Best Overall · Motherboards

MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk MAX WiFi II

The B850 Tomahawk MAX WiFi II gives you almost everything a high-end board offers for a mid-range price: strong power delivery, four M.2 slots, 5Gb Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7, now with a bigger 64MB BIOS chip and MSI's OC Engine. It's the AM5 board we'd put in most gaming PCs.

Brand: MSI
Best for: Most Ryzen 7000 and 9000 gaming builds
Price range: Mid-range
Our score: 9.0/10

Check today's price on Amazon.co.uk →

Our take

The MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk MAX WiFi II is the AM5 motherboard we'd put in most gaming PCs. It's a refresh of the popular B850 Tomahawk MAX WiFi, keeping everything that made the original so good, power delivery strong enough for a 16-core Ryzen 9, plenty of fast storage and excellent networking, and adding a bigger BIOS chip and a dedicated overclocking clock generator.

What's new in the WiFi II

The WiFi II has three changes. The BIOS chip doubles from 32MB to 64MB, which gives MSI room to add support for future Ryzen processors without dropping features from the BIOS. MSI's OC Engine adds an external clock generator, so enthusiasts can raise the base clock without affecting other parts of the system. And the yellow accents are toned down slightly.

Everything else, from the power delivery to the M.2 slots and networking, is the same as the original. If you find the original MAX WiFi much cheaper, it's still a great buy.

Power and performance

The Tomahawk uses a 14+2+1 phase power design with 80A smart power stages and large heatsinks. That's more than enough for any Ryzen 7000 or 9000 processor, including the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, and leaves room for Precision Boost Overdrive and memory overclocking. Memory support goes up to DDR5-8400 with overclocking, although DDR5-6000 is the sweet spot for Ryzen.

All motherboards perform almost identically at stock settings, so the reasons to choose one are features, power delivery and build quality.

Storage and expansion

There are four M.2 slots: two PCIe 5.0 and two PCIe 4.0. That's unusually generous for a B850 board, which typically has one PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot. The main graphics card slot is PCIe 5.0 x16, ready for future cards. Some M.2 slots share bandwidth with expansion slots or SATA ports, so check the manual's lane-sharing table before filling every slot.

MSI's EZ features make building easier, with tool-free M.2 latches and a button that releases the graphics card, which is otherwise awkward to reach under a big cooler.

Connectivity

Networking is a highlight. You get 5Gb Ethernet, twice as fast as the usual 2.5Gb, plus Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. The rear panel has plenty of USB ports, including fast USB-C, and a Flash BIOS button, which updates the BIOS from a USB stick without a processor installed. There's no USB4, which you'll need an X870 board for.

Platform

AMD has committed to supporting the AM5 socket until at least 2027, so the board can take a faster Ryzen processor later, and the larger BIOS chip makes the WiFi II especially well prepared for that.

Who should buy it

Buy the B850 Tomahawk MAX WiFi II for a Ryzen 7000 or 9000 gaming or creator PC. It pairs especially well with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. If you need USB4, look at the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi. If you want to save money, the Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite WiFi7 covers the essentials for less.

Key specifications

Socket	AMD AM5
Chipset	AMD B850
Form factor	ATX
Memory	4x DDR5, up to 256GB, up to 8,400MT/s (OC)
Power delivery	14+2+1 phases, 80A smart power stages
Graphics slot	PCIe 5.0 x16
M.2 slots	4 (two PCIe 5.0, two PCIe 4.0)
Networking	5Gb Ethernet (Realtek 8126), Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Audio	Realtek ALC4080
BIOS	64MB BIOS chip, Flash BIOS button
Overclocking	OC Engine external clock generator