Search for a motherboard compatible with the 7800X3D graphics card.
Search for a motherboard compatible with the 7800X3D graphics card.
From the specs, it seems only the M.2 slots are Gen 5 compatible. That shouldn’t be a big problem because the 4090 still performs almost the same on Gen 3, like we see today. Still, it’s a great board and having faster drives is always beneficial. The MSI B650 Gaming Plus WiFi AM5 ATX is a reliable choice if you prefer a straightforward setup. In my view, drive speed mainly counts during data transfers between drives or when benchmark results are high, but it might become more important in the future.
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I skipped the OS reinstall and just updated the BIOS along with the newest AMD drivers. The main problem was confusion over ASUS BIOS settings for EXPO. I selected "EXPO I" but it failed to start since ASUS labeled it as "ASUS tweaked." "EXPO II" worked fine, even though my motherboard didn’t list its RAM in the supported range (Corsair Vengeance 2x32 GB DDR5-6000 CL30 CMK64GX5M2B6000Z30). I’d have gotten GSkill, but it’s tough to find at a fair price here. It turned out my RAM matched the timings Gamers Nexus use, which was a plus. What mattered most was having a PCIe slot for 5.0 and 64GB RAM—something that lets future upgrades and boosts game loading speeds, especially for fast-travel in games (like when re-loading areas). Starfield’s load times dropped from about 6 seconds to just 1–2 seconds on my 5950X.
Thanks for all the responses and resources. I feel more confident about making a choice now. I’m leaning toward the ASUS ROG Strix B650e-F and the MSI Mag B650 Tomahawk. Since gaming is my focus, the difference between M.2 5.0 and 4.0 seems minimal, and a 3.0 chipset still feels quite similar. I’m not sure if PCIe 5.0 is worth the extra $50 on the ASUS board, but I’ll probably pick one of those options.