Despite, that AMD company declares formal full compatibility of its third-generation processor microarchitecture Ryzen Zen 2 the ecosystem Socket AM4, this does not mean, that future processors will be guaranteed to work in any, including old, motherboards. As explained to the representatives themselves AMD on the additional seminar for the press, which took place after the demonstration prototype Ryzen 3000, Socket AM4-parent first wave board, based on chipset 300 series, can not get the support of advanced processors due to inherent limitations in their design.
Bringing to market its processors Ryzen, AMD has not tired of repeating, Socket AM4 that the ecosystem will remain relevant to 2020 of the year, and all that went processors will have compatibility with it. However, it now appears, that the word "compatibility" must be added an important caveat - we are talking about the mechanical and electrical, but not for logical compatibility. The problem may occur with the support of new processors in the BIOS, because the old board are not staffed with a sufficient volume of ROM chips, allows multiple complementary microcode library.
The vast majority of Socket AM4-Motherboard, based on chipsets X370, B350 и A320, It was equipped with BIOS chips in volume 16 MB, while more capacious chips with a capacity of 32 MB only began to be established in the later chipset boards B450 and X470. But, unfortunately, many owners of old boards, 16 MB longer sufficient for the simultaneous storage processor microcode three generations. Therefore, adding support Ryzen 3000 in old boards is a big question.
As suggested by the site PCGamesHardware, there is a theoretical possibility, that motherboard manufacturers for older products offer alternative BIOS, in which, eg, It will cut support for the first generation Ryzen in favor of looking Ryzen 3000. However, the probability of this seems low, as the parallel existence of two fundamentally different branches of the BIOS will mean massive difficulty is not too discerning users and a nightmare for technical support services.
properly, Compatibility problems in Socket AM4-motherboard first wave has already occurred, when they were cut support processors A-Series, based on the design of Bristol Ridge, due to lack of space in the BIOS chips. However, while this story has not acquired a mass character, since such processors are rare and are used mainly OEM-producers. Now owners of motherboards based on chipsets X370, B350 и A320, which uses 16MB chip to store BIOS, They have the chance to feel deprived of a much greater extent.
Actually, AMD ensures compatibility for future Ryzen 3000 лишь с платами на чипсетах X470 и B450 — такие платформы обычно имеют 32-Мбайт микросхемы BIOS и добавление в них новых микрокодов не должно вызвать у производителей плат никаких трудностей. Moreover, such payment after installing a third-generation Ryzen can even get a PCI Express support 4.0, if it will allow realization of the circuit design, and manufacturers will want to pass PCI-SIG certification for its already released products.
For, to avoid confusion with the support of future processors Ryzen 3000, AMD is going to launch the program «AMD Ryzen Desktop 3000 Ready». The corresponding sticker will be placed on the boxes of motherboards, which have guaranteed compatibility with future processors and already have sewn with the necessary BIOS microcode.
clear, that get compatibility with future Ryzen can and part already issued cards after the BIOS update, the benefit of processors generation Zen 2 will not materially different from its predecessors in terms of heat and power consumption. Однако их полная сквозная совместимость с любыми Socket AM4-платами — не более чем миф. First and foremost in question are motherboards based on chipset series three hundred.
