Motherboards

MSI has officially released its new BIOS for multiple of its 800-series AM5 motherboards, supporting up to 256GB of RAM using 4 x 64GB DIMMs.

In a press release posted to its website, the company explains the new AGESA Combo PI-1.2.0.3e BIOS, with memory optimizations included to help support 4 x 64GB DIMMs for up to 256GB of system RAM. The new AGESA Combo PI-1.2.0.3e BIOS will support all AM5 motherboards, starting from the 600 series up to 800 series, meaning these RAM optimizations are available even for the A620 series mobos.

On some (not all) motherboards, you can run 4 x 64GB DIMMs in MSI's motherboards with the new BIOS update, and run the system with more stability than before. MSI goes as far as saying that the DDR5 memory can be overclocked to 6000MT/s or even 6400MT/s using large-capacity DRAM kits using Micron, SK hynix, or Samsung memory... all boasting up to 256GB capacities at those 6000-6400MT/s speeds.

There were many new and interesting products on show at Computex 2025, but one that may have slipped under your radar was MSI's new neutered motherboards, designed to reduce injuries.

MSI had many new products on display at its booth at Computex, and one that caught Tom's Hardware's keen eye was the new flat-design motherboards, which feature what MSI calls a "PinSafe Design." In a nutshell, these new boards have had their spiky pins flattened, creating a smoother surface that is starkly different from the typical motherboard. MSI says this new design is intended to prevent PC builders from being injured throughout the building process, while also having performance improvements such as greater system stability and ESD protection.

Unfortunately, MSI didn't provide any numbers to back up these claims, so we will just have to take the manufacturer's word for it until independent testing is conducted. Until then, the neutered motherboards will, at the very least, mean less dust is accumulated in clumps on the surface of the board, along with an improvement in being able to move the board around throughout the building process. Both of these are positives.

ASUS has expanded its BTF hidden cable ecosystem at Computex 2025 with new motherboards and graphics cards. What's most interesting is the reveal of a detachable power connector which adds a great deal of flexibility for users attracted to the idea of invisible cable builds.

BTF is ASUS' backside connector ecosystem. Like GIGABYTE's Stealth and MSI's Project Zero, the idea is to move the various power connectors, case headers and SATA ports to the back of the motherboard, giving builds a beautifully clean look.

ASUS' approach has always been a bit different. There's one thing that usually stands out like a sore thumb on other manufacturer's backside connector products, and that's the GPU power cable. ASUS originally went a step further when it introduced its own motherboard mounted GC-HPWR connector which eliminated the need for an external power cable. The downside was that users were locked into using ASUS BTF products.

ASRock showed off a selection of new AMD AM5 motherboards at Computex 2025, with Nova and LiveMixer models showcased. That's not all though. Overclocking enthusiasts will be drooling over the prospect of getting their hands on ASRocks's first OC Formula for the AMD platform, giving Ryzen users access to a board that offers an incredible set of features for memory tweakers and extreme overclockers alike.

The ASRock X870E Taichi OCF is poised to be one of very few motherboards specifically designed to extract every last drop of performance from AM5 CPUs. It's got a best-in-class 25-phase VRM with 110A stages, dual memory slots that can reach DDR5-10000 and well beyond (depending on your partnering silicon and cooling) and a huge array of onboard switches, buttons and headers all designed to push your chip and memory to the max.

It's not only an overclocking board, it's got nearly all the features you'd expect from a flagship offering, including a high-quality audio section, 5G LAN, WiFi 7 and USB4. ASRock said they'd be happy to send a review sample to us at TweakTown, and it's a board we're definitely looking forward to putting through its paces.

GIGABYTE has introduced a very user-friendly new feature to a selection of its refreshed AORUS ICE motherboards at Computex 2025. The DriverBIOS feature of the new boards features an integrated WIFI driver directly into the BIOS that eliminates a time-consuming hassle if Windows does not install a driver upon completing a fresh Windows installation.

Obviously, you need access to the internet to download a driver, yet you often need a driver to access the internet. That's a chicken and egg scenario that GIGABYTE just made a lot less relevant.

The driver makes use of Microsoft's WPBT (Windows Platform Binary Table), which is a feature that allows systems to run executable programs directly from a UEFI BIOS. The idea is that users are able to access the internet from the first boot, without having to manually install a driver.

