Anybody used the GA-AB350M-D3H ?

[trents]

TigerDirect had a good sale on Ryzen CPUs so I squeezed the trigger on a R5 1600.

Been wanting to go compact these days with my builds so I went with a mATX . It may eventually wind up under my wife's desk to replace her aging FX-4350/Asus M5A97. She does a lot of multitasking and typically has a lot of tabs and programs open at the same time.

But of course I want to play with it first.

Anybody else using this board? What observations and tips do you have for me? I'm looking at pairing it with DDR4 2666 2x8 but the QVL list at Gigabyte isn't much help. They don't even show any compatible RAM over 2400. Yet the board is advertised as being compatible with DDR4 3200 (OC). And what people are saying on the forum is that in general most any RAM will work up to 2666 on these Ryzen boards.

Changed my mind and will be returning the board. Looks like Gigabyte has not offered an updated bios since early in April for this board. Have ordered the ASRock AB350M instead.

 

[Khalidi]

TigerDirect had a good sale on Ryzen CPUs so I squeezed the trigger on a R5 1600.

Been wanting to go compact these days with my builds so I went with a mATX . It may eventually wind up under my wife's desk to replace her aging FX-4350/Asus M5A97. She does a lot of multitasking and typically has a lot of tabs and programs open at the same time.

But of course I want to play with it first.

Anybody else using this board? What observations and tips do you have for me? I'm looking at pairing it with DDR4 2666 2x8 but the QVL list at Gigabyte isn't much help. They don't even show any compatible RAM over 2400. Yet the board is advertised as being compatible with DDR4 3200 (OC). And what people are saying on the forum is that in general most any RAM will work up to 2666 on these Ryzen boards.

Changed my mind and will be returning the board. Looks like Gigabyte has not offered an updated bios since early in April for this board. Have ordered the ASRock AB350M instead.

There are two memory support list -- for AMD 7th Generation A-series/ Athlon™ processor and AMD Ryzen™ processor.
if using Ryzen CPU, you can refer to http://download.gigabyte.asia/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-ab350m-d3h.pdf

 

[trents]

Nonetheless, the AGESA code for the Gigabyte board has not been updated since the second week in April. Doesn't seem like Gigabyte is investing much time in this product.

 

[bigtallanddopey]

Nonetheless, the AGESA code for the Gigabyte board has not been updated since the second week in April. Doesn't seem like Gigabyte is investing much time in this product.

Seems to be the case at the moment with motherboard manufacturers and the ryzen cpu's in general. Not that they're not supporting some boards but I think they're putting a lot of effort into the new intel releases.

Read a few articles now where the new intel chipset will be getting day one bios updates etc. Things that seemed to take weeks for ryzen in some cases.

 

[trents]

The ASRock AB350M board I am getting instead of the Gigabyte one in my original post had a new bios/Agesa code made available on June 10. As I compared the update list of the two boards it was obvious to me that ASRock has been giving more attention to supporting their board than has Gigabyte and that is why I switched.

 

[Woomack]

New AGESA ( from June ) is still in tests. All BIOS releases based on this AGESA are marked as beta, even though some motherboards have official BIOS releases. Motherboard manufacturers are waiting for final BIOS version for non-top/enthusiast/OC series till they publish it. This is the reason why only some motherboards like high ASRock or ASUS CHVI have BIOS based on new AGESA. For instance most lower ASUS/ASRock boards and all Biostar boards still have version from mid April ( or mixed + version with little updates ). My board had last update in mid April and I was expecting to see updates some time ago but Biostar support said that till they test everything and be sure it's stable they won't release it ... they didn't reply when I asked for unofficial beta

 

[trents]

These two boards I speak of in this thread appear to be in the same class, at least based on having similar price and similar features. They are sub $100 boards with some overclocking features but not extensive from what I can gather by just reading the Egg reviews. And also I did look at the ASRock board's online user manual.

 

[DaveB]

For instance most lower ASUS/ASRock boards and all Biostar boards still have version from mid April ( or mixed + version with little updates ). My board had last update in mid April and I was expecting to see updates some time ago but Biostar support said that till they test everything and be sure it's stable they won't release it ... they didn't reply when I asked for unofficial beta

My low-end ASRock AB350M Pro4 mATX has an "official" AGESA 1.0.0.6 B IOS update released on 6/9/17 with lots of new memory timing settings.

Version 2.50, 6/9/2017, 5.49MB, Update AGESA to 1.0.0.6.

 

[trents]

DaveB, that's the board I ordered. How do you like it? Any configuration tips you want to pass on? With all the problems many have had getting high speed RAM to work at full speed I ordered Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz (PC4-19200) C14 memory for it this morning. I hope it will run at full speed with that low latency.

 

[bassnut]

With my Asrock Tiachi ..... there was quite a bit of VDroop ..... LLC fixed it but the way it was labeled was reverse of what I thought it would be. LLC settings are listed as Level 1 through Level 5 ...... Level 1 being the highest and Level 5 being lowest. At level 1 I have Zero VDroop though setting 1.375v gets me 1.369v solid. I would assume this will carry on to your board as well to some degree at least. Beside that all setting were pretty much the same as my Asus board ...... labeling differences is all.

Ram I bought some cheap Team 3000 cl 16 ram which I wasn't happy with that wouldn't boot past 2666 till new AGESA BIOS came out not to mention Build quality was horrid...... http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_1326&item_id=105005

I replaced them with these for the same cost on sale .... http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_1326&item_id=103816 .... These run nice at 2933 with setting of XMP profile. I have not had time to play with then at all yet so beyond setting XMP thats all I have done.

