Monday, April 15th 2019
MSI Betrays AMD's Socket AM4 Longevity Promise: No Zen2 for 300-series?
Greedy motherboard vendors such as MSI want you to buy a new motherboard every two generations of processor for no sound reason at all. MSI is reportedly blocking support for 3rd generation Ryzen "Matisse" processors on its AMD 300-series chipset motherboards, including those based on high-end AMD X370 and OC-capable B350 chipsets. This would also put those who own $300 motherboards such as the X370 XPower out of luck. To recap, AMD announced on numerous occasions that it doesn't want to be a greedy clique like its competitor, by forcing motherboard upgrades and promised that socket AM4 motherboards will be backwards and forwards compatible with at least four generations of Ryzen processors, running all the way up to 2020.
This normally should mean that any 300-series motherboard must support 4th generation Ryzen processors with a simple BIOS update. Most 300-series motherboards, including from MSI, even ship with USB BIOS Flashback feature to help with forwards compatibility. Unfortunately, motherboard companies such as MSI care more about their bottom-lines than the consumer. In a support e-mail to an X370 XPower Titanium owner, MSI confirmed that it will not extend Zen 2 support to AMD 300-series. Other motherboard vendors could follow MSI's suit as a representative of another motherboard vendor, on condition of anonymity, told TechPowerUp that "Zen 2" processors have steeper electrical requirements that 300-series motherboards don't meet. This is an excuse similar to the one Intel gave for the planned obsolescence of its 100-series and 200-series chipsets, even as it was repeatedly proven that those motherboards can run and overclock 9th generation processors with custom firmware just fine. Would MSI care to explain whether a B450M PRO-M2 has a stronger VRM than an X370 XPower Titanium to warrant "Zen 2" support? Will all "Zen 2" processor SKUs have steep electrical requirements? Will there not be any SKUs with double-digit-Watt TDP ratings?
Update (16/04): MSI posted a clarification on this issue.
Source:
master3553 (Reddit)
This normally should mean that any 300-series motherboard must support 4th generation Ryzen processors with a simple BIOS update. Most 300-series motherboards, including from MSI, even ship with USB BIOS Flashback feature to help with forwards compatibility. Unfortunately, motherboard companies such as MSI care more about their bottom-lines than the consumer. In a support e-mail to an X370 XPower Titanium owner, MSI confirmed that it will not extend Zen 2 support to AMD 300-series. Other motherboard vendors could follow MSI's suit as a representative of another motherboard vendor, on condition of anonymity, told TechPowerUp that "Zen 2" processors have steeper electrical requirements that 300-series motherboards don't meet. This is an excuse similar to the one Intel gave for the planned obsolescence of its 100-series and 200-series chipsets, even as it was repeatedly proven that those motherboards can run and overclock 9th generation processors with custom firmware just fine. Would MSI care to explain whether a B450M PRO-M2 has a stronger VRM than an X370 XPower Titanium to warrant "Zen 2" support? Will all "Zen 2" processor SKUs have steep electrical requirements? Will there not be any SKUs with double-digit-Watt TDP ratings?
335 Comments on MSI Betrays AMD's Socket AM4 Longevity Promise: No Zen2 for 300-series?
Stay tuned to your reputable news sites/MSI for info. ;)
Hint: it supports them...but what exactly?
I'm not just talking out of my rear either, bios modding is something I do and did for Ryzen. I know how much free space is on these boards, and it is a lot.As I said, that arguement is factually false. Do ya'll need a layout screenshot or something?
That is an interesting theory. It could be they are so insistent on cramming igpu support in there that they are filling the chips literally with OTHER vbioses for many subtypes of igpus that may or may not be installed.
That'd be astonishingly inefficient, but would explain the arguement and also why I don't see it... I always rip the igpu bioses out!
As for "why 256mbit chips?" it's not due to size needs I think as much as manufacturing has largely shifted to them and they are cheap now.
Wrong info.
Translation by someone in Reddit thread:@btarunr you might want to add that to the story ;)
They're testing compatibility.
They want to support upcoming Ryzen processors on as many motherboards as they can.
They will provide a list of compatible AM4 motherboards.
This is miles away from "all Ryzen work on all AM4" that many here hoped for. It seems there is in fact a big probability that some existing AM4 mobos won't work with at least some of Zen2 CPUs.... and this turned out to be correct! :-D The "official response" doesn't mention neither "Zen 2" nor "Ryzen 3000-series".
It's a shame the direction TPU is going in with news and some reviews. Grammar mistakes (some not corrected after it was mentioned), blatent misrepresentation (and no retraction) of information, copy/paste news, zero follow up by a reviewer when a user asks a question. My RSS feed just got leaner. Terrible.
Wait for MSI to officially respond, not round 2 of Tier 1 muppet support. :)
I mean: in the end they even won the software key case. Close few threads, remove few posts, give few warnings. Very basic measures clearly worked. There's hardly any reaction to the key news they posted today. :-)The only thing I'm interested in is the official CPU compatibility list. Until the add rows there (even temporary ones like "Ryzen 3000-series") it's all just curiosities.
www.tomshardware.com/news/msi-ceo-interview-intel-shortage-amd,38473.html
The notebook part is amazing on its own.
Go climb back under your rock......
Just a market Jaggernaut having certain kind of influence, ya know. It's MSI itself kinda concluding that, nobody forced them to, right?
Or when MSI CEO says, doing notebooks wouldn't be that nice, because of those special relationships with Intel?
Try to downplay it with own invaluable "doubts".
Cool.
So, after all, he wouldn't want to ruin his own company, would he? And figure, when there is next shortage, he gets none of those goddamnawfulgamingperf Intel notebook chips?
So it's pure and clear business. Nothing to be alarmed about.
Basic capitalism.
-No way, I call BS!
-<citation>
-Oh, oh, that, but that's not at MSI's expense!
Pathetic.