GIGABYTE has unveiled several new and refreshed motherboards at Computex 2025. But far from being boards with a new coat of paint, the new boards offer some interesting and practical improvements and innovations.

GIGABYTE is keen to promote the advantages of its X3D Turbo Mode 2, which promises to boost the performance of AMD AM5 CPUs by up to 15% in gaming and a whopping 35% in multi-threaded benchmarks. In fact, the new boards incorporate the X3D moniker right into their name. These include the X870E AORUS Master X3D Ice, X870E AORUS Pro X3D Ice, and X870E AORUS Elite X3D Ice.

Alongside purported performance gains, the new models incorporate a WiFi 7 driver into the BIOS itself and redesigned M.2 SSD mechanisms. These include thermal pads on both sides of the drive, leading to a reported temperature reduction of up to 12 degrees Celsius. They also feature magnetically aligned heatsinks, making it easier to attach the larger heatsinks in particular. We tried it and it's certainly true that the redesigned retention mechanisms are dead simple to detach and reattach.

ASUS has just launched its new X870 MAX Gaming motherboards that will slot in between the TUF and PRIME series motherboards, acting as new budget-focused X870 mobos.

ASUS motherboards are usually priced higher apart from their PRIME series motherboards, which has allowed ASRock, GIGABYTE, and MSI to position themselves more competitively in the market, but that all changes with ASUS's introduction of the new MAX series motherboards.

TUF is positioned as higher-end than PRIME, while acting as lower than ROG, while offering features that are great for the price point in its mid-range market. ASUS's new MAX series motherboards will be an alternative to TUF with some compromises of course, but it'll be better featured than the PRIME series.

ASUS held a ROG event in China over the weekend, unveiling a slew of new products including the flagship ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme motherboard, check it out:

The new ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme motherboard features an E-ATX design, with a slick all-black theme with a few accents in silver. ASUS is using high-end power delivery with multiple VRMs in the form of a 20+2+2 phase (110A) power design, powered by dual 8-pin EPS power connectors.

We have 4 x DDR5 DIMM slots that support up to 256GB of memory, with up to DDR5-8200 speeds supported, as well as a ROG Q-DIMM.2 slot next to the memory DIMMs, which can support an AIC (add-in card) with dual M.2 SSD slots for additional SSD storage. The ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme motherboard features dual PCIe 5.0 x16 and M.2 slots with at least 5 slots (3 physical + 2 x Q-DIMM).

AMD's new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D processors are nearly here, with COLORFUL introducing its new "X3D Gaming Mode" following motherboard makers providing optimizations for X3D processors.

COLORFUL's new X3D Gaming Mode can be used for non-X3D processors as well, but it will help X3D processors massively as the second CCD is disabled, latency is reduced, so that the single CCD with the additional 3D V-Cache can enjoy higher performance.

In a new post on Weibo, COLORFUL showed off its new X3D Gaming Mode inside of its updated BIOS and that when enabled, it turns off the SMT (Simultaneous Multi-Threading) on the Ryzen CPU. Additionally, if you're running an AMD Ryzen CPU with one or two CCDs (higher-end Ryzen processors have two CCDs) then it will disable one of them and transfer the gaming workloads to a single CCD for optimal performance.

In news that AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D owners were experiencing CPU failures, with ASRock motherboard users finding it more common, ASRock is out and ahead of the issue releasing new BIOS updates for their fleet of AM5 motherboards.

In an email sent to us here at TweakTown, ASRock explained it had "observed reports on Reddit from users experiencing unexpected boot issues and error codes when using ASRock AM5 motherboards paired with minority proportion of AMD Ryzen™ 9000 series processors. To enhance user experience, ASRock promptly released the latest 3.20 Beta BIOS for its AM5 series motherboards, further improving AMD Ryzen™ 9000 series processors boot issues".

"Users can download and install the BIOS from the official ASRock website or use the BIOS Flashback function on their motherboard for a quick update. ASRock also promises to continue enhancing the compatibility of its products".

ASRock is ready for the world of AMD Ryzen X3D processors with its new B650M Pro X3D and B650M Pro X3D Wi-Fi motherboards, optimized for AM5-based X3D CPUs.

