Does MSI Z390 have integrated graphics?

It looks to me like you can go either way. If you want to use the onboard ports, you need a processor that has graphics. If you want to use an add-on graphics card, fine, you can use a processor that does not have graphics. However, you will also not have access to the onboard ports.

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/MPG-Z390-GAMING-PLUS#support-cpu

BUT, you know the best place to ask about MSI motherboards? MSI. It is their board, they built it, they know what they support. Intel does not.

Doc

The MSI Z390-A Pro uses the Intel FCLGA1151 CPU socket. Any compatible Intel CPU will have the same socket entry. It uses the DDR4 memory type, with maximum speeds of up to 3200 MHz, and 0 DDR4 slots allowing for a maximum total of 128 GB RAM.

Conforming to the ATX standard, the MSI Z390-A Pro should fit into the majority of cases. ATX is the most common form factor, and as such has a high degree of compatibility with other components while providing a decent number of slots to widen your expansion options.

The MSI Z390-A Pro has 6 SATA 3.0 hard drive slots. These allow for theoretical data transfer speeds of up to 6GB/s, as opposed to the 3GB/s of SATA 2.0. Generally speaking, only high performance hard drives, specifically solid-state drives, will be able to take advantage of the bandwidth potential of SATA 3.0 ports, though it is backwards compatible, so you do not have to take advantage.

The MSI Z390-A Pro does not support onboard graphics. Any system build that uses this motherboard therefore requires a separate graphics card, or a processor that has a GPU on the same die, such as AMD APU processors. There are 2 PCIe x16 slots on this motherboard. This means it is perfectly capable of accommodating the latest graphics cards, although it is important to try and use a graphics card with the same graphics card interface of PCIe v3.0, as anything below will not reach the motherboard's potential, and anything above will have its performance slashed to the bandwidth maximum of the MSI Z390-A Pro's PCIe v3.0. The MSI Z390-A Pro supports up to 2 Nvidia SLI connected graphics cards or up to 2 AMD Crossfire connected graphics cards for improved overall graphical performance at the cost of multiplied graphics-based power consumption as well as the price of the cards themselves.

The MSI Z390-A Pro has 4 USB 2.0 slots but no USB 3.0 slots. While USB 3.0 slots are so far by no means necessary, and with a plethora of USB 2.0 peripherals to choose from, the USB functionality on this motherboard should be fine. With so few slots, however, you would have to use a USB expansion hub. As such, we would highly recommend a different motherboard, preferably with USB 3.0 functionality as well.

• Home>
• Motherboards

MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus

The MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus is the ATX sized entry model to the new MPG performance gaming range and as a result, still boasts some good quality controllers such as a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec which does omit the S/PDIF optical output from other boards in MSI's gaming range, but it also includes the higher spec Intel I219V Gigabit networking chip. Visually the MPG Z390 Gaming Plus follows a completely different approach to the other MPG boards as this is the only red and black gaming themed board in their line-up and as a result, has no onboard RGB LED lighting and instead is equipped with only red LEDs.

On the rear panel is two USB 3.1 Gen2 connections with a Type-A and Type-C both present and is complemented by two USB 3.0 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports. Like other models in the range, users can extend the USB to by a further four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 through the use of internal headers. For the onboard graphics, MSI removes a DisplayPort and instead opts to use a single dual-link DVI-D along with an HDMI output. There is a single LAN port powered by an Intel I219V Gigabit controller and the six 3.5 mm audio jacks are taken care of by a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec.

Due to the lower end nature of the Z390 Gaming Plus, there's only two available full-length PCIe 3.0 slots with the top slot which has a coating of MSI's Steel Armor slot protection running at x16 and the bottom slot operating at x4; two-way CrossFire is supported by SLI isn't due to bandwidth restraints on the second slot. Due to this, the board uses the available PCB space up with a total of four PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. For storage, the board has a total of six SATA ports available and also features two M.2 PCIe/SATA slots. There are four RAM slots with support for DDR4-4400 with a total capacity of up to 64 GB.

With the cut-down nature of this board in comparison to other MPG ATX sized models, the MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus has a suggested launch price of $149 which makes this the cheapest MPG series motherboard in MSI's MPG current SKU list. It's also the cheapest ATX board on the Z390 chipset from MSI outside of their non-gaming themed models with the cheaper price to be expected due to the lack of integrated RGB LEDs and slightly lower spec feature set.

MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon AC MSI MAG Z390 Tomahawk

Is MSI Z390 good for gaming?

How do I turn on my integrated graphics MSI?

Does the Gigabyte Z390 have integrated graphics?

What GPU is compatible with MSI MPG Z390?