Monday, April 15th 2019
MSI Betrays AMD's Socket AM4 Longevity Promise: No Zen2 for 300-series?
Greedy motherboard vendors such as MSI want you to buy a new motherboard every two generations of processor for no sound reason at all. MSI is reportedly blocking support for 3rd generation Ryzen "Matisse" processors on its AMD 300-series chipset motherboards, including those based on high-end AMD X370 and OC-capable B350 chipsets. This would also put those who own $300 motherboards such as the X370 XPower out of luck. To recap, AMD announced on numerous occasions that it doesn't want to be a greedy clique like its competitor, by forcing motherboard upgrades and promised that socket AM4 motherboards will be backwards and forwards compatible with at least four generations of Ryzen processors, running all the way up to 2020.
This normally should mean that any 300-series motherboard must support 4th generation Ryzen processors with a simple BIOS update. Most 300-series motherboards, including from MSI, even ship with USB BIOS Flashback feature to help with forwards compatibility. Unfortunately, motherboard companies such as MSI care more about their bottom-lines than the consumer. In a support e-mail to an X370 XPower Titanium owner, MSI confirmed that it will not extend Zen 2 support to AMD 300-series. Other motherboard vendors could follow MSI's suit as a representative of another motherboard vendor, on condition of anonymity, told TechPowerUp that "Zen 2" processors have steeper electrical requirements that 300-series motherboards don't meet. This is an excuse similar to the one Intel gave for the planned obsolescence of its 100-series and 200-series chipsets, even as it was repeatedly proven that those motherboards can run and overclock 9th generation processors with custom firmware just fine. Would MSI care to explain whether a B450M PRO-M2 has a stronger VRM than an X370 XPower Titanium to warrant "Zen 2" support? Will all "Zen 2" processor SKUs have steep electrical requirements? Will there not be any SKUs with double-digit-Watt TDP ratings?
Update (16/04): MSI posted a clarification on this issue.
Source:
master3553 (Reddit)
This normally should mean that any 300-series motherboard must support 4th generation Ryzen processors with a simple BIOS update. Most 300-series motherboards, including from MSI, even ship with USB BIOS Flashback feature to help with forwards compatibility. Unfortunately, motherboard companies such as MSI care more about their bottom-lines than the consumer. In a support e-mail to an X370 XPower Titanium owner, MSI confirmed that it will not extend Zen 2 support to AMD 300-series. Other motherboard vendors could follow MSI's suit as a representative of another motherboard vendor, on condition of anonymity, told TechPowerUp that "Zen 2" processors have steeper electrical requirements that 300-series motherboards don't meet. This is an excuse similar to the one Intel gave for the planned obsolescence of its 100-series and 200-series chipsets, even as it was repeatedly proven that those motherboards can run and overclock 9th generation processors with custom firmware just fine. Would MSI care to explain whether a B450M PRO-M2 has a stronger VRM than an X370 XPower Titanium to warrant "Zen 2" support? Will all "Zen 2" processor SKUs have steep electrical requirements? Will there not be any SKUs with double-digit-Watt TDP ratings?
335 Comments on MSI Betrays AMD's Socket AM4 Longevity Promise: No Zen2 for 300-series?
Verifying potential compatibility (I love the wording).
Testing.
A list of compatible mobos will be released later (suggesting: not every).
Tasty detail:
"Below is a full list of upcoming BIOS versions which include compatibility for the next-gen AMD APUs for our 300-Series and 400-Series AM4 motherboards"
:)
zOMG..... "BETRAYALz"....... and "GREEDzzzz"
Just imagine all the threads about flashing motherboards with incompatible BIOS that supports Zen2. :-D
Maybe Tom pulled this HALF A FREAKING PAGE excerpt out of context? Evil, EVIL TOM!
www.tomshardware.com/news/msi-ceo-interview-intel-shortage-amd,38473.html
What MSI's CEO did, is merely naive.
I couldn't blame small companies head for bending backwards for market Juggernaut.
From working with Intel on how to get Intel's share back from AMD, to not pissing intel off by releasing AMD notebooks.
But it shows how insanely f*cked up things are.
And mental gymnastics of some of the users here, to somehow twist it is hardly amusing.
You all can cover the all the bios flashing and whining... surely someone will step up, call themselves a guru, and add it to their signature! Saved! :)Funny.. I was thinking the same thing. The incredible elastic brain!
Reminds me the PUBG where it was sworn up and down they found a cheater who killed them due to how they were interacting with the world. Another plausible explanation of those listed actions was suggested and it was poopooed. To this day, that user has not been banned (and it was over a month ago at this point). Point is, to me, looking at the big picture and ALL the reasons he mentioned, I don't believe there will be anything dubious to the actions. Again promotions, lower prices... all part of it. It's not like finding these CPUs is actually rare. I can go on any etailer and find them or Microcenter, Fry's, w/e. Why not offer lower pricing on something that now(when the shortage lessens) has more supply in the market? Isn't this how it works? I mean, I see what you are saying, but there is literally no smoking gun here to be so absolute (and showing great huberis). I think its open to a more broad interpretation.
Again, the notebooks argument is just.... its not an argument to me. He listed three reasons, but you hang your hat on one, seemingly dismissing the others while formulating your opinion.
Anyway, taking the blue pill on this one. Peace out. :):toast:
Semmelweis reflex, I guess.
However, I have to say, I have learned plenty about a few members here. I don't hold grudges, one has to earn that from me. ;)
What I found most interesting were these three quotes, and what I share with them...who knew a little blue badge was so calming?
:lovetpu:
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/msi-issues-clarification-on-next-gen-amd-cpu-support-on-300-series-motherboards.254669
Intel has had 3 since 2015 - 100/200/300.
AMD has had 2 since 2017 - 300/400.
Intel:
DDR3:
- 2007-2008: LGA775 (30/40 series), Core2Duo/Quad - Technically DDR3 but most boards were DDR2
- 2009-2010: s1156 (50 series), Nehalem
- 2011-2012: s1155 (60/70 series), Sandy/Ivy Bridge
- 2013-2014: s1150 (80/90 series), Haswell/Haswell Refresh/Broadwell
DDR4:
- 2015-2016: s1151 (100/200 series), Skylake/Kaby Lake
- 2017-2018: s1151v2 (300 series), Coffee Lake/Coffee Lake Refresh
AMD:
DDR3:
- 2007-2008: AM2/AM2+/AM3 (600/700 series) - DDR2/DDR3, based on socket
- 2010-2011: AM3/AM3+ (800/900 series)
DDR4:
- 2017-2018: AM4 (300/400 series)
AMD practically was not competing for about 5 years there.