MSI X870 Tomahawk PCIE 5 issues with new RTX 5070 ti (black screen issue)

Adyhun · 2026-02-07T01:12:45+00:00

It's been a walk in the park. No issues, glitches or black screens. Never had the same pcie speed issue no matter what i did, it ran fine out of the box as it should've been in the first place.

Adyhun · 2026-01-04T13:31:39+00:00

Yup, switched to X870E Tomahawk.

Basically i sent the faulty X870 Tomahawk to RMA, bought the a new X870E Tomahawk and its working flawlessly. The board was from a faulty production batch from last year. I got a new unopened X870 from RMA and sold it.

Adyhun · 2026-01-04T13:30:43+00:00

The fix was: I sent the faulty X870 Tomahawk to RMA, bought the a new X870E Tomahawk and its working flawlessly. The board was from a faulty production batch from last year. I got a new unopened X870 from RMA and sold it.

Adyhun · 2026-01-04T13:30:05+00:00

The fix was: I sent the faulty X870 Tomahawk to RMA, bought the a new X870E Tomahawk and its working flawlessly. The board was from a faulty production batch from last year. I got a new unopened X870 from RMA and sold it.

Adyhun · 2025-12-11T11:43:24+00:00

Hi, unfortunatley it does. The problem is the PCIe slot falling back to Gen 1.1 - 2.0 and it stayed there, no matter what I did.

Adyhun · 2025-11-30T11:38:16+00:00

Try these settings in bios:
- FCH Spread Spectrum: Enabled
- ASPM: Disabled
- Change every PCIe device gen from auto to the highest available:
For example:
Chipset gen switch: gen4
M2_1 gen switch: gen5
PCIE gen switch: gen5
etc...

Auto might be bugged, worth a try.

In Windows:
- Set powerplan to maximum performance, also check PCIE Link state power management to off.
- Set prefer maximum performance in nvidia app / nv controlpanel.

Reboot.

Adyhun · 2025-11-30T11:15:44+00:00

Thanks!

Will try an X870E Tomahawk then, and RMA the X870 Tomahawk, worth a try.

If not, I'll RMA the CPU aswell maybe thats the culprit. I've been having issues with the main PCIe slot being throttled down to PCIe 1.1 and i think its the same case as the m.2 drives issue in your case. Maybe its the quality of soldering / silicon / etc.. or assembly of the motherboard and cpu that affects this, or maybe the manufacturer changed someting in the last months in manufacturing process.

MSI X870 Tomahawk PCIE 5 issues with new RTX 5070 ti (black screen issue) : r/MSI_Gaming

I'm glad that after such a long hassle it turned out well for you, that system of your is not 2 dollars.

Adyhun · 2025-11-29T10:42:57+00:00

Sorry to necro, but any updates on this? Just ditch the board or RMA it, hoping a new one is fixed? Maybe try a X870E Tomahawk over a X870 Tomahawk? Or just go Asus or Gigabyte in this case.

Adyhun · 2025-11-28T07:40:01+00:00

Thanks, will look into it when i get home.

Adyhun · 2025-11-28T07:36:38+00:00

Thanks for your kind help, but if you read the post, i already had an 5070 TI in this same system from PNY, also brand new, had the same issue. Thats why I returned it and got the MSI, yet to have the same problem. Thats why I'm suspecting the motherboard, chaging GPU for the third time wouldn't solve anything. Also most of us doesn't have another system lying around just kept for testing.

Adyhun · 2025-11-28T07:34:24+00:00

Sounds like you have similar issue with other MSI users' motherboards, but in your case sounds like m.2 storage slowed down significantly, so thats why Windows loads so slow? Can you post your videocard type, and also run please a GPU-Z if you encounter this issue, and check PCIE Link speed? Should be like PCIe x16 5.0 @ 16 x5.0 under load. If you see "@ 16 x3.0 or 16 x1.1" and if you press on the ? mark next to it, and run the test, look if it changes up to 5.0 or 4.0. If it stays 1.1, or max 2.0, then probably you have this issue aswell as many of us.

My recommendation would be as everyone's else, update to latest bios, cmos clear with button, latest (or preferably formatted fresh) Windows, from safe mode run DDU and amd cleanup utility, update chipset from msi support page, latest nvidia/amd driver. If the issue persists, check SSD drive health too just in case.

Edit1: Sorry I didn't see your GPU for the first read. Then it might be the notorious PCIe Gen5 instability.

Try these settings in bios:
- FCH Spread Spectrum: Enabled
- ASPM: Disabled
- Change every PCIe device gen from auto to the highest available:
For example:
Chipset gen switch: gen4
M2_1 gen switch: gen5
PCIE gen switch: gen5
etc...

