MSI is preparing more AM5 motherboards under its MAX badge for the AMD 800 series chipsets
The lineup includes MAG B850M Mortar MAX WiFi, MAG X870E Tomahawk MAX WiFi, MPG X870E Edge Ti MAX WiFi, and MPG X870E Carbon MAX WiFi. Since these boards come with increased on-board BIOS chips to 64MB, they are described these models as “Zen 6 ready”, but AMD has not announced Zen 6 desktop CPUs or confirmed official support for them.
MAG B850M Mortar MAX WiFi is an entry model. It is based on the AMD B850 chipset with an AM5 socket and supports Ryzen 9000, 8000, and 7000 desktop processors. The micro ATX board provides one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for graphics and one PCIe 4.0 x4 slot for expansion. Memory support covers four DDR5 DIMMs in dual channel mode up to DDR5-8200+ MT/s through overclocking.
Source: MSI
Storage on the Mortar MAX includes two PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots rated at 128 Gbps, two PCIe 4.0 x2 M.2 slots rated at 32 Gbps, and two SATA 6 Gbps ports. Network connectivity uses a Realtek 5G LAN controller and a Wi-Fi 7 module with Bluetooth 5.4. The board also features 7.1-channel HD Audio with Audio Boost 5, extended heatsinks, EZ PCIe Release, EZ M.2 Shield Frozr II, and MSI’s OC Engine, alongside the larger 64 MB BIOS that MSI promotes as enabling “next-level CPU upgrades” with broader compatibility.
Source: MSI
The three X870E MAX boards follow the same idea. MAG X870E Tomahawk MAX WiFi, MPG X870E Edge Ti MAX WiFi, and MPG X870E Carbon MAX WiFi all carry 64 MB BIOS chips and OC Engine support. They use the AMD X870E chipset with AM5 socket and are specced for Ryzen 9000, 8000, and 7000 processors. Layouts appear close to the existing non-MAX variants, with PCIe 5.0 x16 graphics slots, PCIe 5.0 M.2 storage options, four DDR5 DIMM slots, and modern rear I/O. The MPG X870E Carbon MAX and Edge Ti MAX also advertise USB 40 Gbps Type-C ports.
MSI had already shown some of these MAX refresh models at Computex, but detailed product pages are still missing. The data sheets fill some info gaps:
Source: MSI/wnxod
MSI is known for updating BIOS chips to larger capacity, and has done so for its AM4 lineup as AMD continued to add more and more Ryzen models supporting older platforms. This update, along with BIOS upgrade, seems to be also targeted towards faster memory and next-gen CPU support. Now I kind of regret not waiting, since my X870E EDGE Ti is also getting an update, but oh well.
MSI has not confirmed pricing or launch dates for the MAG B850M Mortar MAX or the new X870E MAX boards.
