MSI Unveils ATX 3.1-Ready X870 and X870E Motherboards with Enhanced GPU Power Delivery

MSI Announces ATX 3.1 Ready X870 and X870E Motherboards with Supplemental PCIe Power

MSI has introduced its new X870 and X870E series motherboards, designed for gamers and professionals needing enhanced power delivery for AI computing and GPU-intensive tasks. These boards feature a supplemental PCIe power system with an integrated 8-pin PCIe connector, providing additional power to GPUs that require higher wattage. This ensures consistent performance and stability, especially during heavy workloads. The supplemental PCIe power feature complements the ATX 3.1 power standard, which supports up to a 2.5x power excursion. This combination enhances reliability, delivering sustained performance under intense conditions. Whether running complex applications or resource-heavy games, users benefit from stable and efficient power management. The supplemental PCIe power acts as additional support for the motherboard, beyond the system's typical 12V power supplied by the 24-pin connector. While the 24-pin connector handles PCIe, fans, and RGB extensions, the supplemental power ensures smooth operation during peak loads, such as intensive gaming or high-performance computing tasks. This additional power allows users to push their systems harder without concerns about power shortages or instability. The MSI X870 and X870E motherboards, supporting the latest ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 standards, provide a reliable foundation for demanding tasks and future computing advancements. Power Management in Action The MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI motherboard exemplifies MSI's power management capabilities. When paired with high-performance components like the AMD Ryzen 9950X processor and the GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X 24G GPU, the system's power demands can exceed typical motherboard capacities. The standard 24-pin connector delivers up to 168W, which is insufficient for peak performance, particularly when powering additional components like fans and lighting. MSI's solution is the 8-pin Supplemental PCIe Power Connector, which adds up to 252W of power. Combined with the 24-pin connector, the total power supply reaches 420W, ensuring the system can handle heavy loads without performance degradation or instability. For users, this means that MSI's X870 and X870E motherboards provide the consistent power required for high-end GPU performance and optimized cooling. Whether overclocking a powerful GPU or using a secondary GPU for AI computing, these boards are designed to support the power demands of modern hardware. Compatibility and Availability MSI's ATX 3.1 / 3.0 compatible PCIe 5 power supply units (PSUs) fully support the additional power demands, offering efficient power distribution across connected devices. The MEG, MPG, and MAG product lines ensure stable power delivery for all peripherals, contributing to overall system performance. The MSI X870 and X870E series motherboards, equipped with Supplemental PCIe Power, will be available starting September 26th.

MSI's X870 boards get GPU power boost for PCIe slots with new power connector -- ATX 3.1-ready motherboards have an extra connector to feed power-hungry GPUs and multi-GPU setups

After several weeks of leaks and teasers of MSI's upcoming X870 motherboards, the company officially announced its next-generation AM5 motherboards, which are compliant with the ATX 3.1 standard. MSI also highlighted the "Supplemental PCIe Power" feature, which appears to be a new power connector that delivers extra power to the motherboard. The standard 24-pin motherboard connector delivers power to everything, such as graphics cards, cooling fans, and RGB lighting. However, the connector is only rated for 168W. Graphics cards require more power, and some consumers use a multi-GPU setup for AI workloads. For example, Nvidia's next-generation GeForce RTX 50-series (Blackwell) graphics cards are rumored to require at least 500W of power. Before the CEM 5.0 specification, the PCIe specification didn't allow power excursions, preventing graphics cards from temporarily drawing more than 75W from the PCIe slot. However, the latest CEM 5.1 specification has enabled 2.5X power excursions on the PCIe slot up to 165W. Remember that excursions are spikes that typically last milliseconds, but that doesn't mean the graphics card will indefinitely pull more power from the PCIe slot. To accommodate the CEM 5.1 specification, MSI has added a new power connector to the motherboard. This connector resembles an 8-pin PCIe or EPS power connector, but it's neither because, as mentioned earlier, it has an entirely different pinout than the two connectors. According to MSI, the connector provides up to 252W of power. With the addition of the new connector, the motherboard's total power jumps from 168W from a single 24-pin connector to 420W, a whopping 150% increase. The 420W capacity of MSI's X870 boards might be excessive for some, but the increasing power requirements of some builds make this a great solution. MSI provided a theoretical example where a GeForce RTX 4090 draws 165W from the PCIe slot while the fan headers and RGB header pull 132W and 36W, respectively. The total amounts to 333W, more than one 24-pin power connector can provide. The extra 8-pin power connector makes sense in this case. But even with this massive power requirement, the MSI MAG X870's supplemental PCIe power would give you some overhead for stability, allowing you to push your RTX 4090 GPU to its limits. Additionally, MSI said that this extra power should be enough for a secondary GPU, allowing your PC to remain stable even as you push its performance when running complex AI tasks. MSI says that the 24-pin power connector will still be the main power source of its X870 motherboards, handling everything from the PCIe interface to fans and RGB. However, the supplemental PCIe power delivered through the 8-pin connector will always be there, ready to kick in and provide any additional wattage your motherboard needs when pushing your GPU to the limits or when your fans are ramping up their speed for maximum cooling. The supplemental power connector lacks a name. However, MSI stated that the X870 motherboards are ATX 3.1 ready, so we assume that corresponding ATX 3.1 power supplies should have this power connector. MSI's X870(E) motherboards for Ryzen 9000 processors will be available on September 26. The company didn't reveal the pricing, though.

