MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max WiFi Review

1. Introducing the MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max WiFi2. Performance and Testing: CPU3. Performance and Testing: Games4. Closing Thoughts5. View All Pages

AMD's launch of the B850 and B840 chipsets alongside the existing X870E and X870 chipsets and previous-but-still-relevant X670E, X670 and B650 leaves us in a state of minor confusion.

The most simple approach is to compare the MSI X870 Tomahawk and MSI B850 Tomahawk as they have a huge amount in common. With the cheaper B850 the two USB-C 40Gbps ports on the rear IO have been downgraded to 10Gbps, you lose two of the 5Gbps USB-A ports and you also lose the debug display.

On the plus side, cutting a few USB ports reduces the price from £285 to £240 and that feels like a positive move. We would be perfectly happy had MSI also cut a couple of SATA ports and lost one or two of the PCI Express expansion slots to reduce the price even further.

The important thing is that the build quality, VRMs and WiFi/Ethernet connectivity are high end and support the latest Zen 5 CPUs effectively, and that makes us incredibly happy.

You can buy the MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max WiFi for £240 inc VAT HERE.

Pros:

• DIY features make life easy.
• Fast WiFi 7 and 5 Gigabit Ethernet.
• Loads of M.2 and SATA storage.
• Solid VRM and good cooling.

Cons:

• Rear USB-C ports are 10Gbps.
• The shared M.2/PCIe slot is annoying.

KitGuru says: MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max WiFi is a budget winner.

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