ASRock X670E Steel Legend review
Solidigm P44 Pro (1TB/2TB) M.2 NVMe SSD Review
EnGenius ECW336 WIFI6E Access Point review
MSI MEG Z790 ACE review
Deepcool LT720 LCS Cooler Review
Arctic A35/I35 A-RGB air coolers review
Minisforum HX90G (Ryzen 9 5900HX + RX 6600M) mini PC review
MSI MPG Z790 Edge (DDR4) review
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X TRIO review
Deepcool CH510 chassis review
MSI launches new revisions of AMD 300 and 400 motherboards with 32MB Firmware
As discussed in detail, older 300 and 400 series motherboards have been stripped in the BIOS from older CPUs and some features, due to a too-small EEPROM size. No biggy, but MSI is solving this with updated motherboards as well.
If you want to install a Ryzen 3000 CPU on an older motherboard, you will lose support for, among other things, data raid and some older Socket AM4 CPUs. MSI now offers a number of motherboards with a larger storage size for the BIOS. The backward compatibility of Ryzen AM4 is praiseworthy but also presents the board manufacturers with some problems.
The new motherboards get an extra-label called 'Max' and thus have the new 32 MB BIOS. The 300 and 400 series are cheaper than the newly introduced X500 motherboards and thus could be an attractive alternative if you do not fancy PCIe 4.0 These will be the motherboards:
- A-320M-A Pro Max
- B450M-A Pro Max
- B450M Pro-M2 Max
- B450M Pro VDH Max
- B450-A Pro Max
- B450M Mortar Max
- B450 Tomahawk Max
- B450 Gaming Plus Max
- X470 Gaming Plus Max
- X470 Gaming Pro Max
So the suffix Max indicates that there are now 32 MiByte of BIOS storage available.
MSI launches Custom NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 Super video cards - 07/02/2019 05:24 PM
MSI is to introduce the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER will be available as GAMING, ARMOR, VENTUS and AERO ITX. While the GeForce RTX 2070/2080 SUPER will be limited to GAMING TRIO and VENTUS....
MSI Launches Infinity X 9th: Its Most Powerful Gaming Desktop - 01/31/2019 09:44 AM
MSI is proudly announcing its new edition of Infinite X Gaming desktop. Featuring the Intel 9th generation processors up to i9-9900K, the MSI Infinite X 9th can overlock its system, offering addictive...
MSI Launches MPG Gungnir 100 and MAG Vampiric 100 Chassis - 01/29/2019 09:15 AM
The MPG GUNGNIR 100 case is inspired by the sharp look and feel of "Gungnir," the legendary spear wielded by the Norse god Odin. This advanced case adopts plain industrial design, featurin...
MSI Launches Z390 Motherboards - 10/08/2018 04:42 PM
MSI announces the availability of new motherboards with the Intel Z390 chipset alongside the launch of 9th Generation Intel Core Processors. Beginning this generation, MSI motherboards will follow rev...
MSI Launches B450 Motherboards - 07/31/2018 03:38 PM
MSI is proud to announce that MSI B450 motherboards are on shelf now. To satisfy all kinds of gamers and users, MSI has prepared motherboards in Performance GAMING, Arsenal GAMING and PRO Series. ...
insp1re2600
Senior Member
Posts: 2196
Joined: 2018-01-03
Senior Member
Posts: 2196
Joined: 2018-01-03
#5692242 Posted on: 07/18/2019 02:54 PM
so what happens to us who bought a x470 with 16mb other than losing raid and older cpu support? can the bios be replaced on these boards?
so what happens to us who bought a x470 with 16mb other than losing raid and older cpu support? can the bios be replaced on these boards?
schmidtbag
Senior Member
Posts: 7037
Joined: 2012-11-10
Senior Member
Posts: 7037
Joined: 2012-11-10
#5692251 Posted on: 07/18/2019 03:11 PM
What's with the A320 board? I thought AMD had no intention on supporting Zen2 on that chipset, so, why not just leave that behind?
But hey, at least everyone will know that these Max boards should be Zen2 compatible out-of-the-box. They might be the only pre-500 series boards on the market that are guaranteed to work.
If you unsolder the chip then I'm sure you could. Personally, I'd rather just lose support for Bristol Ridge.
What's with the A320 board? I thought AMD had no intention on supporting Zen2 on that chipset, so, why not just leave that behind?
But hey, at least everyone will know that these Max boards should be Zen2 compatible out-of-the-box. They might be the only pre-500 series boards on the market that are guaranteed to work.
so what happens to us who bought a x470 with 16mb other than losing raid and older cpu support? can the bios be replaced on these boards?
If you unsolder the chip then I'm sure you could. Personally, I'd rather just lose support for Bristol Ridge.
Astyanax
Senior Member
Posts: 14499
Joined: 2018-03-21
Senior Member
Posts: 14499
Joined: 2018-03-21
#5692330 Posted on: 07/18/2019 06:24 PM
Imagine if the programmable flash chips were still placed in holders.
MSI could have done a couple of dollars replacement program so users could upgrade their stuff.
What's with the A320 board? I thought AMD had no intention on supporting Zen2 on that chipset, so, why not just leave that behind?
But hey, at least everyone will know that these Max boards should be Zen2 compatible out-of-the-box. They might be the only pre-500 series boards on the market that are guaranteed to work.
If you unsolder the chip then I'm sure you could. Personally, I'd rather just lose support for Bristol Ridge.
you're not just losing support for bristol ridge, they scaled back graphical aspects of the bios to bring size down.
Imagine if the programmable flash chips were still placed in holders.
MSI could have done a couple of dollars replacement program so users could upgrade their stuff.
What's with the A320 board? I thought AMD had no intention on supporting Zen2 on that chipset, so, why not just leave that behind?
But hey, at least everyone will know that these Max boards should be Zen2 compatible out-of-the-box. They might be the only pre-500 series boards on the market that are guaranteed to work.
If you unsolder the chip then I'm sure you could. Personally, I'd rather just lose support for Bristol Ridge.
you're not just losing support for bristol ridge, they scaled back graphical aspects of the bios to bring size down.
schmidtbag
Senior Member
Posts: 7037
Joined: 2012-11-10
Senior Member
Posts: 7037
Joined: 2012-11-10
#5692333 Posted on: 07/18/2019 06:29 PM
As far as I'm concerned, that's an improvement.
you're not just losing support for bristol ridge, they scaled back graphical aspects of the bios to bring size down.
As far as I'm concerned, that's an improvement.
Click here to post a comment for this news story on the message forum.
Senior Member
Posts: 118
Joined: 2018-06-27
I'm curious to know how much more a 32mb BIOS chip is than a 16mb. I get that every penny counts but I doubt that saving ultimately outweighs the cost of this refresh. You'd think with AM4 sticking around so long they'd have expected BIOS space might get tight, that would leave plenty of extra room for needless GUI and graphics in the BIOS too.