Over 100 Improvements to be included in upcoming AMD Ryzen 3000: AGESA 1.0.0.4

airbud7

2019-10-04 15:26

wavetrex:

Yes boss. Back to the subject: What about the ROM chip size ? Will the 16MB ones still suffice or we hit another capacity wall with this one... I wonder why new motherboards are not built with a full-blown SSD directly on them ( 32GB and up ) to host and allow multiple UEFI versions, memory tests, tools and other software... instead of the tiny EEPROM chips of just megabytes...? Mobile phone are already doing that for quite a while, the bootloader, OS, repair tools and everything else needed is put on (hidden) partitions on the unified Flash storage.

actually that's not a bad idea^....maybe not 32GB but yea.

#5717086

vbetts

Moderator

2019-10-04 15:27

warlord:

Don't be butthurt fans or boys or fanboys all of you above. Show some proper respect to consumer's conscience. Most amateur users, do not know how to update bios. Imagine problems that a poor noob guy could simply avoid if AMD provided a stable and ready to fire up platform. They are years after the first Gen ryzen, but still, they're figuring out settings and tweaks.

Generally speaking the average customer that is buying PC parts are going to be one of three things. Getting into the hobby and willing to learn Buying from someone who will support the hardware and software Knows what they're doing Typically people that don't know much about computers, well as the old tagline says Dude, you're getting a Dell. Let's also not throw names around, let's be civil and act like adults please.

wavetrex:

Yes boss. Back to the subject: What about the ROM chip size ? Will the 16MB ones still suffice or we hit another capacity wall with this one... I wonder why new motherboards are not built with a full-blown SSD directly on them ( 32GB and up ) to host and allow multiple UEFI versions, memory tests, tools and other software... instead of the tiny EEPROM chips of just megabytes...? Mobile phone are already doing that for quite a while, the bootloader, OS, repair tools and everything else needed is put on (hidden) partitions on the unified Flash storage.

I doubt it's coming to most of the original x370 and b350 boards. I'm pretty sure MSI has more than 3 boards in that series.

#5717092

warlord

2019-10-04 15:34

I prefer to buy a console instead of branded oem preset ready pc. 😀 Anyway that's great news for intermediate or pro users like us here, who are willing to buy ryzen now or at the near future. 😎

#5717095

Kool64

2019-10-04 15:38

Now if they could just upgrade my lowly B450s VRM via the BIOS.........

#5717096

Ricardo

2019-10-04 15:38

wavetrex:

Yes boss. What about the ROM chip size ? Will the 16MB ones still suffice or we hit another capacity wall with this one...

I pretty sure that's an MSI specific problem. And I think they made it so that you could get a BIOS with support for ryzen 3000 by stripping support for some old CPUs such as athlon ones. I have a gigabyte b450 board that supposedly has 16mb of flash, yet I have been updating it no problem and without any loss of functionality (aside from PCIe 4, which did got activated and then deactivated back).

#5717099

icedman

2019-10-04 15:49

I love all these new bios versions I finally after several years of having no soc voltage controls on my r5 1600 with the asrock ab350 I can actually run my ram at the xmp and even overclock them a little on hynix mfr rims.

#5717103

schmidtbag

2019-10-04 15:59

geogan:

ECC memory + encrypted memory support (to stop cold boot attacks) I heard... but that could be just "Ryzen Pro"

I thought all Ryzens supported ECC? It's the motherboards that determine support.

AcidSnow:

So basically every piece of software affects our CPU's now? - AGESA - AMD Chipset software - Windows 10 software (more so for Intel to mitigate Spectre/etc)

AGESA affects how the CPU operates at the hardware level (stuff like clock and voltage adjustment, or exposed instruction sets). Chipset drivers affect how the CPU operates at the kernel level (exposes/controls stuff like PCIe and on-chip features). Windows updates affect how the CPU operates at the user level (stuff like task schedulers, power profiles, and core affinity). Ryzen is a relatively unusual design, which requires polishing and a lot of changes in a lot of places.

#5717123

RyuzakiL

2019-10-04 18:02

Good news that AMD is still improving their Ryzen CPU's via micro codes and here I am sitting with my 8700k getting these mitigation performance sapping patches - and still being defended by these blue boys, who has nothing useful to say but keep on ranting about what AMD is improving on. Pathetic. Anyway, this will be my last blue setup, and will look forward into going back into Red team. Can't wait what their Zen 3 and so forth will bring at that time.

#5717125

Carbonic

2019-10-04 18:16

Looking forward to a more polished and stable bios experience on X570. I hope this + the Windows 10 1909 improvements to modern multicore CPUs together will make quite the jump in experience.

#5717128

Aura89

2019-10-04 18:19

warlord:

Don't be butthurt fans or boys or fanboys all of you above. Show some proper respect to consumer's conscience. Most amateur users, do not know how to update bios. Imagine problems that a poor noob guy could simply avoid if AMD provided a stable and ready to fire up platform. They are years after the first Gen ryzen, but still, they're figuring out settings and tweaks.

People who don't know how to update the BIOS are generally buying pre-built PCs with auto-update software that also auto-updates BIOS', even windows 10 updates often provide BIOS updates to pre-built PCs if the manufacturer of the PC feels the BIOS is important enough (I see this often in the last 2-3 years, first time windows 10 updated the BIOS, i was a bit weirded out)

#5717130

schmidtbag

2019-10-04 18:22

Aura89:

People who don't know how to update the BIOS are generally buying pre-built PCs with auto-update software that also auto-updates BIOS', even windows 10 updates often provide BIOS updates to pre-built PCs if the manufacturer of the feels the BIOS is important enough (I see this often in the last 2-3 years, first time windows 10 updated the BIOS, i was a bit weirded out)

They're also not likely to notice if their CPU is running ~100MHz slower than expected. From what I heard, Zen2 has been stable where it matters, except for the whole rdrand thing.

