AMD's plan from the beginning of Zen was to have a single socket last for several generations of processor releases. Making good on that promise, AMD's upcoming
Ryzen 3000 series of desktop CPUs will once again utilize the same socket, with many existing motherboards getting support by way of a BIOS update. Getting a head start on the launch,
Gigabyte today announced new BIOS upgrades for its X470 and B450 motherboards.
Gigabyte says its engineers have spent time testing and validating many of its existing motherboards with the newest BIOS updates to ensure full support for Ryzen 3000, and "top notch compatibility." As it stands right now, the latest BIOS releases are F40 and later, depending on the specific model.
"As advancements are made in semiconductor technology, microprocessors are becoming
more powerful and offer better performance levels. For users looking to upgrade their systems,
the compatibility between these new CPUs and their original platforms is an important
concern," said Jackson Hsu, Director of the Gigabyte Channel Solutions Product
Development Division.
"Before the release of this new generation of AMD Ryzen processors,
Gigabyte wanted to make sure that our motherboards were ready from the start to address
this concern. We’ve done our homework and put in the time and dedication to ensure that
users will enjoy the very best PC experience," Hsu added.
If you own an X470 or B450 motherboard from Gigabyte or its gaming division, Aorus, follow these links to obtain the latest BIOS release:
Gigabyte says that BIOS updates for its previous generation X370 and B350 motherboards will be released before the end of the month.
Curiously missing from the announcement, however, is any mention of A320 or A300. Gigabyte offers just over half a dozen A320 motherboards. The company's announcement does not make it clear if BIOS updates supporting
Zen 2 are headed to its A320 lineup at a later date, or if those boards have reached the end of the road.
Gigabyte is not alone here. At the end of April,
ASUS also announced BIOS updates supporting Zen 2 for several of its existing motherboards, though none for any of its A320/A300 lineup. That said, it appears as though Biostar will be offering BIOS updates for its A320 offerings, so we don't really have a clear picture of the situation yet.
AMD is expected to unveil its Ryzen 3000 desktop processors at
Computex this month. The company has confirmed that they will
ship in the third quarter of this year. There will also be a new
X570 chipset that will offer PCIe 4.0 support and presumably better power delivery.