend.

The ASRock B650E Taichi Lite looked nice but that's even more expensive.

 

[Tetras]

Yeah you're right. It's probably worth just getting something a little bit more expensive. I'll have another look at boards, unless there's any you can recommend.

The ASRock B650E Taichi Lite looked nice but that's even more expensive.

One of the cheapest B650E boards is the Strix B650E-F, while the TUF X670E-Plus is one of the cheapest X670E, though you can get the X670E Tomahawk for a similar price too.

 

[Goose]

I have the 650 Tomahawk with my 7800X3D and it’s been great, no complaints.

 

[Fire_fly]

I had a similar choice last Black Friday and went for the X670e Tomahawk. The board has been solid. I've had no issues beyond learning where things are in the BIOS compared top my previous Asus board.

The main thing that drew me to the MIS boards was them not using the Intel LAN chip (although that may have been fix now but it's worth checking). They were also a lot closer on Black Friday in price so that made things easier as I was initially going to get the B650 Tomahawk.

RAM wise I paired it with 32GB of 6000MHz Trident Z5 NEO DDR5 CL30. I set EXPO in the BIOS and have not had any issues since.

 

[5abr3]

My experience & purchasing timing basically mirrors @Goose and @Fire_fly except I went for 64Gb of Corsair RAM because DCS likes to eat RAM.

I think I also read since that 6400MT/s might be the new sweet spot for timings so I guess 6000 CL30 or 6400 (CL32-ish) MT/s are the region to aim at in terms of RAM speed

 

[D-Ranged]

My experience & purchasing timing basically mirrors @Goose and @Fire_fly except I went for 64Gb of Corsair RAM because DCS likes to eat RAM.

I think I also read since that 6400MT/s might be the new sweet spot for timings so I guess 6000 CL30 or 6400 (CL32-ish) MT/s are the region to aim at in terms of RAM speed

Thanks for the RAM info!

I think Ive made my mind up on the x670e Tomahawk, so will go for that next day!

 

[tamzzy]

Waste of money. Would just get the Asus b650e-f.

To be honest, instead of posting in individual forums...just post a spec me a build thread with your budget and one (or more) of us can sort you out something.

 

[D-Ranged]

Waste of money. Would just get the Asus b650e-f.

To be honest, instead of posting in individual forums...just post a spec me a build thread with your budget and one (or more) of us can sort you out something.

The Asus you mentioned is more expensive than the x670e tomahawk

 

[tamzzy]

The Asus you mentioned is more expensive than the x670e tomahawk

Eh? The Asus b650e-f is £210, the MSI x670e tomahawk is £265??
Are you looking at the b650e-e?
Shame the e-f has gone up in price over the last month though. It was available for £190 just a few weeks ago

 

[D-Ranged]

Eh? The Asus b650e-f is £210, the MSI x670e tomahawk is £265??
Are you looking at the b650e-e?
Shame the e-f has gone up in price over the last month though. It was available for £190 just a few weeks ago

I could have been haha