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MSI confirms its AMD 400-series motherboards support Zen 3

by Mark Tyson on 28 May 2020, 11:11

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD), MSI

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MSI streamed its weekly Insider episode yesterday evening. You can see a recording of the whole show (2hr 45mins), hosted by Marketing Director Eric van Beurden, embedded below. MSI B550 motherboards were the theme of the show. However, importantly for existing MSI customers with AMD 400-series motherboards, forward compatibility was made very clear.

In the video above the key compatibility chart is shared by the presenters, and discussed, from 23 mins 15 sec in. I've took a screenshot of this chart, which you can see below (click to zoom image).

About 10 days ago AMD officially yielded to public pressure and "decided to change course" with Zen 3 B450/X470 support. That was a given fact in the background of the MSI video. Nevertheless it is still reassuring to see companies like MSI embrace the directive. Existing customers will likely be pleased with the willingness of MSI to pre-announce its intentions in this matter, rather than it being quiet (or even reluctant) on how it will implement Zen 3 support on existing AMD 400-series motherboards.

The details are quite straight forward. Owners of MSI's AMD B450 and X470 boards will get support for future AM4 processors based upon the Zen 3 architecture. As per AMD's explaning of possibilities, older boards with limited EEPROM capacity will have cut down BIOS features and support for older processor families removed - to make room for new SKUs - via a 'Selective Beta BIOS'.

Owners of MSI's MAX suffixed (32MB BIOS) motherboards will be more comfortable with an update which is likely to retain compatibility with most, if not all, older AM4 processor models that were originally supported by the platform. Furthermore, the MAX boards should easily retain their feature-rich UEFI setup options.

Hopefully other motherboard makers will follow suit with confirmations of BIOS updates providing AMD 400-series Zen3 support.



HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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Good to hear!!
I have a MSI X470 Gaming Plus (Non-MAX) board with a 16Mb BIOS.

I thinking that MSI may have to drop support for older Ryzen 1000 & 2000 series CPUs to accommodate the new ZEN 3s, if they commit to pushing out a new BIOS for that specific model. Otherwise I may have to look elsewhere for a new motherboard.
DirtyDean68
I have a MSI X470 Gaming Plus (Non-MAX) board with a 16Mb BIOS.

I thinking that MSI may have to drop support for older Ryzen 1000 & 2000 series CPUs to accommodate the new ZEN 3s, if they commit to pushing out a new BIOS for that specific model. Otherwise I may have to look elsewhere for a new motherboard.

I think you'll be fine.
There are several X570 mobos which come with 16MB large ROM chips… and it was mentioned that ALL X570 and B550 mobo's will support Zen 3.

Something was mentioned that for older mobos like B450/X370, support for entire Zen 1 series and Zen+ APU's would be removed to make room for Zen 3.

I'm on Acer Predator helios 500 PH517-61 laptop which is a desktop replacement with desktop Ryzen 2700 and Vega56.
Its quiet and cool at maxed out load (cooler and quieter than any other laptop on the market)… and despite the fact I have a B450 desktop grade motherboard in the laptop, Acer stopped supporting the unit in about late 2018 or very early 2019.

It wouldn't be a big deal for Acer to release a BIOS update for this laptop so I can slap in Zen 3 and 3200MhZ RAM, but they are too lazy.
deksman2
DirtyDean68
I have a MSI X470 Gaming Plus (Non-MAX) board with a 16Mb BIOS.

I thinking that MSI may have to drop support for older Ryzen 1000 & 2000 series CPUs to accommodate the new ZEN 3s, if they commit to pushing out a new BIOS for that specific model. Otherwise I may have to look elsewhere for a new motherboard.

I think you'll be fine.
There are several X570 mobos which come with 16MB large ROM chips… and it was mentioned that ALL X570 and B550 mobo's will support Zen 3.

Something was mentioned that for older mobos like B450/X370, support for entire Zen 1 series and Zen+ APU's would be removed to make room for Zen 3.

I'm on Acer Predator helios 500 PH517-61 laptop which is a desktop replacement with desktop Ryzen 2700 and Vega56.
Its quiet and cool at maxed out load (cooler and quieter than any other laptop on the market)… and despite the fact I have a B450 desktop grade motherboard in the laptop, Acer stopped supporting the unit in about late 2018 or very early 2019.

It wouldn't be a big deal for Acer to release a BIOS update for this laptop so I can slap in Zen 3 and 3200MhZ RAM, but they are too lazy.

Oh and I forgot to mention that the ROM chip in my B450 mobo is also 16MB in size.
So yes, it could easily house Zen 2 and Zen 3 support if entire Zen 1 line and Zen+ APU's are removed (since this laptop never came with a Zen+ APU and the display is not connected to the socket, it wouldn't be able to make use of an iGP anyway - which is sad I suppose as Zen 3 65W TDP APU would be amazing for this machine in regards to performance increase and battery life).

Vega 56 is still more than enough to max out games on this thing and I can easily overclock and undervolt it to match GTX 1080 without exceeding its 120W locked TDP.
To late for my b450 gaming pro max - I hadn't opened the box when AMD originally announced so returned it for an ASUS tuf gaming x570-plus. I had been torn between a x570 for future upgrades and saving money on a b450 board. I do intend to keep this machine for a good 5 to 8 years so being able to go PCIe 4 and push a 4800x or equivalent in a few years is essential to me.