AMD 300/400 series motherboards to not work with Zen3??

[DanceswithUnix]

Looks like old CPUs won't work in the B550 motherboards also.

That's just dumb.

They could have mandated a bigger flash chip, but I guess this means they have pretty much forced a smaller one to be used. That does push prices down a few quid, but feels short sighted.

OTOH, it does make me feel a bit better about the 3200G machine I just built for work. No desktop 4200G announced, and the 3200G wouldn't fit in a B550 mobo, so my build isn't outdated before even deployed

[DanceswithUnix]

... a big interesting chart

Hmm, so that old machine at work with a B350 motherboard in it that currently includes a 3700X in its compatibility list, isn't supposed to be compatible?

I hope this doesn't go the way of B450 PCIe4 support where the ability gets taken away by AGESA update, giving a cutoff after which you basically don't get any support. That board still rocks a 2600X, but I had been eyeing up an upgrade.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

That's just dumb.

They could have mandated a bigger flash chip, but I guess this means they have pretty much forced a smaller one to be used. That does push prices down a few quid, but feels short sighted.

OTOH, it does make me feel a bit better about the 3200G machine I just built for work. No desktop 4200G announced, and the 3200G wouldn't fit in a B550 mobo, so my build isn't outdated before even deployed

Hmm, so that old machine at work with a B350 motherboard in it that currently includes a 3700X in its compatibility list, isn't supposed to be compatible?

I hope this doesn't go the way of B450 PCIe4 support where the ability gets taken away by AGESA update, giving a cutoff after which you basically don't get any support. That board still rocks a 2600X, but I had been eyeing up an upgrade.

Look at my previous post though. Not all X570 motherboards have 32mb BIOS chips,plenty have 16mb BIOS chips like older B450 motherboards. Conversely there are better B450/X470 motherboards which have the bigger 32mb BIOS chips which better X570 motherboards can have. I think basically AMD CBA with the older chipsets now!

[Xlucine]

That's just dumb.

They could have mandated a bigger flash chip, but I guess this means they have pretty much forced a smaller one to be used. That does push prices down a few quid, but feels short sighted.

OTOH, it does make me feel a bit better about the 3200G machine I just built for work. No desktop 4200G announced, and the 3200G wouldn't fit in a B550 mobo, so my build isn't outdated before even deployed

I *really* hope the AMD mandates a decent flash chip for the AM5 socket. It's a pain when intel does this, but soft lockouts like this are worse as they're far more confusing.

Hmm, so that old machine at work with a B350 motherboard in it that currently includes a 3700X in its compatibility list, isn't supposed to be compatible?

I hope this doesn't go the way of B450 PCIe4 support where the ability gets taken away by AGESA update, giving a cutoff after which you basically don't get any support. That board still rocks a 2600X, but I had been eyeing up an upgrade.

That's what I came here to comment on. The cheap A320 ASrock boards claim to support up to the 3950X, which this table says shouldn't be possible. I hope we end up with sensible board manufacturers compressing the graphics in the UEFI a bit to squeeze a couple more CPUs in

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I *really* hope the AMD mandates a decent flash chip for the AM5 socket. It's a pain when intel does this, but soft lockouts like this are worse as they're far more confusing.



That's what I came here to comment on. The cheap A320 ASrock boards claim to support up to the 3950X, which this table says shouldn't be possible. I hope we end up with sensible board manufacturers compressing the graphics in the UEFI a bit to squeeze a couple more CPUs in

Looking at the X570 list,so many apparently have 16MB BIOS chips,but they have official support??

[DanceswithUnix]

Look at my previous post though. Not all X570 motherboards have 32mb BIOS chips,plenty have 16mb BIOS chips like older B450 motherboards. Conversely there are better B450/X470 motherboards which have the bigger 32mb BIOS chips which better X570 motherboards can have. I think basically AMD CBA with the older chipsets now!

That's just the usual "buyer beware". A 32MB BIOS was one of the things I chose my X470-Pro for to get around this problem. If AMD start enforcing that chart, a lot of us will be rather miffed.

If AMD are assuming DDR5 is happening in 2022, then there could be a few chip series to support..

[Millennium]

I was under the impression 3xxx series was the last AM4 platform based for some reason. If they can't update the BIOS of all B450 boards to 4xxx compatability, here's hoping that someone backports at least some compatible microcode into a lot of B450 and X470 models. Perhaps, though, the tools to do so are in AMD's hands only - I don't know. I know there is a flourishing AMD Ryzen bios mod community.