The new ASRock B650M Pro X3D and B650M Pro X3D Wi-Fi motherboards is a rebranding of their B860M PRO RS (RS = Race Sport) mobos, with pricing expected to be less than the $148 that the B850 Pro RS sells for on Newegg. The new ASRock B650M Pro X3D motherboard features an 8+1+1 power stage design, rocks 4 x DDR5 DIMMs with support for 8000 MT/s+ RAM when overclocked, and more.

We've also got the full PCIe 5.0 x16 interface for new graphics cards, but no super-fast Gen5 SSD support (Gen4 SSDs are fast enough) but there's also enthusiast-grade 2.5GbE wired ethernet here, while the B650M Pro X3D Wi-Fi comes with Wi-Fi (duh) with the Wi-Fi 6E standard with Bluetooth.

MSI will soon release its fleet of new AMD B850-based motherboards, focusing on the budget gaming PC side of the market, but the new mobos will be tuned for Ryzen X3D processors and feature the latest I/O connectivity.

Our friends at Wccftech got their hands on an upcoming MSI AM5 B850 roadmap, with 5 new motherboards based on the B850 chipset arriving in Q2 2025. We can expect a new MPG-branded B850 motherboard, with a Mini-ITX design, and a full-sized ATX motherboard in the upcoming B850 Gaming PLUS Wi-Fi PZ. These motherboards will include:

Outside of the new MPG B850I Edge Wi-Fi and B850 Gaming PLUS Wi-Fi PZ motherboards, the rest of MSI's upcoming B850 motherboards are found in the PRO series. MSI's new B850 series motherboards will feature the latest I/O connectivity, including support for Wi-Fi 7, Gen5 PCIe and M.2 SSD slots, CPU and RAM overclocking, a bunch of EZ DIY features, and enthusiast-grade 5GbE ethernet.

AMD's new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D processors are still in the ovens at TSMC, but ASRock has just updated its website adding support for the new CPU compatibility lists for its AM5 motherboards and the new 9950X3D and 9900X3D chips.

ASRock's updated website includes support for the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, Ryzen 9 9900X3D, and Ryzen 7 9800X3D (which is already on the market and kicking asS) and is the first motherboard maker to do so. ASUS, GIGABYTE, and MSI haven't updated their websites adding CPU compatibility for AMD's fresh X3D processors.

Better yet, ASRock's updated CPU compatibility listing includes the entire stack of 600-series and 800-series processors, right down to the budget A620 motherboard. AMD has previously confirmed that its new X3D processors will work on all AM5 chipsets, and with the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor having a 170W TDP, it'll be interesting to see the flagship X3D chip on a lower-end A620 motherboard.

ASRock had a suite of its new mid-range motherboards on show at CES 2025, and we got to check them all out: new AMD B850 and Intel B860 chipsets galore.

The new ASRock B850 Steel Legend Wi-Fi motherboard and its AM5 socket has a 14+2+1 phase power design with 80A Dr. MOS and 4 x DDR5 DIMMs that are good for DDR5-8000+ and faster memory. There's a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and PCIe 4.0 x16 slot on this mobo, with 1 x Blazing M.2 (Gen5 SSD) and 3 x Hyper M.2 (Gen4 SSD).

USB wise we've got 4 x USB 3.2 Gen2 (2 x rear, 2 x rear USB-C), 7 x USB 3.2 Gen1 ports (3 on the rear, 4 on the front) and 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port on the front header. There's also 2.5GbE wired ethernet, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth connectivity on the new ASRock B850 Steel Legend Wi-Fi motherboard.

The first AMD B850-powered motherboard has been spotted, with the budget-focused mid-range chipset ready for AMD's new Ryzen 9000 series "Zen 5" processors.

In some new photos of GIGABYTE's upcoming B850M AORUS ELITE WIFI6E ICE motherboard from VideoCardz, we can expect a huge flood of B850 motherboards in the near future... probably at CES 2025 in January. We don't have much to go on with the photo, but it does show the B850M chipset, an all-white design, and AORUS branding on the VRMs.

AMD's new B850 chipset is a mid-range affair, featuring Gen5 and Gen 4 support -- which is fantastic to see, the mid-range B850 supporting Gen5 SSDs -- with motherboard makers to make the decision to have dedicated Gen5 lanes for discrete graphics cards if they want. B850 motherboards will support both memory and CPU overclocking, which will make them just that much more enticing against Intel's mid-range counterparts.

