AMA MSI Comet Lake Z490 Motherboard AMA and Giveaway

[MSI_GeoX]

what do you think about current RTX technology? do you think we finally will be able to get high refresh rates at 1080p with ray-tracing enabled in the next 3000 series? and what about the myth that raytracing is a gimmick or a fraud?

To keep it short since we are mostly focusing on our Z490 boards for this AMA, personally Raytracing technology is great experience in games, and as technology moves forward more amazing things will come from it. FPS is mostly what takes a hit with Raytracing enabled at the moment, not necessarily monitor refresh rate.

 

[Hypercore_Gaming]

nice!

 

[InfluentialEgg]

so as a newbie to PC bulding, does a good quality motherboard really make a massive difference to anything? or do they just support more ram etc the better you go?

 

[Name1284]

What cpus will this new generation of mobos be compatible with?

 

[MSI_GeoX]

so as a newbie to PC bulding, does a good quality motherboard really make a massive difference to anything? or do they just support more ram etc the better you go?

The type of motherboard you get can certainly make a difference depending on your use case and what you are looking to get out of it. Enthusiast motherboards have a plethora of features that more budget boards do not to accommodate people with higher or more advanced requirements. For a simple example, say you want a build with lots of fans or custom liquid cooling that requires connectivity for cooling pumps, RGB, and such. A higher end motherboard will have lets say six fan headers in comparison to a budget board which may only have two. If you have tons of peripherals to connect to your PC because you are streaming, a higher end board will typically also have more USB ports than a budget board.

Now let's say you want to overclock your CPU to get as much FPS as possible when gaming. A more enthusiast board will have a robust VRM system and cooling solution that you won't find on a budget board.

At the end of the day, a budget board can be perfectly good for gaming if you don't need all the bells and whistles offered on the higher end stuff.

 

[MSI_GeoX]

What cpus will this new generation of mobos be compatible with?

This new Z490 chipset will support Intel 10th gen Core processors such as the i9-10900K processor and should also support the generation of processors after these. Anything older will not be supported due to the chipset using a new LGA 1200 socket compared to the LGA 1151 socket from the last generations.

 

[refillable]

How confident are you in your Z490 VRM designs? You have made bad reputed and greatly reputed boards before, but the VRMs on the new X570 Tomahawk was hands down an impressive design. I hope you can bring something like this down into the Z490 Tomahawk, or better yet trickle it down to the A Pro.

 

[MSI_GeoX]

How confident are you in your Z490 VRM designs? You have made bad reputed and greatly reputed boards before, but the VRMs on the new X570 Tomahawk was an impressive design. I hope you can bring something like this down into the Z490 Tomahawk, or better yet trickle it down to the A Pro.

We are quite confident with our VRM design. We have even added active VRM cooling to our MEG series motherboards, something some may argue may even be overboard

Extended heatsink designs have been implemented thought the entirety of our product line from the Godlike down to the A-Pro to provide enhanced VRM cooling solutions for every model.

 

[refillable]

I like that confidence. You can't go overboard with VRMs, so please tell your designers that there is no such thing as VRMs that are too good. There're only VRMs that blows everyone's mind.

If you can be more specific, should I expect the capability of the Z490 Tomahawk VRM to be more or less the same as the X570 Tomahawk? Or is it better? How about the A Pro?

 

[MSI_GeoX]

I like that confidence. You can't go overboard with VRMs, so please tell your designers that there is no such thing as VRMs that are too good. There're only VRMs that blows everyone's mind.

If you can be more specific, should I expect the capability of the Z490 Tomahawk VRM to be more or less the same as the X570 Tomahawk? Or is it better? How about the A Pro?

I wouldn't have hard numbers at the moment to give you something more concrete but every model should be capable to adequately handle VRM cooling requirements in practical scenarios for their use case.

 

[German02040]

Will my B450 tomahawk motherboard become obsolete soon?

 

[yellowcardyc]

I like that confidence. You can't go overboard with VRMs, so please tell your designers that there is no such thing as VRMs that are too good. There're only VRMs that blows everyone's mind.

If you can be more specific, should I expect the capability of the Z490 Tomahawk VRM to be more or less the same as the X570 Tomahawk? Or is it better? How about the A Pro?

Z490 Tomahawk features 12-phase & 55A DrMOS, and X570 Tomahawk features 12-phase 60A SPS (Smart Power Stage). Z490 Tomahawk should be less or close to X570 Tomahawk. A Pro features 12-phase PowerPack VRM. It'll not as good as X570 Tomahawk.

