Friday, July 19th 2019
AMD AGESA 1.0.0.3ABA Buggy, Company Pulls it from Motherboard Vendors
The latest version of AGESA ComboAM4 microcode that enables 3rd generation Ryzen support on AMD 400-series chipset motherboards has been deemed buggy and pulled from motherboard vendors. AGESA ComboAM4 1.0.0.3ABA (not to be confused with 1.0.0.3AB that's being widely distributed), was originally released to fix an application crash noticed with "Destiny 2." The microcode inadvertantly destabilizes PCI-Express on motherboards, with users of ASUS motherboards complaining of stability issues with the latest BIOS updates that include 1.0.0.3ABA.
Peter "Shamino" Tan from ASUS commented that the company was under a tight schedule to push 1.0.0.3ABA out as BIOS updates, and didn't have the time to properly validate it. "We just got told to pull (was undergoing validation prior) 1003 ABA version," he said, adding the root cause of the problem being "that PCIE speed of BXB-C downgraded from gen4 to gen2,..." He comments "so its not surprising that bugs emerge since the source has hidden bugs that only gets unraveled with thorough testing. combine that with trying to get firmwares out in a tight time frame, kinda damn if you do (release firmware quickly) and damn if you dont (dont release firmware quickly) situation." It's interesting to note that in their BIOS update change-logs, quite a few motherboard vendors omit the full version string of AGESA. You may encounter ComboAM4 1.0.0.3AB being referred to simply as "AGESA ComboAM4 1.0.0.3."
Peter "Shamino" Tan from ASUS commented that the company was under a tight schedule to push 1.0.0.3ABA out as BIOS updates, and didn't have the time to properly validate it. "We just got told to pull (was undergoing validation prior) 1003 ABA version," he said, adding the root cause of the problem being "that PCIE speed of BXB-C downgraded from gen4 to gen2,..." He comments "so its not surprising that bugs emerge since the source has hidden bugs that only gets unraveled with thorough testing. combine that with trying to get firmwares out in a tight time frame, kinda damn if you do (release firmware quickly) and damn if you dont (dont release firmware quickly) situation." It's interesting to note that in their BIOS update change-logs, quite a few motherboard vendors omit the full version string of AGESA. You may encounter ComboAM4 1.0.0.3AB being referred to simply as "AGESA ComboAM4 1.0.0.3."
35 Comments on AMD AGESA 1.0.0.3ABA Buggy, Company Pulls it from Motherboard Vendors
Nothing out of the ordinary for me with AGESA Combo-AM4 1.0.0.3
Primary PCIe x16 v3.0 slot
Haven't had a chance to upgrade my AORUS Ultra board to F41a, but I'll test it out later this weekend.
I'm sure it will be fixed sooner rater than later, but I wouldn't be one of the early adopters.
That machine I mentioned earlier had a nasty bug too (B450 Aorus M): if I do a clean UEFI windows installation, then the GTX1070 would lose all monitors as soon as I install any version of NVidia driver (can't read EDID and outputs black screen, even though GPU functions properly). On CSM install - no problems whatsoever. Other boards - also no problems (tested on B150, B350, Z170, X470). Spent whole day yesterday trying to figure it out, until I've decided to connect to machine remotely via RDP chasing a wild guess.
3rd gen ryzen's backward compatibility
And i guess x570 sales are below average :pimp:
Older chipsets can only run PCIe 4.0 to the first PCIe x16 slot (the video card) and one additional M.2 slot. It's been benchmarked here on TPU that video cards don't give a rat's ass about PCIe 4.0. And SSDs haven't been bottlenecked by sequential transfers in ages. What good would PCIe 4.0 do for you under these circumstances. Plus, users that are unable to grasp this, won't understand why PCIe 4.0 is confined tot hose two slots and would complain anyway.
And it's not one game, as I posted above, it also renders many recent Linux distros unable to boot.
Morons pretending they actually try to test anything is laughable.