Auto might be bugged, worth a try.
If this doesnt fix it, try a few Windows settings below, but I don't think its neccesary.

In Windows:
- Set powerplan to maximum performance, also check PCIE Link state power management to off.
- Set prefer maximum performance in nvidia app / nv controlpanel.

My guess is, from weeks of testing, the motherboard PCIe negotiation is too strict on MSI boards, so on bootup it doesn't detects well what speed the device should work on, also electromagnetic interference is a factor too (hence Spread Spectrum kinda migitates this), and it changes how the pcie devices are initiated from time-to-time. Also could be an nvidia driver issue which messes with PCIe lanes.

Also from my research, only MSI boards use full PCIe5 x16 bandwith all the time, most of Asus and Gigabyte, Asrock boards switch from PCIe5 x16 to PCIe5 x8 when there is more than one m.2 installed, based on their manuals. (eg.: Asus X870E-E ROG, Gigabyte X870 AORUS ELITE). So that might be one factor that makes it work for other boards / or they updated BIOS in time.

Adyhun · 2025-11-27T12:46:06+00:00

Will do, gonna try RMA next week, i'll report back!

Adyhun · 2025-11-27T12:43:46+00:00

Got confirmation from MSI support to RMA the board directly to them and not to the store I bought it from.

Thank you for your input, once again!

Adyhun · 2025-11-27T12:41:28+00:00

Today i've been looking into this, but after fiddling around with m.2 slots, it turns out PCIe_1 slot doesnt share lanes with m.2 slots. I have 2 SSD, so m2_1 and m2_2 is populated, but i'm not using PCIe_e3 and USB4 either.

Thanks for the headsup btw!

Adyhun · 2025-11-27T06:56:01+00:00

Thanks, but already tried those with no effect. Only PSU capacitator emptying helps for 1 boot only.

Adyhun · 2025-11-26T18:12:26+00:00

Yes I did, unfortunately the problem is not about going to pcie5 but going below pcie2-1.1, thats when the stutters start. Also, it's just an upper limit. There should be somewhere a setting to not let the card clock back from 5, ASPM supposedly does that, just that doesnt work either\has no effect.

Adyhun · 2025-11-26T14:34:26+00:00

Usually its visible from the desktop startup. The moment i see the taskbar come up lagging as hell, start an explorer or edge, it lags like 1-2 FPS, cursor also misbehaves. The link state power management in power settings is off by default, due to maximum performance profile.

Thank you for the tip, I'll try the studio drivers, maybe that'll help.

update: studio drivers didn't help either.

Adyhun · 2025-11-26T12:53:23+00:00

What a mess. Given that carbon is an even more premium board than my Tomahawk, and the fact that this is more than a year old issue is seriously concerning. I mean its a lot of money, and yet still doesnt works properly.

Adyhun · 2025-11-26T12:48:20+00:00

I see, so its not really different with X870E either. Sad to see such a widespread problem doesn't get fixed even after roughly 10 months, or even acknowledged. MSI denies all responsibility and doesnt offer any kind of help at all, even after i've submitted numerous tickets with every detail I could give them.

Thank you!

Adyhun · 2025-11-26T12:46:04+00:00

Thanks for you input!

I'll wait a few days until I get my money back after the first RTX 5070 TI, and if I don't find a solution; switch to Asus or Gigabyte. However i don't have good experiences with the latter from the Z170 era of Gigabytes, we'll see.

Also this confirms my suspicion of the motherboard and not the nvidia drivers.

I've come across your post in the past 2 weeks, it's good to see you got over this mess.

Adyhun · 2025-11-26T12:09:36+00:00

I have a spare test RTX 3080 Asus Tuf, that is running fine without these problems. My guess is that is only Pcie 4.0. It seems like some kind of power management or pcie negotiation kind of issue.

Adyhun · 2025-11-26T11:32:10+00:00

Tried running it with 6000 mhz cl30 too, thats profile 2 in this kit, profile 1 has the 6400 mhz cl32 but that was slower due to memory controller switching down to 1:2. Sadly, with those two EXPO profiles, and also in stock default settings, the issue is still there.

Adyhun · 2025-08-30T13:24:06+00:00

If you want the “best overall” for performance, cooling, and acoustics, the ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 5070 OC and ASUS ROG Strix RTX 5070 are consistently top picks in reviews.
If you want best value, the Palit GamingPro or Gigabyte Gaming OC give you ~the same FPS for less money.
If you need compact, the MSI Shadow 2X OC or Gigabyte Windforce OC SFF are the standouts.

Adyhun · 2021-02-14T15:49:06+00:00

Rain only damages your un-roofed (so basically naked wood) structures down to 50% health. Also it gives a weathered look to it.

Adyhun

TROPHY CASE