 

[Amadali20]

Who asked to work together first? Nvidia or MSI?

 

[Karadjgne]

I've noticed on a lot of the mid-grade boards like the B450 Tomahawk/Max (the most popular B450 around) that there's limited bells and whistles, like lack of even more standard things like 3/4 pin argb/rgb ports (has 2x 5050 strip ports). So my question is Is that trend going to continue with the low-mid grade boards, or is there going to be more emphasis on what's currently in demand by users like multiple NVMe capable or argb headers.

 

[yellowcardyc]

I've noticed on a lot of the mid-grade boards like the B450 Tomahawk/Max (the most popular B450 around) that there's limited bells and whistles, like lack of even more standard things like 3/4 pin argb/rgb ports (has 2x 5050 strip ports). So my question is Is that trend going to continue with the low-mid grade boards, or is there going to be more emphasis on what's currently in demand by users like multiple NVMe capable or argb headers.

We're offering as more as possible on the mid-grade and entry Z490 boards. We have at least 2 ARGB headers and 2or 1 RGB headers for mid and entry boards. For fan headers, we have 1 CPU fan header+1 AIO pump header+6 system fan headers for the ATX MPG/MAG and A PRO boards. 2 M.2 slots are available on MPG/MAG and A-Pro boards.
We also offer front Type-C header on all Z490 models and pre-installed I/O shield on all Z490 models except A PRO. We offer a lot on all Z490 boards.

 

[Karadjgne]

Now if only I had an intel system lol, but thank you for that, I think it'll go a long way to making Intel far more attractive for upgraders on a more limited budget. 😁

 

[yellowcardyc]

Will my B450 tomahawk motherboard become obsolete soon?

B450 Tomahawk is good and it can go with latest Ryzen 3000 series CPU. This combination is powerful for both gaming and daily use for couple years.

 

[h.fakhoury1234]

when MSI will pay more attention on design? i mean Aesthetically wise what push me towards buying a new motherboard is both specs and design and yet we see for example x570 better Aesthetically then z490. So guys will we soon from MSI an outstanding motherboard combining both high specs and design?

 

[InnerBeastMoose]

How much can a motherboard impact a systems performance? And what causes this impact?

 

[argenthorizon]

More companies are now offering sound cards or external DAC/Amps for improved sound. What are we going to see as the next evolution for onboard sound? Or have we plateaued on what can reasonably be done within the constraints of a motherboard?

 

[yellowcardyc]

when MSI will pay more attention on design? i mean Aesthetically wise what push me towards buying a new motherboard is both specs and design and yet we see for example x570 better Aesthetically then z490. So guys will we soon from MSI an outstanding motherboard combining both high specs and design?

h.fakhoury1234, agree with you, aesthetics is getting more and more important to PC build. We'll keep working hard to make MSI motherboards look better. We take feedbacks from consumers and try to keep improving our board, specs, compatibiltiy, stability and aesthetics. Thank you for great inputs.

 

[yellowcardyc]

How much can a motherboard impact a systems performance? And what causes this impact?

VRM will impact system performance. With a weak VRM, high-end CPUs may have a throttling problem due to weak VRM.
For memory, especially with XMP loaded, better optimization will bring some performance difference. And with faster connetion, like10/2.5GbE LAN and Wi-Fi6 connection, it performs better than boards with only 1GbE LAN and WI-Fi AC. I/O matters too. Some MSI Z490 models feature 20Gbps USB and Thunderbot 3 ports, and it offers faster I/O speed.

 

[yellowcardyc]

More companies are now offering sound cards or external DAC/Amps for improved sound. What are we going to see as the next evolution for onboard sound? Or have we plateaued on what can reasonably be done within the constraints of a motherboard?

Audio is a challenge for motherboards. For onboard audio, we implement ESS audio DAC, headphone amplifier, and audio-oriented capacitors on GODLIKE, and have seperate audio circuit from the rest circuit on the motherboards. This is to get cleaner signal. We're also working to reduce noise as much as possible. We'll keep work with our partners like DAC, amplifier companies to offer latest and best audio solutions.

 

[Buginmire]

How well does the Z490 perform as fashionable headgear?

 

[JaseYANG]

Any plans for built in Tile Tracker or other Tracker?