MSI Confirms "Zen 3" Support on its AMD 400-series Chipset Motherboards with 16MB ROMs

[btarunr]

MSI confirmed that AMD's "Zen 3" processor support will be added to the company's AMD 400-series chipset motherboards, including the non-MAX SKUs that only have 16 MB EEPROM chips. Marketing Director Eric van Beurden in an MSI Insider video presentation confirmed that with the non-MAX motherboards, "Zen 3" support will be added as AMD planned to go about doing so (i.e. add "Zen 3" support by cutting out support for older processors and slimming down the UEFI setup program down to the GSE Click BIOS program, which may not correspond with your motherboard's original feature-set). On the other hand, the MAX SKUs, with their 32 MB EEPROMs will receive "Zen 3" support painlessly, meaning that the board may retain support for some, if not all, older processor generations, and retain their original feature-rich UEFI setup programs.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[HossHuge]

I wonder if they'll have different BIOS for different cpu's?

 

[tabascosauz]

I wonder if they'll have different BIOS for different cpu's?

IIRC they're doing the same thing they did for Zen 2 on 16MB chips. Barebones BIOS literally stripped to the core. I also remember that it was a one-way upgrade back then with no way to go back, but not 100% certain.

Overall, the MAX boards are well positioned to receive full featured updates.

AGESA is renamed to v2.0 for the first time, instead of restarting under a different name for every generation, but I doubt they'll put in the effort to keep two concurrent BIOS lines running. Not even Gigabyte keeps supporting EOL boards for so long. It's a one-way decision that you can make to upgrade.

 

[TheOne]

I built a Ryzen system for someone a couple of years ago with an pre-Zen 2 MSI X470 motherboard and was wondering if it would get Zen 3 support, so this is good to know.

 

[ratirt]

That surely is a great news for me 4000 series desktop Zen I am prepared and waiting

 

[Nihilus]

For those that don't view at 360p:

 

[ShurikN]

For those that don't view at 360p:
View attachment 156952

This chart is sooo much better for deciphering than the one AMD released 10 days ago. (the one with orange bars)

 

[Melvis]

<Looks at my system specs......Winning!

 

[hojnikb]

Any word on gigabyte?

 

[GeorgeMan]

This chart is sooo much better for deciphering than the one AMD released 10 days ago. (the one with orange bars)

Yes, so much better that it has an X for A320 and Ryzen 3000 but it's supported everywhere

 

[T3RM1N4L D0GM4]

OK, waiting for Asrock...

 

[GeorgeMan]

OK, waiting for Asrock...

Not on launch, though. You'll have to wait for weeks/months, they cleared that out. Myself I have a B450 Tomahawk (non MAX) on my main build with 1080Ti and custom watercooling, so having not to change a motherboard is a life (time!) saver, even if support comes months later. I was not gonna buy on launch anyway.

 

[ncrs]

OK, waiting for Asrock...

In my experience AsRock has to be nudged into the right direction. I've had to specifically request/ask about BIOS updates for my X470 board and after a few days it magically appeared on the website together with an e-mail reply to my ticket saying "it's here". If you own an AsRock board then make a support ticket asking them if they'll provide support. They probably assume that nobody will want to get a Ryzen 4000 on their X470/B450.

 

[abysal]

Why don't they have the vision to to use bigger ROMs to be able to handle and support new CPUs and all the features they want. 16MB is tiny and so is 32MB, Maybe 256MB would make sense. Would it increase costs that much?

 

[Nihilus]

Why don't they have the vision to to use bigger ROMs to be able to handle and support new CPUs and all the features they want. 16MB is tiny and so is 32MB, Maybe 256MB would make sense. Would it increase costs that much?

I know that they had issues making code for 16MB roms work on 32MB roms. I don't think it is a matter of cost.

 

[trom89]

IIRC they're doing the same thing they did for Zen 2 on 16MB chips. Barebones BIOS literally stripped to the core. I also remember that it was a one-way upgrade back then with no way to go back, but not 100% certain.

Event tho I have a Mortar Max, I would prefer the lite version the BIOS, without the graphical shenanigans.

I know that they had issues making code for 16MB roms work on 32MB roms. I don't think it is a matter of cost.

Yup, AFAIK only the 3000 cpus could handle bigger BIOS than 16MB.

 

[s3thra]

Yay! I'm good for an upgrade with my B450 Gaming Plus.

Hopefully the jump from a 2600 to a 4600 (or whatever it will be called) will be nice.