MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WiFi D4 Review

Conclusion

If you’ve read all of our B760 motherboard reviews then you’ll forgive us for a moment if we’re going over familiar ground. However, the truth is that the 13th Generation of Intel CPUs in the LGA 1700 socket are enough of a step forwards from the 12th Generation that they are extremely desireable. At the upper end the Core i9-13900K, the processor used in today’s review, is more than enough for anything you care to throw at it. The middle models though, the Core i5-13600K for example, are flying off the shelves thanks to their combination of excellent performance and relatively affordable price point. But if you want a motherboard then you have had to make do with the expensive Z790 options.

With the launch of the B760 chipset Intel have given you a much more affordable option, and in the form of the MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk you have a motherboard which doesn’t cost a fortune to buy, uses more cost effective DDR4 memory, and yet has a weapon up its sleeve that could put it above the competition in the form of the 75A power stages.

Clearly performance between any of the B760 motherboards is extremely close. It is the nature of the consistency of chipset manufacturing these days, coupled to how much of the features are combined within the chipset rather than being outsourced to additional chips on the PCB, that the differences are largely to be found in connectivity and similar. By utilising 75A power stages MSI have already marked themselves ahead of any of the ASUS options we’ve reviewed, and this was born out in the results where only the DDR5 equipped Strix F gained a march in gaming. Otherwise the Tomahawk was fairly consistently the second motherboard in our graphs. Sometimes third, sometimes first, but certainly it just has a level of consistency that is attractive, particularly if you use your system in every way you can, rather than sticking to just gaming or just creation.

Probably the only area that the MSI Tomahawk might not win over a skeptical audience is in the looks, where it is probably best described as utilitarian, rather than anything particularly glitzy. Naturally beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if you’ve grown tired of motherboard which resemble a rave then perhaps the understated aesthetic will be just what you’re after. Certainly the three M.2 slots, plentiful USB options and that meaty power stage should already be enough to convince you, but we understand humans are visual creatures. We like the stealthy looks of the Tomahawk. Horses for courses.

With a commitment to a serious power stage allowing you a lot more performance headroom than some other B760 motherboards, coupled to a subtle aesthetic and affordable pricing, the MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WiFi D4 wins our OC3D Gamers Choice Award.

  

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