MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk: How Good is It?

The MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk is a motherboard bundled with everything a modern extreme PC builder could ask for. Including latest audio/Wi-Fi hardware, plenty of connectivity and well optimized power delivery. As you are aware, this board is an upgrade from the original X570 Tomahawk WIFI. To summarize a few of the upgrades, the most significant is the latest Wi-Fi 6 standards inclusion. Realtek ALC1200, abundant number of USB ports and plenty of storage options. The power delivery remains the same. However the 14-phase VRM with 60A MOSFETs is capable of squeezing the maximum out of the best Ryzen CPUs and still remain them at ambient cooled limits.

MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk Specs

Also you get the respective accessories needed to set your build up along with the board. These include User Manual, Quick Installation Guide , 2 SATA cables, 3 M.2 screw/standoff sets, Installation media (USB),MAG sticker/Case badge, Wi-Fi Antenna and the Support/Driver CD.

Build Quality and Design

The MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk has an intriguing, ready to perform type design. Military style continued with pre-installed IO shielding. The motherboard features a heavy duty heatsink on the MOSFETs for reliable processor power delivery. Numerous fan headers with full fan speed control allows builders to tune their system cooling the way they like it. The Frozr Heatsink is designed with the patented fan and double ball bearings to provide the best performance and it is grey in color. Specialty is that it prevents SSD throttling with thermal design that includes a heatsink that extends across the motherboard. The MSI name sits on top of the I/O while the Tomahawk branding is on the chipset heatsink.

Another significant design feature is the PCIe steel armor. It protects the graphics cards against bending and EMI for better performance holding them strong and making them more stable. The board is also optimized for water cooling with a dedicated water pump PIN header providing up to 2A current and can control pump speed. As for RGB, the only integrated RGB lighting is located under the chipset heatsink. Plus the onboard headers located at the top and bottom to add your own RGB. 16.8 million colors / 29 effects available. MYSTIC LIGHT EXTENSION supports both RGB and RAINBOW LED strips.

Power connectors for the CPU are located between the VRM heatsinks and the 4 pin is optional of course. The DDR4 supports up to 4800 MHz and we will see the overclocking details under the performance segment. Above the DRAM slots are the first 4-pin fan headers. The CPU_FAN1 header automatically detects PWM/DC fans and outputs up to 2A/24W. The PUMP_FAN1 defaults to PWM mode and outputs up to 2A/24W, which is sufficient for most pumps. SYS_FAN1-4 defaults to DC mode and supports up to 1A/12W.

You can find the ATX power connector, other fan header, USB headers along the right edge of the board. The two M.2 slots and four PCIe slots are in the middle of the board. The primary PCIe slot is reinforced to prevent shearing from heavy graphics cards as we mentioned before. Both M.2 sockets use simple heatsinks and support SATA- and PCIe-based modules. The six SATA ports are positioned on the other side of the chipset heatsink. Therefore, what we have with the MAG X570 is an overall an improved, well functional and stylish design.

MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk Performance

Okay, so let’s talk about the performance and start with the benchmark scores. A test setup of AMD Ryzen7 2700X, RAM of 32GB @ 3600MHz, 6800 XT Radeon graphics, 250GB NVMe for the OS drive plus other storage and the EVGA 1000w Supernova PSU was put together by Ket of overclockers.uk. Of course the AS SSD performance showed average optimum results for the SSD performance in read/ write speeds for sequential and 4K. The same with the AIDA64  cache and memory benchmark test but the latency scores were not so good.

Tom’s hardware utilized a setup consisting of Ryzen R9 5950X, RAM of 2x8GB @ 3600 MHz, RTX 3070 and Corsair AX1200i PSU. According to their synthetic benchmarks, the X570S Tomahawk MAX performed around average, to slightly below average with most software. For example in the 7-zip LZMA that measures compression and decompression speeds which depend on CPU, Data Cache size/speed and RAM, this motherboard outputs higher scores than most X570 boards such as AsRock and EVGA. However Cinebench and POV-Ray test outputs were not so great compared to boards such as Asus TUF Gaming X570 Pro or Gigabyte B550M. But the PCMark 10 scores are remarkable in terms of video conferencing, rendering and visualization, scripted workloads etc.

