MSI X470 GAMING Pro Motherboard Review

Thanks for the review Dan! I'm disappointed in the Networking performance of this board. 43Mb and 61Mb are slow for Gigabit standards.
 
Good write up. I wonder how my ASRock fairs against this MSI. I have Intel nic and wireless so I think I fair a bit better there..
 
Space_Ranger said:
Thanks for the review Dan! I'm disappointed in the Networking performance of this board. 43Mb and 61Mb are slow for Gigabit standards.
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Realtek network controllers are pretty much bottom of the barrel. However, keep in mind the test results are really only comparable with other motherboards tested using the same methodology. You can compare them with any HardOCP motherboard reviews I've done over the last couple of years or so, certainly, but those numbers are for this benchmark program alone. It seems to generate lower results than some other tests I've seen out there.

ThreeDee said:
Good write up. I wonder how my ASRock fairs against this MSI. I have Intel nic and wireless so I think I fair a bit better there..
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I don't know. I haven't tested an ASRock motherboard in a couple of years at least. ASRock wouldn't sample HardOCP as I was often too critical of ASRock build quality. That said, the last board I looked at from them was fantastic, aside from the CPU input voltage defaulting to some stupid 1.75v or some nonsense which was way too low for those CPU's. To be fair, I didn't nail them on this as everyone else did it too. ASRock was just worse than most about how low that setting was. But our ASRock motherboards had to be purchased for the most part.

Having said that, we will certainly try and cover more brands than we did before. That way we can answer questions like this more definitively. However, your ASRock with Intel networking will certainly do better in those areas. Intel networking on motherboards like this is bottom of Intel's barrel, but way ahead of most of the other integrated options. That said, the Killer Wireless solution is the fastest I've ever tested. Even more so than Intel's better options.
 
Thanks for the review. I'm starting to plan my first Ryzen gaming build and I'm wondering whether the X570 chipset will be worth the premium it sounds like it will come with. I will be looking at reviews like this to see if X470 makes more sense for me.
 
There may be a handful of X470 reviews I may do even after X570 launches for that reason. While I think X570 is going to be good, I think its ahead of its time in terms of bandwidth. We just don't need PCIe 4.0 for most things right now. Its great if your going to use the same number of lanes for an interconnect such as the bridge between the PCH and the CPU, or for devices that use less lanes as it gives them more bandwidth. Even AMD admitted that X470 will perform the same. I think it comes down to what your buying habits are. If you are going to keep that motherboard for 5 years, then you might want to spend more now. If you upgrade more frequently, I see no reason to go with X570 early on. At least, not on paper.

Where things will get interesting is when we start comparing X470 vs. X570 in two important ways. Memory speeds and processor overclocking. Are X470 motherboards up to overclocking a Ryzen 3950X? I bet most aren't. How does Ryzen 3000 series chips perform with memory clocked at DDR4 3200MHz vs. 3733MHz and beyond? Another thing I'm curious about is whether or not we can get better clocks or higher RAM speeds out of using existing Ryzen 2000 series chips on X570. My guess is no, but I can't say for sure.

While PCIe 4.0 sounds like the big seller, I don't think that's the reason to buy X570 anytime soon. If there is any reason to do it, I think it comes down to memory performance. Another possible impact X570 has is its flexibility for lane configurations. What motherboard manufacturers do with that is going to be another matter. We could see more variation in X570 motherboards from the manufacturers. They might all do the same things they've always done with X470. They might end up being virtually the same outside of VRM implementations and fluff features. We'll have to wait and see.

I may very well revisit the MSI X470 Gaming Pro with Ryzen 3000 when I get my hands on one.
 
Thanks for the review.

This was on my shortlist of boards, but I found a relatively new X470 Ultra Gaming for cheap and the price was too good to pass up.
 
@Dan_D

Can the bios on this board be flashed without having a processor in it? Sorry if I missed that information in the review.
Thanks!
 
Thanks for the review. Awesome and detailed as always and so continues my education on Ryzen 2. I wasn't aware of the extra steps for NVMe OS installation but it sounded pretty painless and similar to issues I've heard of for older Intel based boards made around the time of early NVMe adoption. I like how easy it was to OC the CPU. I appreciate it after all the little steps I had to take to OC my 4930k and X79 rig.

Can't wait for the X570 reviews as that'll be getting closer to when I start planning my next build. I'm still on the fence as to committing to a R2 or R3 build but leaning to R3 just to get my foot in the door for future options. By then I'd hope you could simply drop in an NVMe and install without any added driver steps.
 
cageymaru said:
@Dan_D

Can the bios on this board be flashed without having a processor in it? Sorry if I missed that information in the review.
Thanks!
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It does not.

lostin3d said:
Thanks for the review. Awesome and detailed as always and so continues my education on Ryzen 2. I wasn't aware of the extra steps for NVMe OS installation but it sounded pretty painless and similar to issues I've heard of for older Intel based boards made around the time of early NVMe adoption. I like how easy it was to OC the CPU. I appreciate it after all the little steps I had to take to OC my 4930k and X79 rig.

Can't wait for the X570 reviews as that'll be getting closer to when I start planning my next build. I'm still on the fence as to committing to a R2 or R3 build but leaning to R3 just to get my foot in the door for future options. By then I'd hope you could simply drop in an NVMe and install without any added driver steps.
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Yes, there are extra steps to getting Windows installed on AMD processor based systems. At least, newer ones. Its actually a pain in the *** at times. Getting the storage drivers loaded and getting the installer to see your drives is far worse than it was back when NVMe drives were new. Of course, its pretty easy if you have a simple storage configuration and no additional steps may be required. Its when you start adding RAID arrays that things get complicated.
 
I run this same board, and it has been problem free for the past year. It oc's without a problem and runs my Corsair Vengance RGB 3200 at 3400 no problem. The only thing with this board is it is hard to find ATM here in the states.
 
I've continued to work with it for some other stuff I'm doing and its held up like a champ. No problems so far.
 
That looks like a great board, but the ASUS Prime X470-Pro is only $10 more and has an Intel network connection... But I have also heard bad things about ASUS's customer service for the last few years. At any rate, my MSI x370 gaming titanium is on the way out, so thank you much for this and the other upcoming reviews on the X470 motherboards!
 
I have heard horror stories about ASUS customer service, but I haven't ever experienced them. In fairness, I've rarely had ASUS hardware fail on me. My most recent, and only recent horror story is with GIGABYTE.
 
It's just a really good, solid mobo tbh.. also if you want to use your own M.2 heat sinks like i do, you don't have to worry about covers like you do on the Prime mobo.
 
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