AMD confirms that X570 and B550 chipsets will support next-gen Zen 3 architecture

[Andrew]

AMD on Thursday confirmed that its next-gen AMD Ryzen desktop processors, which will utilize the Zen 3 architecture, will indeed be compatible with AMD X570 and B550 motherboards. That's great news as enthusiasts have a viable upgrade path that doesn't involve purchasing additional core hardware just to get a CPU upgrade.

 

https://www.techspot.com/news/85144-amd-next-gen-zen-3-compatible-amd-b550.html

 

It is nice to see AMD still doing this sort of thing.

[ENTERPRISE]

Well I figured they would and good to see AMD giving users platform longevity.

[Uber_Reem]

"All of that said, AMD noted that it has no plans to introduce Zen 3 architecture support for older (X pre-500 Series) chipsets."

 

- This is the bummer as most were expecting one more iteration of Ryzen for 470 boards.

[ENTERPRISE]

"All of that said, AMD noted that it has no plans to introduce Zen 3 architecture support for older (X pre-500 Series) chipsets."

 

- This is the bummer as most were expecting one more iteration of Ryzen for 470 boards.

 

Makes sense though as I would imagine they are wanting to push the PCIe 4.0, last time I looked the 470 boards cannot do that ?

[axipher]

I was expecting an AM4+ revision like when Bulldozer was announced if the 4000 series would have a large enough change in architecture and would of likely helped with breaking up the AM4 socket a little but.

 

I have X370, X470 and X570 boards at home and I definitely did not feel like 3000 Series support on X370 was expected or required. Personally I expect at least 1 new generation from AMD sockets on a chipset.

 

I do feel for the B450 buyers though as B550 took so long to arrive that I'm sure a lot of people bought B450 with a 3000 series parts expecting that they would also get another generation out of it. But technically the 3000 series was the second generation that B450 saw so it's not exactly that different from other chipsets.

 

 

Now I know AMD made the argument that the sheer number of CPU's to support in a BIOS make it too big for most motherboards and I know t hat some motherboard makers tried to advertise that they have bigger ROM chips to allow for larger BIOSes. I'm going to side with AMD on this one though, because from their stand-point, they don't want a fragmented market of some 400-series boards supporting Zen3 parts and others not having support as non-tech buyers won't have the know-how to do the proper research. Also in the more online dominated marketplace, less buyers will have access to a local PC shop that would be able to just flash a newer BIOS for you. I live in a city of 125,000 people with only 3 local PC shops and none of them would help me with a BIOS flash, so I had to order a cheap Athlon part just to flash a BIOS.

[Uber_Reem]

Hardware Unboxed just released a good video on this topic:

 

Cliff Notes:

• AMD's reasoning for not adding support to 3xx & 4xx chipsets: "...the flash memory chips that store the BIOS settings and support have capacity limitations. Given these limitations, and the unprecedented longevity of the AM4 socket, there will be a time and place where a transition to free up space is necessary - the AMD 500 series chipsets are that time."
  
• AMD statements that AM4 platform would be supported though 2020, implying support is socket dependent and not chipset dependent.
  
• X570 was not advertised as the only chipset that will support future CPUs.
  
• Past controversy with BIOS could be a factor (older boards needing to be flashed for new CPUs, launch issues w/ boost clock)
  
• Is Zen 3 the last CPU line for AM4? Possibly, why break compatibility on last cpu line?
  

Many quality 400 series motherboards were sold with larger bios capacities as a selling point for future compatibility. If AMD had released x570 with future support as a key feature, many consumers would have spent the extra money for x570 or waited for b550.

 

Think the consumer angst is justified, but nothing to lose sleep over.

[ENTERPRISE]

I was expecting an AM4+ revision like when Bulldozer was announced if the 4000 series would have a large enough change in architecture and would of likely helped with breaking up the AM4 socket a little but.

 

I have X370, X470 and X570 boards at home and I definitely did not feel like 3000 Series support on X370 was expected or required. Personally I expect at least 1 new generation from AMD sockets on a chipset.

 

I do feel for the B450 buyers though as B550 took so long to arrive that I'm sure a lot of people bought B450 with a 3000 series parts expecting that they would also get another generation out of it. But technically the 3000 series was the second generation that B450 saw so it's not exactly that different from other chipsets.

 

 

Now I know AMD made the argument that the sheer number of CPU's to support in a BIOS make it too big for most motherboards and I know t hat some motherboard makers tried to advertise that they have bigger ROM chips to allow for larger BIOSes. I'm going to side with AMD on this one though, because from their stand-point, they don't want a fragmented market of some 400-series boards supporting Zen3 parts and others not having support as non-tech buyers won't have the know-how to do the proper research. Also in the more online dominated marketplace, less buyers will have access to a local PC shop that would be able to just flash a newer BIOS for you. I live in a city of 125,000 people with only 3 local PC shops and none of them would help me with a BIOS flash, so I had to order a cheap Athlon part just to flash a BIOS.

 

Yeah I can agree with what AMD did with respect to making the support lines clear. Having a 400 series half in and half out when it comes to supporting certain processors would just be an absolute nightmare. It would have been easier to just say no and make it clear that it is only the new chipset that would support the new CPU's moving forward.

 

Hardware Unboxed just released a good video on this topic:

 

Cliff Notes:

• AMD's reasoning for not adding support to 3xx & 4xx chipsets: "...the flash memory chips that store the BIOS settings and support have capacity limitations. Given these limitations, and the unprecedented longevity of the AM4 socket, there will be a time and place where a transition to free up space is necessary - the AMD 500 series chipsets are that time."
  
• AMD statements that AM4 platform would be supported though 2020, implying support is socket dependent and not chipset dependent.
  
• X570 was not advertised as the only chipset that will support future CPUs.
  
• Past controversy with BIOS could be a factor (older boards needing to be flashed for new CPUs, launch issues w/ boost clock)
  
• Is Zen 3 the last CPU line for AM4? Possibly, why break compatibility on last cpu line?
  

Many quality 400 series motherboards were sold with larger bios capacities as a selling point for future compatibility. If AMD had released x570 with future support as a key feature, many consumers would have spent the extra money for x570 or waited for b550.

 

Think the consumer angst is justified, but nothing to lose sleep over.

 

The only way to bring the 3000 CPU line to the 400 Chipset would to have released new BIOS files which had dropped support for older CPU's, hence reducing the BIOS file size. This would have made sense to me as you could give consumers the choice to update to the latest BIOS to support the latest CPU's and drop support for other older CPU's you would likely never use anyway. I guess the hurdle was, where do you draw the line ? and how many companies (MSI,ASrock etc) would be happy to play along and create a new BIOS for all there 400 series boards. In essence I would imagine AMD looked into this and found a degree of resistance from the board manufacturers. So I am willing to bet this decision was partially made for AMD and AMD is taking the flack for it.