Zen 2 is hardly backward compatible due to bios rom limitations
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Today we can already enjoy the Ryzen 3000 processors and we can combine them with 300, 400 and, of course, the 500 series motherboards. However, a thread on the msi community forum reveals that the story to include Zen 2 was not that simple.
BIOS limitations in Zen 2
Internal topics about its components and software are often discussed in the msi community forum . In the case of this thread, an active member and representative of the company ventured to shed some light on the gestation of the new plates.
As they mention: the capacity of the SPI flash EEPROM chip that stores the UEFI firmware of the motherboard is quite limited for the AGESA ComboAM4 1.0.0.3a microcode on most boards.
Due to this, the company was forced to change the UEFI BIOS package that is currently circulating as a beta update. The updates allow older motherboards to support Ryzen 3000 processors, but in exchange they lose support for other technologies.
Among them we lose:
- Support for Series A and Athlon processors with Bristol Ridge. RAID modules, breaking SATA RAID on many motherboards. BIOS 5 in exchange for a much simpler interface with fewer features (GSE Lite). Luckily, it still maintains certain distinguishing features of msi's BIOS like A-XMP, Smart Fan, and M-Flash.
Comparison of BIOS 5 with GSE Lite
The problem arises when we see that most brands have the same 16 MB EEPROM storage. If you want to avoid going through the same number of cuts, you will need to keep your BIOS program very light.
On the other hand, X570 motherboards have support for up to 32MB EEPROM, but still lose support for Bristol Ridge, Summit Ridge, and Raven Ridge processors .
The best recommendation you can take is to update the BIOS of your 300 or 400 Series motherboard only if you have a Ryzen 3000 . If this is not the case, you could suffer from compatibility problems or even lose some settings that you previously had.
The best version that you can install is the last one that did not enter the jurisdiction of Ryzen 3000 , such as AGESA PinnaclePI 1.0.0.6.
What do you think of the issues AMD Zen 2 is having? Do you think it is seriously affecting the company? Comment your ideas below.
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