Let’s briefly talk about gaming performance. Gaming with the Radeon 6800 XT was nothing out of the ordinary. Metro Exodus, Gears of War 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider all had 100+ FPS at 1080p. While at 4K the FPS count kept above 60. With the RTX 3070 Far Cry New Dawn scored an FPS count of 209 at 1080p ultra settings. However, it is common knowledge that the board and CPU have less effect on graphic settings.

Overclocking and Power Consumption

Tom’s hardware went with overclocking with 4.4 GHz at ~1.3V for an all-core/thread overclock. The motherboard had no issues with handling the core and thread performance of the Ryzen CPU. The same can be said for the RAM test, although they had to add two more 8GB sticks and the XMP profiles adjusted. Performance with AIDA64 is also above average using the Ryzen 7 2700X. The X570 Tomahawk performed well getting up to 4200MHz with 1.35v. There is a slight FPS increase in games with OC, though it can’t be seen with 4K since it is heavily GPU dependent.

The power consumption is better than most other boards in this range according to the AIDA64’s System Stability Test. The average wattage is about 137W making it an efficient motherboard than most such as Gigabyte B550M, Gigabyte X570S Aero G. Under regular(stock) operation the board peaks at a maximum of  44 degrees Celsius in Tom’s Hardware setup. When overclocked to 4.4 GHz, VRM temperatures peaked around 56 degrees Celsius. With the other setup by Ket at overclockers, the results appear to be the same. Way better than the MSI X370 Titanium. All credits of course go to the well designed heatsinks, just as MSI claimed. Optimum surface area and the pads aren’t too thick.

Firmware

The BIOS has not changed much from it’s previous motherboards although the software has. Now, the MSI Center is the application hub that hosts individual programs to adjust the system all in one place. The brand new MSI Center unifies a suite of MSI software utilities into a single centralized application. True Color, Live Update, User Scenario, Hardware Monitor, OC Setting, Total Fan Control and every other system settings are available here. True Color has optimized the monitor’s brightness and color in several modes for different situations, plus you can also customize by yourself. User Scenario application has a couple of predefined profiles for system performance and is where you manually adjust CPU, RAM settings.

To talk a bit about the MSI Click 5 BIOS, it is easy to navigate and the frequently used settings are easily found. Includes almost every tool for overclocking at your disposal including the more concealed ones like CPU switching frequency and Spread Spectrum. DRAM options are very detailed and also includes TRFC2 and TRFC4 which is something the X470 GPC did not initially have. Of course TRFC2 or TRFC4 are not used unless the refresh mode is 2x or 4x. You can choose from a preset A-XMP profile and automatically overclock compatible DDR memory. The fan controls too are very comprehensive although the values cannot be set manually. Therefore in terms of practicality it is not so handy. 

MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk Final Review

The MSI Tomahawk boards have been a go to motherboard by most mid-range and budget builders. Perhaps one of the most significant features is the Wi-Fi upgrade from 6 to 6E. Along with the chipset fan deletion, updated audio and slightly updated attractive style. The VRM setup is good and can overclock a Ryzen 9 5950X without major issues. Even boards like X570 Gaming Pro Carbon WIFI, Gigabyte Gaming X, Asrock X570 Steel Legend have issues with running that processor at higher clock speeds without overheating VRMs. Some experts argue that the 2.5G LAN and Wi-Fi could have been replaced with more USB ports which would have been resourceful. However the choice is yours.

Hardware and functionality wise the board checks out well with the good VRMs, strong heatsinks and optimized slot placements. But the firmware is not so well accepted due to the fact we mentioned earlier which is using the graph to set fan profiles either and not allowing direct key-in method as an option which is way convenient. There also seems to be memory compatibility problems with slightly older Ryzen 2000 series CPUs. Plus there can be more USB ports in the I/O. Nevertheless, MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk is a good board for overclocking. The MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk price is about $200. But you can expect the same performance out of cheaper boards like Asus X570 TUF or the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite. Again, the choice is yours.

Also check:- Motherboards for Ryzen 5 3600.