MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon Motherboard Review

MSI motherboards come with a rather unique UEFI that is divided up into six major menus.  Within those menus are specialized sections to control features like overclocking and onboard peripherals.  We have seen this menu before and have grown accustomed to where things are but new MSI users will need to spend some time hunting around.  Each menu features a proper title and breadcrumb trail so you’ll always know where you are and how to get back.

Below are some of the screens from the MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon UEFI in no particular order.

As with all BIOS menus it is a good idea to root around and identify all of the settings you are looking for and discover what their dependencies might be. The UEFI defaults are near perfect so there is little reason to enter the UEFI except in a few select circumstances like setting boot order or enabling XMP.

If you happen to use the Game Boost dial it will also indicate what selection you have made in the UEFI along with the resulting overclock.  For the overclocking portion of this review I decided to try overclocking the easy way using Game Boost.  I was actually surprised to see that number 1 setting actually had my Core i9 7900X running at 4.4Ghz.  Dialing up would enable more overclocking features which might actually be fun to mess with under LN2.

Though for normal gaming I wouldn’t recommend anything past the first setting.