MSI MEG X870E Ace Max review

MSI has had a sizeable gap in its high-end X870E product stack, with its Carbon Wi-Fi option sitting well below the likes of the ultra high-end Godlike models, which now have several variations. The older X670E chipset benefitted from an additional model, the MEG Ace, and it’s this model that finally makes the transition to AMD’s latest high-end chipset in the form of the MEG X870E Ace Max.

Offering more features and added aesthetic tweaks than the Carbon Wi-Fi, but with a substantially lower price tag than the cheapest Godlike models, the MEG X870E Ace Max is an imposing beast bristling with high-end features. These include 10 Gbps Ethernet, dual PCIe 5.0 SSD support and loads of overclocking and tweaking features that will keep you busy for days.

As well as offering the new features of all of MSI’s new Max range of AMD motherboards such as a 64 MB BIOS for new feature and CPU support and independent base clock frequency adjustment with jumpers for on-the-fly tweaking, you get all the other benefits of the flagship X870E chipset and then some.

There are a pair of USB4 Type-C ports and the added bandwidth of this chipset means that the slowest USB ports on the rear I/O panel are USB 3.1 10 Gbps. It has nine of the latter by way of Type-A ports and a further two Type-C offering the same speed too. The front panel Type-C port that hooks up to your case is USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20 Gbps and even offers 60 W power delivery for fast charging laptops or power banks courtesy of an extra PCIe power connector.

The headline feature list is a long one. You get 10 Gbps Ethernet as well as 5 Gbps port, and dual PCIe 5.0 M.2 support, although to run PCIe Gen 5 SSDs the second slot requires the USB 4 Type-C ports to be disabled, while the first slot requires the third PCIe slot to remain empty. However, all M.2 ports are cooled on both sides by heatsinks so SSD temperatures should not be an issue. The onboard audio includes Realtek’s ALC4082 codec as well as an ESS DAC.

The massive VRM heatsinks, which cool an impressive 18+2+1 power delivery, are topped with a large illuminated holographic display and the top M.2 heatsink is equipped with an illuminated Ace logo. Powered up the MEG X870E Ace Max is sure to turn heads. MSI has included all of its DIY features too, such as a GPU release button, tool-free M.2 SSD and heatsink installation and quick-connect aerials for the Wi-Fi 7 module.

Including MSI’s EZ Conn-Cable (V2) which splits a header on the PCB into 3-pin and 4-pin RGB connectors plus a 4-pin fan header, there are nine fan headers in total. The PCB also includes two thermal sensor headers, three more 3-pin ARGB headers, a water cooling system water flow header and voltage measuring points plus power and reset buttons.

There are more buttons on the rear I/O panel too, including a CMOS clear button, one for USB BIOS Flashback and another called a smart button, which defaults to reset but can be configured to other tasks in the EFI. The EFI itself is generally excellent with an appealing color scheme and layout plus superb fan control.

The software is a little clunky and slow, but you are able to tweak your fans and lighting easily within Windows, albeit often with less granular control than the EFI when it comes to fan speed.

PC Gamer test bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme | RAM: 32 GB Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR5-6000 | Storage: 2 TB Corsair MP700 | PSU: MSI MAG AB50GL 850 W | OS: Windows 11 24H2 | Chassis: Open platform | Monitor: Dell U2415

The VRM temperature only just topped 60 °C with our open air test bench and minimal airflow so in a well-cooled case there should be even lower results and plenty of room for overclocking, even with AMD’s flagship 16-core CPUs. Both chipsets on the PCB are cooled by a single large heatsink and the peak temperature sat at 61 °C, which is reasonable given the heatsink is comparatively small for X870E.

The CPU package power was 10 W lower in games than the MSI MAG B850 Gaming Plus Max WiFi and NZXT N9 X870E at 120 W but we have seen lower, such as the MSI MEG X870E Godlike X, which draw only 104 W in the same tests. Things were near identical under heavy loads though. As usual, the extra premium didn’t result in much extra performance at our stock speed settings, but the average PCIe Gen 5 SSD temperature of 68 °C was one of the lowest we’ve seen and kept our super-fast SSD well away from throttling.

This is a monster motherboard that doesn’t just tick all the boxes when it comes to premium features, but includes plenty of future proofing too with 10 Gbps Ethernet, 64 MB BIOS, Wi-Fi 7 plus PCIe 5.0 SSD and GPU support. As usual with AMD’s flagship chipset, there’s enough bandwidth to offer loads of USB ports and PCIe slots, including USB4, although there are some situations that result in shared bandwidth.

Still, it does pip mighty competition in the like of the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero in a few areas, costing $100 more mind you, but does look set to cost less than its own refreshed replacement, the ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero and about the same as Gigabyte’s X870E Aorus Master X3D Ice. Ultimately, at this price, most boards have similar features so it usually comes to aesthetics and perhaps a dose of brand loyalty. Thankfully, MSI has certainly created a droolworthy motherboard that’s significantly cheaper than its Godlike range, but still packs an enormous punch.