#5717132

Alessio1989

2019-10-04 18:33

wavetrex:

Yes boss. Back to the subject: What about the ROM chip size ? Will the 16MB ones still suffice or we hit another capacity wall with this one... I wonder why new motherboards are not built with a full-blown SSD directly on them ( 32GB and up ) to host and allow multiple UEFI versions, memory tests, tools and other software... instead of the tiny EEPROM chips of just megabytes...? Mobile phone are already doing that for quite a while, the bootloader, OS, repair tools and everything else needed is put on (hidden) partitions on the unified Flash storage.

The rom size is just an excuse to hide the real problem: poor quality programmers and poor wages. 20 to 25% of BIOS are full off 0x00 section of hunderds of KBs (so yes, I am talking about free space and not simple padding), at least on the ASUS C6H (a 16MB BIOS ROM MB..). Most of the sections are covered by bitmap useless interface. All the rest is covered in a very small part (few tens of KB) by the microcode, by the BIOS settings and by the profiles, plus some small extras (a TCP/IP stack for high end MBs used to update the BIOS directly downloading it from the OEM servers). You can see properly unpacking the BIOS ROMs and using an hex editor. Yes some bugs are perfectly reasonable and most them are due to the clusterfuck of the DDR4 standard.. But the rom size is an excuse.

#5717152

robintson

2019-10-04 19:45

100+ Fixes, this doesn't happen often . Good work AMD , keep it up fixing those cpu enchantment-bugs

#5717160

bobblunderton

2019-10-04 20:01

Wow, guess I got lucky. 100 different things fixed and not one issue here I can speak of was a bother here. I will count myself blessed. That said if you're running a 4790k and on the fence to upgrade, go ahead and spring for it. Don't be like me and wait weeks / years longer. Nothing here was to brag, just listing it for the record. Cheapest x570 board I could find new, and thing fired up right out of the box only having to hit the XMP button to get RAM speed off default. An R7 3700x didn't just give me double the performance of a 4790k like the benchmarks said it would, the R7 3700x happily SMEARED it without even warming up the room. Thank-you AMD, I don't have to sweat even with the AC on anymore (and we have a commercial-grade AC unit, of all things).

#5717175

Aura89

2019-10-04 21:20

bobblunderton:

100 different things fixed and not one issue here I can speak of was a bother here.

robintson:

100+ Fixes, this doesn't happen often . Good work AMD , keep it up fixing those cpu enchantment-bugs

Read the actual article first. "It was MSI who shared a few details, AGESA 1.0.0.4 will be released next month in November and includes over a hundred improvements and new features. MSI state a "1004 BIOS with 100+ fixes will follow in November ", but in the video they point out that this will be "100+ Enhancements and Features ". So 'fixes' was poorly written."

#5717182

asturur

2019-10-04 21:40

wavetrex:

Yes boss. Back to the subject: What about the ROM chip size ? Will the 16MB ones still suffice or we hit another capacity wall with this one... I wonder why new motherboards are not built with a full-blown SSD directly on them ( 32GB and up ) to host and allow multiple UEFI versions, memory tests, tools and other software... instead of the tiny EEPROM chips of just megabytes...? Mobile phone are already doing that for quite a while, the bootloader, OS, repair tools and everything else needed is put on (hidden) partitions on the unified Flash storage.

This is in my opinion a bad idea. In general UEFI BIOS are a full blown operating system capable of handling rich bitmap, mouse and lan. The more sophisticated they get, and generally the more vulnerable. In my opinion we should have never moved from the old AMI/AWARD BIOS user interface and avoid adding the tcp ip stack to them. Personal opinion, i recognize it, this is fake progress for me. I would have preferred the important feature of UEFI, with 0 graphical capabilities, and a separated optional USB key with an open source cross vendor linux image dedicated to do the additional things that uefi allow: - rgb software - fan graphs - connect to internet and download the new bios - whatever else is there

#5717199

MonstroMart

2019-10-04 22:56

schmidtbag:

They're also not likely to notice if their CPU is running ~100MHz slower than expected. From what I heard, Zen2 has been stable where it matters, except for the whole rdrand thing.

I'm not too familiar with oem computers but i remember reading that some oem computers had their cpu downclocked because of improper cooling on both AMD and Intel.

#5717204

tsunami231

2019-10-04 23:11

im curious to what this 100 enchantments/changes or what they want to call it are is there a list someplace?

vbetts:

Typically people that don't know much about computers, well as the old tagline says Dude, you're getting a Apple Device.

I say this only cause those people imo shouldn't have pc to begin with Apple way safer for them and unless the are specifically pc gamer or want to pc game, in that case they better learn fast cause your not getting free support from me:p

#5717328

fredgml7

2019-10-05 15:46

I was expecting something like that, it's similar to previous Ryzen generations. Improvements are always welcome. 😀

#5717351

MegaFalloutFan

2019-10-05 17:38

vbetts:

Big oof assuming improvements=bugs. Let's also not post troll posts please. It's too early in the morning.

MSI state a "1004 BIOS with 100+ fixes will follow in November "