MSI X870 Boards for AMD CPUs to Offer 8-Pin Auxiliary PCIe Power

Some of AMD's partners have begun to reveal their next-generation X870 motherboards for the company's new Zen 5 processors. Since these CPUs work just fine on older X670 boards, companies have added new features to X870 boards to convince people to upgrade. For MSI, one of its latest features is a dedicated 8-pin connector that provides extra power for a GPU, which it says is for "AI computing" or multi-GPU setups.

MSI calls this feature Supplemental PCIe Power, and if you glance at the motherboard above you can see the 8-pin connector at the center-bottom of the board. MSI has added this additional power source to its MEG, MPG, and MAG X870(E) motherboards as a sort of insurance policy for folks running high-end GPUs, or more than one GPU. MSI says it's related to AI because it can provide additional power for people with one GPU ...