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?
Reason: They need to make money to keep their shareholders happy.
Board obselecence is not a big deal. Ever check the used prices of mint motherboards with box and manual? You can sell the board for the same price you paid, less the ebay fee. In some cases, you can sell it for more. For example, I bought a AsRock Z77E-ITX for $150 from Amazon, used it for a few years, and sold it 3 years later for $220 on eBay. I bought a Z77X-UD3H for $160 from Microcenter, used it for 6 years, sold it for $140 on eBay. Keep the box, manuals, stickers, antistatic bag, and media. If you take good care of it, it will be worth a lot to someone with a dead obsoleted system that needs a replacement board.
Same goes for CPUs as well, I bought the 3770K for $220 from Microcenter... Sold it for $200 on eBay 5 years later.
Man during Skt A they were pretty top end, now they are bargin bin crap.
It's also tier 1 support... I wouldnt bet my life on them. :p
That said, its not the source that is bad per say, perhaps the all in tone of believing it/seemingly not questioning its validity, is what some may be hung up on. It could be true... it could not be. What's the scope? Some boards only?
This first line sure strikes a chord, no...?whether the word reportedly was used after or not, this line sure was all in calling them greedy.
Was MSI contacted for confirmation?
Edit: did AMD ever state which chipsets or just the socket for 2020 support?
www.techradar.com/news/amd-has-new-high-performance-mobile-ryzen-pro-mobile-processors-coming
Like those
Back in the heady days of Core 2, MSI released a board called the P6N Diamond. It was a high-end board that was advertised as being compatible with the then-current Conroe quad-cores (Kentsfield) and, crucially, the upcoming Yorkfields. There was even a massive sticker on the box proclaiming this!
Well, I started off with a Q6600 in that board, and it was fine. Then the Yorkfields launched, the P6N Diamond BIOS/compatibility section on MSI's website got updated with those chips, and I got a great deal on a QX9650. With the latest BIOS flashed, I dropped in the new CPU and was ready for fun times... except I got the exact opposite.
I could not, for the life of me, get that board stable with the QX9650. Didn't matter whether it was stock or overclocked, sooner or later the system would simply hard-reset. I tried an E8400 (dual-core) and had the same problems. Around this time MSI started issuing a slew of beta BIOS updates for this board, but none of them resolved the instability, and there was a pretty long thread on MSI's forums with people who had the same issue.
The eventual consensus we users came to - after an MSI rep let slip a telling remark - was that the very bare minimum of CPU power circuitry had been implemented in the board's design, and that simply wasn't enough for 45nm Wolfdale/Yorkfield. MSI, of course, never bothered to officially address, let alone rectify the issue, and eventually they silently reverted the CPU support list for that board to only 65nm Conroe/Kentsfield: www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/P6N_Diamond#support-cpu
tl;dr MSI has cheaped out on power delivery on "high-end" boards before, if this story is correct it would absolutely not surprise me.
If you can upgrade the CPU more often than the motherboard, AMD earns more and MSI earns less. This really is simple.
All that shows is that Ryzen can be implemented in 8MBs. 16 is a nonissue.
Journalism is foremost verifying your information before publishing and im afraid this didn't happened here since we don't have any official statement from MSI . You are confusing Journalism with Sensationalism #clickbait !