GoKawiilMSI’s 870E Carbon Max Wifi is a modest refresh, adding the OC Engine chip and a larger BIOS, but little else new. It’s a great $500 board, though better value alternatives exist unless you really want the OC Engine capability.
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'Tis the season for refreshed motherboards, and we have another in the test lab. This time, we get a chance to look at MSI’s X870E Carbon Max Wifi, a refresh of the original X870E Carbon Wifi we covered all the way back in 2024, just after release. The updated Carbon Max Wifi offers a couple of changes over the original, including the OC Engine chip for overclocking, a 64MB BIOS, and a slightly different design aesthetic to the premium mid-range offering. Outside of that, it’s a boring update (and to be fair, most refreshes are). But there’s not a lot you can do hardware-wise at this point to freshen things up without blurring the lines between SKUs.
At $499, the Carbon Max Wifi isn’t not cheap, but still offers some high-end hardware, including multiple LAN ports (5 and 2.5 GbE) and Wi-Fi 7, 13 USB ports on the rear IO (2x 40 Gbps Type-C), ample storage options with four M.2 sockets (two PCIe 5.0) and four SATA ports, a solid current-gen audio solution, and robust power delivery designed to support flagship-class processors and overclocking. MSI also packs the Carbon Max with EZ DIY features, including PCIe Release, EZ M.2, and EZ Button features to simplify installation and removal of parts. Like most others, it also offers ‘AI’ functionality to help with overclocking, networking, cooling, and even an NPU boost (if your CPU has one).
Performance using the latest BIOS and AGESA was average overall. It was slower in our Handbrake encoding tests, but otherwise performed well across a wide variety of activities, including rendering, office work, and, of course, gaming. In short, performance isn’t a concern. The board happily ran our Ryzen 9 9900X and RTX 4080 combo without issue.
Below, we’ll examine the board's performance and other features to determine whether it deserves a spot on our list of the best motherboards . But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from MSI’s website.
Specifications of the X870E Carbon Max Wifi
Swipe to scroll horizontally Socket AM5 (LGA 1718) Chipset X870E Form Factor ATX Voltage Regulator 21 Phase (18x 110A MOSFETs for Vcore) Video Ports (2) USB4 Type-C (DisplayPort v1.4)
(1) HDMI (v2.1) USB Ports (2) USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C
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