ASUS has confirmed that its new X870-based BTF motherboards will be on-show at CES 2025 early next year, launching alongside AMD's new flagship Ryzen 9 9000X3D series processors.

In a new post from our friends at UnikosHardware, a post from Bilibili was spotted with the ASUS China General Manager confirming ASUS X870 BTF motherboards will be released soon. The GM didn't specify when the X870 BTF motherboards would be unleashed by the company, but he did confirm the new boards will launch alongside Ryzen 9000X3D processors at CES 2025.

AMD has released its new Ryzen 7 9800X3D, but it has its higher-end Ryzen 9 9900X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D processors waiting in the wings for CES 2025. The Bilibili post has the ASUS China GM asked "when will AMD's back-plug motherboard be released?" to which he replied: "everyone knows that the recent 9800X3D is really the strongest on Earth. There may be a more powerful CPU at CES later, by then you will see the new X870 back-plug motherboard".

ASUS has just unveiled its new Pro WS Z890-ACE SE workstation motherboard: ready for Intel Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake" CPUs, with an interesting rotated socket design. Check it out:

ASUS is using the consumer-focused Z890 chipset for its new workstation motherboard, the best chipset for Arrow Lake CPUs, in a workstation design. The company is using a rotated LGA1851 socket on the Pro WS Z890-ACE SE workstation motherboard, with more of the components rotated and shifted around.

The company first and foremost has (obviously) rotated the LGA1851 socket, but the VRMs have been switched around, also featuring 16+2+1+2 phase power stage design. The DDR5 DIMMs (there are only 4 here) are at the top of the motherboard, with ASUS also repositioning one of the M.2 SSD slots.

MSI has just introduced its new "X3D Gaming Mode" feature that will give you increased gaming performance when running a single or dual CCD processor from Ryzen and its growing X3D range of chips.

Now that AMD's new Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor is out in the wild, motherboard makers have been quick to launch their own performance-boosting tweaks to X3D processors on their motherboards. MSI's new "X3D Gaming Mode" BIOS feature allows you to disable the other CCD or SMT to improve gaming performance.

MSI's new X3D Gaming Mode will be great for dual CCD processors like the upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D, and the Zen 4-based Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 9 7900X3D processors. But, it's not just the dual CCD processors that will benefit from X3D Gaming Mode, with single CCD chips seeing performance boosts... perfect timing for the launch of AMD's new gaming champion: the Ryzen 7 9800X3D (you can read our review here).

GIGABYTE has just launched its new X870I AORUS PRO ICE motherboard, the company's first X870-based Mini-ITX board which costs $299. Check it out:

The company is using an 8+2+1 (VCORE+SOC+MISC) phase VRM design that supports AMD's extensive AM5 socket, ready to rock and roll with up to Zen 5-based processors like the just-released AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor. GIGABYTE's new X870I AORUS PRO ICE motherboard has 2 x DDR5 DIMMs (hey, it's a Mini-ITX mobo) with support for up to DDR5-8800 memory through AMD EXPO overclocking profiles.

There's also room for 2 x M.2 SSDs (1 x Gen5 + 1 x Gen4) while there's a full-sized PCIe 5.0 x16 slot ready for graphics cards, with GIGABYTE's reinforced UD Slot X design (Ultra Durable) that supports heavier graphics cards. GIGABYTE's new X870I AORUS ICE PRO motherboard also features Wi-Fi 7 and features the company's new "EZ-Plug" antenna system.

GIGABYTE is preparing its new Z890 AORUS TACHYON ICE CAMM2 motherboard, which will support the new CAMM2 memory standard that offers higher speeds and massive capacities.

The upcoming GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS TACHYON ICE CAMM2 motherboard was spotted on the Z890I AORUS ULTRA motherboard that Aussie YouTubers GearSeekers was presented with. The new board was shown off at Computex 2024 earlier this year, with the new CAMM2 version now on its way.

What do CAMM2 memory modules offer? CAMM2 memory modules will be offered in gigantic 256GB capacities, with speeds that we haven't got right now in the DDR5 memory market. CAMM2 memory modules will replace SO-DIMM modules for laptops, which usually maxed out at 5600MT/s, while desktops were pushing 8000MT/s.