 

[DaveB]

DaveB, that's the board I ordered. How do you like it? Any configuration tips you want to pass on? With all the problems many have had getting high speed RAM to work at full speed I ordered Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz (PC4-19200) C14 memory for it this morning. I hope it will run at full speed with that low latency.

It runs my Ryzen 5 1600 @ 4 GHz (3992) and the Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 @ 2666. I haven't had the energy to mess around with all the new timings available with the latest AGESA 1.0.0.6 BIOS to find if the Corsair will run at spec or not. Not that I would notice anyway. I would think your 2400 would be able to run at that speed, but you may have to play with the timings a bit. Your memory isn't listed on the QVL although several 8GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4-2666 and DDR4-2800 variants are.

For a cheap mATX B350 board it has a pretty robust power section and has no problem feeding 1.425V to my CPU. The board has been stable for me, only the usual AMD Ryzen issues getting memory to run at higher speeds.

 

[trents]

The ASRock QVL lists are frustrating in that it in the higher speed ranges it lists a lot of 2x8 16gb memory products that look like they come in a kit that was originally 4x8 32gb and was split to only use half of it. Even a lot of the 2400 mhz QVL entries are only for 2x4 8gb amounts.

By the way, what is AEGESA in relation to bios? Is putting out a new AEGESA code just an alternate term for issuing a new bios?

 

[Johan45]

AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA), is a bootstrap protocol by which system devices on AMD64-architecture mainboards are initialized. The AGESA software in the BIOS of such mainboards is responsible for the initialization of the processor cores, memory, and the HyperTransport controller.

It's the software behind the scenes in BIOS. AMD releases this and OEMs can't alter it. They just try to build a BIOS around it. As AMD finds compatibility by changing the way certain parts of the CPU operates then they release a new code. This isn't always better for performance but it's been helping with ram compatibility through changes to the IMC protocols

 

[DaveB]

The ASRock QVL lists are frustrating in that it in the higher speed ranges it lists a lot of 2x8 16gb memory products that look like they come in a kit that was originally 4x8 32gb and was split to only use half of it. Even a lot of the 2400 mhz QVL entries are only for 2x4 8gb amounts.

By the way, what is AEGESA in relation to bios? Is putting out a new AEGESA code just an alternate term for issuing a new bios?

Yes, I have come to believe that the ASRock Ryzen BIOS team is staffed by a bunch of moron slackers. I tried giving them info on BIOS issues, but they really never seemed to be interested and told me to return the motherboard if I didn't like it. They even suggested I get an Asus or Gigabyte board. AMD has also been largely uninterested in memory issues - they seemed happy when any speed of DDR4 was able to run at 2133 at launch. It appears they put in very little effort into learning about DDR4, (which was out for 2-1/2 years) prior to the debut of Ryzen. They are now playing catch up and AGESA 1.0.0.6 added lots of timings to play with - finally!

 

[EarthDog]

By the way, what is AEGESA in relation to bios? Is putting out a new AEGESA code just an alternate term for issuing a new bios?

Its the foundation for a bios, essentially. AGESA stands for AMD Generic Encapsulated System Architecture. Its basically a bootstrap that initializes the cpu, memory, and infinity fabric controller. That foundation is what allows AIBs to give more options in the firmware/bios.

Or, what johan already said!

 

[trents]

"AIBs" ?

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, I have come to believe that the ASRock Ryzen BIOS team is staffed by a bunch of moron slackers. I tried giving them info on BIOS issues, but they really never seemed to be interested and told me to return the motherboard if I didn't like it. They even suggested I get an Asus or Gigabyte board. AMD has also been largely uninterested in memory issues - they seemed happy when any speed of DDR4 was able to run at 2133 at launch. It appears they put in very little effort into learning about DDR4, (which was out for 2-1/2 years) prior to the debut of Ryzen. They are now playing catch up and AGESA 1.0.0.6 added lots of timings to play with - finally!

Really? That doesn't instill confidence in a manufacturer now does it?

 

[EarthDog]

AIB = Add In Board (partner). Such as MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, EVGA, etc.

OEM is Original Equipment Manufacturer. Those listed above take the chipset from AMD and mark their own boards. OEM and AIB are sort of..ish...interchangeable. But not.

 

[DaveB]

Really? That doesn't instill confidence in a manufacturer now does it?

In my experience, ASRock AM4 B350 motherboards are well designed and manufactured. I've played with all 3 models they make, and all 3 were rock stable and had robust power circuitry. I just think their BIOS programmers aren't very interested in either customer feedback or fixing things.

 

[trents]

Well the motherboard ASRock AB350M Pro 4 came in today and I scabbed a test bed system together using the R5 1600. I was relieved to see that the motherboard gave me no issues with running my Corsair Vengence LPX 2400 CL14 at full frequency and XMP timings. I have not experienced those long boot times I was hearing others complain about with Ryzen. And boy, does it load apps fast! Got it overclocked to 3.8 ghz now on 1.3 vcore and stress testing. Seems to give about the same or a little better Cinebench scores as a 7700k would but for sub i5 prices.

 

[ratbuddy]

I ordered this mobo, I first checked for downloads on the Gigabyte site, and an AGESA 1.0.0.6 BIOS is now available for this board. Was a pain in the butt finding RAM from their HCL, but eventually I found a 2x8 set they have listed.