Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGood feature set, defective PCIE3
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2021
This board has a good feature set, including PCIE gen4 (11th gen only), USB 3.2 gen 2x2, and PCIE 8x/8x bifurcation. And this last one is why I bought this board, being one of the few that can split the 16x to 8x/8x. Being used in a server setting, I didn't care for many of the features, but I needed as many PCIE lanes I can get from the Z590 platform.
Initial board: (-1 star)
PCIE 3 (3rd slot from top, middle PCIE 16x slot) refused to work. Anything plugged into there would get power, but no data. PCIE1 (top 16x slot) always ran at 16x, which was verified via CPU-Z and GPU-Z, even though the board should automatically split the lanes to 8x/8x when two cards are installed in PCIE1 and PCIE3. Even manually forcing to 8x/8x in the BIOS had no effect. Windows sometimes detects the card in PCIE3, but throws a code 12 ("device does not have enough resources to run"). After spending hours debugging the issue with flashing new BIOS's and changing various settings in BIOS and Windows, I contacted MSI support via phone. They said that 8x/8x bifurcation should "just work" and likely my board is defective. Suggested to return to Amazon and request a replacement vs. doing an RMA (would take longer)
Replacement board: (-1 star)
PCIE3 worked! But only if a non-graphics card is on it. If I put my graphics card on PCIE3 slot, then I would still get a code 12 in Windows, and it refuses to start. Same behavior as my initial board, and I was starting to lose hope. But if I put my graphics card in PCIE1 slot, and put my other card in PCIE3, then both cards worked at 8x/8x, as verified by CPU-Z and GPU-Z. Both cards also show up in Windows device manager.
Obviously there's something going on with this board's design and chipset, as some other reviewers also complain about the non-functioning PCIE 3 slot, and the Code 12 in Windows. We shouldn't have to tear everything down to get a replacement board. Unfortunately there are not too many options for affordable 8x/8x bifurcation boards, although $270 is not exactly cheap!
