MSI has a lineup of MAX (yes, allcaps) motherboards. These differ from the non-MAX editions in that they have a more MAXIMIZED bios, and thus can support a wider range of CPUs. Some have a slightly better heatsink.

The MSI MAX MOBO MODEL Breakdown

For some unfathomable reason, MSI previously released these motherboards in a lot of countries, but only recently made them available in the USA. We have added a few of them to our database this week.

At the moment, we have three MAX motherboards:

• MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX
• MSI B450-A Pro MAX
• MSI X470 Gaming Plus MAX

If we were recommending a non-MAX motherboard in any given country, we have checked (or will soon have checked) the price/availability of the MAX version to see if we can replace it. A price decrease or a small price increase ($10 or less) is worth it, but if the price is much higher than that, then we’ll wait for prices to settle.

For the USA, the B450-A Pro MAX has a good price, but the X470 Gaming Plus MAX is too pricey. As such, the Fair and Good tiers will now have the MAX versions for MAXIMUM . . . uh, future-proofing I suppose.