AMD Announces Zen 3 Support for B450 and X470 Motherboards

A couple of weeks ago, news came out regarding Zen 3 and its lack of backward support for X470 and older motherboards leaving users disappointed. YouTube came alive offering explanations and reasons why this was so (referencing the size of the ROM and code needed for the new CPUs). It was sound reasoning but likely wasn’t easy to take for those looking to move forward on the same motherboard.

Fast forward to today, AMD’s Official Reddit account officially announced they have “changed course” and will enable an upgrade path for B450 and X470 motherboards. The process is multi-faceted due to the technical complications of the implementation, however, this is great news for AMD users with B450 and X470 boards.

The next question is which boards will receive the BIOS updates? Will it be reserved for all segments or just a couple of SKUs as to not pilfer sales from the newer, feature rich/more robust X570 series? Time will tell.

AMD said to expect another blog (from Reddit) for the remaining details and a walkthrough of the process. The message below was sourced from Reddit:

As we head into our upcoming “Zen 3” architecture, there are considerable technical challenges that face a CPU socket as long-lived as AMD Socket AM4. For example, we recently announced that we would not support “Zen 3” on AMD 400 Series motherboards due to serious constraints in SPI ROM capacities in most of the AMD 400 Series motherboards. This is not the first time a technical hurdle has come up with Socket AM4 given the longevity of this socket, but it is the first time our enthusiasts have faced such a hurdle.

Over the past week, we closely reviewed your feedback on that news: we watched every video, read every comment and saw every Tweet. We hear that many of you hoped for a longer upgrade path. We hear your hope that AMD B450 and X470 chipsets would carry you into the “Zen 3” era.

Our experience has been that large-scale BIOS upgrades can be difficult and confusing especially as processors come on and off the support lists. As the community of Socket AM4 customers has grown over the past three years, our intention was to take a path forward that provides the safest upgrade experience for the largest number of users. However, we hear you loud and clear when you tell us you would like to see B450 or X470 boards extended to the next generation “Zen 3” products.

As the team weighed your feedback against the technical challenges we face, we decided to change course. As a result, we will enable an upgrade path for B450 and X470 customers that adds support for next-gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors with the “Zen 3” architecture. This decision is very fresh, but here is a first look at how the upgrade path is expected to work for customers of these motherboards.

  1. We will develop and enable our motherboard partners with the code to support “Zen 3”-based processors in select beta BIOSes for AMD B450 and X470 motherboards.

  2. These optional BIOS updates will disable support for many existing AMD Ryzen™ Desktop Processor models to make the necessary ROM space available.

  3. The select beta BIOSes will enable a one-way upgrade path for AMD Ryzen Processors with “Zen 3,” coming later this year. Flashing back to an older BIOS version will not be supported.

  4. To reduce the potential for confusion, our intent is to offer BIOS download only to verified customers of 400 Series motherboards who have purchased a new desktop processor with “Zen 3” inside. This will help us ensure that customers have a bootable processor on-hand after the BIOS flash, minimizing the risk a user could get caught in a no-boot situation.

  5. Timing and availability of the BIOS updates will vary and may not immediately coincide with the availability of the first “Zen 3”-based processors.

  6. This is the final pathway AMD can enable for 400 Series motherboards to add new CPU support. CPU releases beyond “Zen 3” will require a newer motherboard.

  7. AMD continues to recommend that customers choose an AMD 500 Series motherboard for the best performance and features with our new CPUs.

There are still many details to iron out, but we’ve already started the necessary planning. As we get closer to the launch of this upgrade path, you should expect another blog just like this to provide the remaining details and a walkthrough of the specific process.

At CES 2017, AMD made a commitment: we would support AMD Socket AM4 until 2020. We’ve spent the next three years working very hard to fulfill that promise across four architectures, plus pioneering use of new technologies like chiplets and PCIe® Gen 4. Thanks to your feedback, we are now set to bring “Zen 3” to the AMD 400 Series chipsets. We’re grateful for your passion and support of AMD’s products and technologies.

  We’ll talk again soon.

Source: Reddit

About Joe Shields 326 Articles
Joe started writing around 2010 for Overclockers.com covering the latest news and reviews that include video cards, motherboards, storage and processors. In 2018, he went ‘pro’ writing for Anandtech.com covering news and motherboards. Eventually, he landed at Tom’s Hardware where he wrote news, covered graphic card reviews, and currently writes motherboard reviews. If you can’t find him benchmarking and gathering data, Joe can be found working on his website (Overclockers.com), supporting his two kids in athletics, hanging out with his wife catching up on Game of Thrones, watching sports (Go Browns/Guardians/Cavs/Buckeyes!), or playing PUBG on PC.

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Avatar of bmwbaxter
bmwbaxter
4,135 messages 7 likes

Point three from them is slightly concerning.

"The select beta BIOSes will enable a one-way upgrade path for AMD Ryzen Processors with “Zen 3,” coming later this year. Flashing back to an older BIOS version will not be supported."

From a trouble shooting perspective being able to try a different CPU is helpful. I think this is some of the reason AMD didn't want to support these boards since this will potential cause major headaches down the road. When some especially used boards dont even support the same CPU's on the same chipset. Have to wait and see how it gets implemented before I can decide if I like this or not.

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Avatar of Zerileous
Zerileous

1

3,474 messages 533 likes

Yeah it's not going to be an ideal user experience. There was probably enough trouble getting the 4 series chipsets to run the 3rd gen chips that they didn't think it was worth the headache.

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Avatar of DeViLzzz2010
DeViLzzz2010

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26 messages 0 likes

Glad AMD smartened up here as one of their main selling points is that their upgrade path lasts a good while.

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Avatar of bmwbaxter
bmwbaxter
4,135 messages 7 likes

Will be interesting to see if the new chips are worth upgrading to or if it is mostly noise about nothing for most people on those platforms.

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