MSI MAG B850 Edge Ti WiFi Motherboard Review

For years I never paid much attention to AMD.  Sure, the company was releasing great products followed by cutting edge technology but, I always found their marketing to be too confusing for the casual hardware enthusiast, mostly due to their reuse of number schemes with as few letters to separate the generations.  Of course, that never concerned the AMD Zealots and with the new platforms becoming the “go to” for performance computing we need to start paying attention.

In this review we will be looking at a motherboard intended for the mainstream that does an extremely good job at hitting above its weight.  The MSI MAG B850 Edge Ti WiFi is a motherboard built on the AMD B850 chipset for the AM5 platform supporting DDR5 and PCI Express 5.0.  This board can trade blows with many X870 boards when paired up with a 9000 series processor and is available the popular Titanium color scheme for those looking to build in something other than black.

• Supports AMD Ryzen™ 9000 / 8000 / 7000 Series Desktop Processors
• Supports DDR5 Memory, Dual Channel DDR5 8400+ MT/s (OC)
• Ultra Performance: 14+2+1 Duet Rail Power System, dual 8-pin CPU power connectors, Core Boost, Memory Boost, 8-layer PCB made by 2oz thickened copper and server-grade level material
• Frozr Guard: Enlarged heatsink, MOSFET thermal pads rated for 7W/mk, additional choke thermal pads and M.2 Shield Frozr are built for high performance system and non-stop gaming experience
• EZ DIY: EZ PCIe Release, EZ M.2 Shield Frozr II, EZ M.2 Clip II and EZ Antenna
• Lightning Fast Game experience: PCIe 5.0 slot, Lightning Gen 5 M.2
• High-speed Connectivity: 5G LAN with Wi-Fi 7 Solution and USB 20Gbps- The latest solution for professional and multimedia use, delivering secure, stable, and high-speed networking and data transmission
• Audio Boost 5: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive gaming experience

Chipset AMD B850

CPU Supports AMD Ryzen™ 9000/ 8000/ 7000 Series Desktop Processors Socket AM5

Memory 4x DDR5 UDIMM, Maximum Memory Capacity 256GB Memory Support DDR5 8400 - 5600 (OC) MT/s / 5600 - 4800 (JEDEC) MT/s

Ryzen™ 9000 Series Processors max. overclocking frequency:

• 1DPC 1R Max speed up to 8400+ MT/s
• 1DPC 2R Max speed up to 6400+ MT/s
• 2DPC 1R Max speed up to 6400+ MT/s
• 2DPC 2R Max speed up to 4800+ MT/s
• Supports AMD POR Speed and JEDEC Speed
• Supports Memory Overclocking and AMD EXPOTM
• Supports Dual-Channel mode
• Supports Non-ECC, Un-buffered memory
• Supports CUDIMM, Clock Driver bypass mode only*

* CUDIMM support and POR boot frequency may vary by CPU series, with manual overclocking available after boot. Certain CPUs may fail to boot, but future BIOS updates will improve compatibility.

For detailed information, please refer to the Memory Compatibility List available on the product’s Support page or visit https://www.msi.com/support/.

Onboard Graphics 1x HDMI Support HDMITM 2.1 with FRL port, supporting a maximum resolution of 8K 60Hz*

*Available only on processors featuring integrated graphics. Graphics specifications may vary depending on the CPU installed.

Slot 3x PCI-E x16 slot

• PCI_E1 Gen PCIe 5.0 supports up to x16 (From CPU)
• PCI_E2 Gen PCIe 3.0 supports up to x1 (From Chipset)
• PCI_E3 Gen PCIe 4.0 supports up to x4 (From Chipset)

PCI_E1 slot

• Supports PCIe 5.0 x16 (For Ryzen™ 9000/ 7000 Series processors)
• Supports PCIe 4.0 x8 (For Ryzen™ 8700/ 8600/ 8400 Series processors)
• Supports PCIe 4.0 x4 (For Ryzen™ 8500/ 8300 Series processor)

*PCI_E3 slot will run x2 speed when installing devices in the M.2_3 slot

Audio   Realtek® ALC4080 Codec 7.1-Channel USB High-Performance Audio Supports up to 32-Bit/384 kHz playback on front panel Supports S/PDIF output

Storage 4x M.2

• 2_1 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 22110/2280 devices
• 2_2 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
• 2_3 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x2 , supports 2280/2260 devices
• 2_4 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
• 4x SATA 6G

M.2_1 slot

• Supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 (For Ryzen™ 9000/ 7000 Series processors)
• Supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (For Ryzen™ 8000 Series processors)

M.2_2 slot

• Supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 (For Ryzen™ 9000/ 7000 Series processors)
• Supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (For Ryzen™ 8700/ 8600 / 8400 Series processors)
• Supports up to PCIe 4.0 x2 (For Ryzen™ 8500/ 8300 Series processors)

RAID  Supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10* for M.2 NVMe storage devices

*RAID 10 for M.2 NVMe storage devices is only supported by AMD Ryzen 9000/7000 series CPU

USB

• 4x USB 2.0 (Rear)
• 4x USB 2.0 (Front)
• 1x USB 5Gbps Type A (Rear)
• 4x USB 5Gbps Type A (Front)
• 2x USB 10Gbps Type A (Rear)
• 3x USB 10Gbps Type C (Rear)
• 1x USB 20Gbps Type C (Front)

LAN 1x Realtek® 8126 5G LAN

Internal IO

• 1x Power Connector(ATX_PWR)
• 2x Power Connector(CPU_PWR)
• 1x Power Connector(PCIE_PWR 8pin)
• 1x CPU Fan
• 1x Combo Fan (Pump_Sys Fan)
• 6x System Fan
• 1x EZ Conn-header (JAF_2)
• 2x Front Panel (JFP)
• 1x Chassis Intrusion (JCI)
• 1x Front Audio (JAUD)
• 3x Addressable V2 RGB LED connector (JARGB_V2)
• 1x RGB LED connector(JRGB)
• 1x TPM pin header(Support TPM 2.0)
• 4x USB 2.0 ports
• 4x USB 5Gbps Type A ports
• 1x USB 20Gbps Type C ports

WIRELESS LAN & BLUETOOTH Wi-Fi 7 The Wireless module is pre-installed in the M.2 (Key-E) slot Supports MU-MIMO TX/RX, 2.4GHz/ 5GHz/ 6GHz* (320MHz) up to 5.8Gbps Supports 802.11 a/ b/ g/ n/ ac/ ax/ be Supports Bluetooth® 5.4**, MLO, 4KQAM

* 6GHz band support may depend on every country’s regulations and Wi-Fi 7 will be ready in Windows 11 version 24H2.

** The Bluetooth version may be updated, please refer to the Wi-Fi chipset vendor’s website for details. Bluetooth 5.4 will be ready in Windows 11 version 24H2.

LED FEATURE  

• 4x EZ Debug LED
• 1x EZ Digit Debug LED
• 1x EZ Memory Detection LED

BACK PANEL PORTS    

• Clear CMOS Button
• USB 10Gbps Type-A
• USB 5Gbps Type-A
• USB 2.0
• 5G LAN
• Wi-Fi / Bluetooth
• Audio Connectors
• Flash BIOS Button
• HDMI™
• USB 10Gbps Type-C
• USB 10Gbps Type-A
• USB 10Gbps Type-C
• Optical S/PDIF Out

OPERATING SYSTEM   Support for Windows® 11 64-bit