MSI's X870E Motherboards Are Fully ATX 3.1 Ready With Dedicated 8-Pin Connector Supplementing GPU Power Needs

MSI has detailed the use cases of the supplementary 8-pin power connector featured on its X870E motherboards, providing extra juice to GPUs. Last month, it was reported that MSI will have a dedicated 8-pin connector across all of its X870E motherboards. When MSI introduced its X870E motherboard lineup at IFA 2024, we expected to learn more about this dedicated connector and how it can be used but the information was very limited. Now, MSI has put up a new blog post that details how this connector can be leveraged. Referred to as a "Supplemental PCIe Power" feature, the dedicated 8-pin connector from MSI is built upon the ATX 3.1 standards and can sustain power excursions of up to 2.5x while delivering better efficiency and power delivery, directly taking the power to the necessary components such as GPUs, Fans and RGB accessories. But the question remains, why was there a need for such a connector, & haven't all motherboards to this date had enough power fed to them already to sustain multiple hardware? The answer is that currently, the 12V 24-pin ATX power connector handles everything on the motherboard. In some extreme cases, the PCIe lanes require more power such as multi-GPU instances in AI, content creation, and mainstream workstation setups. Considering everyone involved in AI is moving to at least two GPU setups, it has become necessary to dial up the power features on high-end boards. The example given by MSI is fascinating which shows a single 12V ATX connector providing 14A / 168W of power alone which might be enough for basic tasks on a high-end setup such as a RTX 4090 paired with a Ryzen 9 9950X but as soon as you push everything to the limit, more power is required. The supplemental 12V 8-pin connector provides an additional 21A / 252W of power and raises the max power wall to 420W which can provide an additional 66W of power to the GPU via the PCIe lanes and up to 165W when power excursions are applied. Let's take the MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI motherboard as an example of how MSI is pushing the boundaries of performance for demanding users. Imagine stacking it with the powerful AMD Ryzen™ 9950X processor alongside the cutting-edge GeForce RTX™ 4090 SUPRIM X 24G GPU. At maximum load, these components demand a lot of power. Usually, the motherboard's 24-pin 12V power connector can only supply a maximum of 168W. While this might be enough for basic operations, it falls short when trying to drive everything to its peak -- especially with fans, RGB lighting, and a beastly GPU like the 4090 connected. That's where MSI's 8-pin Supplemental PCIe Power Connector steps in. On the MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI, this additional connector provides up to 252W of extra power, ensuring everything have enough power to run at their full potential. The 24-pin and 8-pin connectors deliver a combine total of 420W, giving the entire system plenty of power headroom to operate smoothly, even under the most demanding conditions. via MSI This is an interesting feature incorporated by MSI for its X870E-class motherboards and we might even see similar solutions equipped on next-gen Intel options. From what we know, the NVIDIA RTX 50 "Blackwell" GPUs will be able to take advantage of the extra power immensely considering that they are getting a raise in power requirements. MSI will have a full suite of ATX 3.1 & PCIe 5.1-ready hardware in time for the next-gen GPU launch. The first wave of MSI AM5 800-series motherboards will be available on the 30th of September on retail shelves.