[rob4001]

glad i held off upgrading to amd or intel. Never blow somke up any company's ass. At least now I have a decent choice from either manufacturer. I was nearly going to get a 3600 with b450 and upgrade to zen3 later.

[Sumanji]

I'm relying on Asus and AMD to not screw me with this... Have a Crosshair VII Hero with a 2700X, which I would love to upgrade to 4700X (or equivalent) at the end of this year.

If that path is blocked, I guess I could just spend less on a 3700X... or just not buy anything at all.

Either way, AMD make less money

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

That's just the usual "buyer beware". A 32MB BIOS was one of the things I chose my X470-Pro for to get around this problem. If AMD start enforcing that chart, a lot of us will be rather miffed.

If AMD are assuming DDR5 is happening in 2022, then there could be a few chip series to support..

I have a B450I Strix,which I also made sure had a 32mb BIOS and one of the best VRMs of all B450 motherboards. If all the X570 motherboards,even with 16mb BIOS chips are OK,then telling people,that B450/X470 motherboards have limited size BIOS chips,and hence they cannot be made compatible makes no sense. Even them saying PCI-E 4.0 can't be supported never sat well with me,as it was lumping even the good motherboards into the fray as the poor ones,but I let that one go. Also I am certain a number of newer B450/X470 BIOSes dropped support for certain older CPUs, which nobody is going to have a problem with if you buy a new CPU. It seems 16mb is more than enough for X570 motherboards to have at least Zen3 support.

I'm relying on Asus and AMD to not screw me with this... Have a Crosshair VII Hero with a 2700X, which I would love to upgrade to 4700X (or equivalent) at the end of this year.

If that path is blocked, I guess I could just spend less on a 3700X... or just not buy anything at all.

Either way, AMD make less money

Pretty much my opinion. I will get a Ryzen 7 3700X,but if its not cheap enough I stick with what I have until AM5 is released.

[rob4001]

I wonder if the board partners put pressure on AMD maybe? So they can sell more boards?

[[GSV]Trig]

Think we're all kinda in the same boat then, hopefully those B450 boards with >32mb BIOS will get an update, just checked the specs on my board and it says 128mb BIOS...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

128Mb=16MB and 256Mb=32MB. But the telling thing is the X570 list which has both. Well,at least this has reduced any interest I had in Zen3. Good way to save money!!

[DanceswithUnix]

Also I am certain a number of newer B450/X470 BIOSes dropped support for certain older CPUs, which nobody is going to have a problem with if you buy a new CPU.

That's probably the key. Yes, some boards dropped the old construction core support. I have a dual core A6 at work, but it's in its box in my desk drawer so I'm OK with losing support for it

But if Zen3 support means dropping Zen1, and if DDR5 is a while off maybe a Zen3+ will mean dropping Zen2 support. I would rather they drop support for RGB, but I think that's just me

Haven't seen mention of where the 4000 series APUs fit into this. Zen2, but they will need their own AGESA support.

128Mb=16MB and 256Mb=32MB. But the telling thing is the X570 list which has both. Well,at least this has reduced any interest I had in Zen3. Good way to save money!!

Meh, you'll only spend it on women and booze

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

That's probably the key. Yes, some boards dropped the old construction core support. I have a dual core A6 at work, but it's in its box in my desk drawer so I'm OK with losing support for it

But if Zen3 support means dropping Zen1, and if DDR5 is a while off maybe a Zen3+ will mean dropping Zen2 support. I would rather they drop support for RGB, but I think that's just me

Haven't seen mention of where the 4000 series APUs fit into this. Zen2, but they will need their own AGESA support.

I switched off all the RGB on my motherboard,so you are not the only one! But X570/B550 also needs to support Zen2,as Zen3 is yonks away,so that means the 16mb BIOS on the cheaper X570 motherboards will need to support two generations. I really like to see if the B550 is that much different from the B450. I wonder if it's the same chipset,but with a certification?

Meh, you'll only spend it on women and booze

Probably have to end up spending it on an overpriced graphics card!

Maybe I need to just start playing retro games. I won't need all this new fangled hardware!

[HacKage]

That's disappointing to hear. Admittedly I hadn't considered ROM size when picking my board, but I was under the impression that AM4 would fully support upto the 4th Gen/Zen 3 and then it would be something new. I suppose it means there will be better deals on Zen 2 parts when Zen 3 or even the next generation come out.