Thursday, July 18th 2019
MSI MAX AM4 Boards Real: 32MB BIOS ROMs and Ryzen 3000 Out-of-the-Box Support
MSI is among the motherboard manufacturers who had to significantly modify their UEFI firmware packages to cram in AGESA ComboAM4 1.0.0.3ab microcode on their AMD 300-series and 400-series chipset motherboards, due to firmware ROM size limitations. Most older MSI AM4 motherboards have 128 Mbit (16 MB) SPI flash ROM chips, which proved insufficient to integrate the latest AGESA microcode alongside its feature-rich ClickBIOS 5 UEFI setup program. MSI addressed the issue on two fronts. For its existing motherboards that have 128 Mb flash chips, it released BIOS updates that have AGESA 1.0.0.3ab, but shed some bulk on the setup program, by replacing ClickBIOS 5 with the "GSE-lite" setup program. The company is also releasing newer revisions of many of its AMD B450 chipset motherboards anticipating demand from the section of 3rd gen Ryzen buyers who don't want to spend at least $170 on an AMD X570 motherboard.
These revised motherboards feature "MAX" in the name, and come with 256 Mb (32-megabyte) SPI flash ROM chips, enabling MSI to combine AGESA ComboAM4 1.0.0.3ab with ClickBIOS 5, and not compromising on any of the motherboard's BIOS-level feature-set. These motherboards also come with out-of-the-box support for all of the 3rd generation Ryzen processors launched so far, as indicated on the box. The boards also retain support for A-series "Bristol Ridge" and "Raven Ridge" Athlon APUs that had faced the axe with the latest BIOS updates. The B450 Tomahawk MAX and Mortar MAX are characterized by matte-black heatsinks replacing silver; while the B450-A PRO MAX has the "MAX" logo clearly printed on the VRM heatsink. Pricing of these boards are expected to be on par with the models they're replacing.
These revised motherboards feature "MAX" in the name, and come with 256 Mb (32-megabyte) SPI flash ROM chips, enabling MSI to combine AGESA ComboAM4 1.0.0.3ab with ClickBIOS 5, and not compromising on any of the motherboard's BIOS-level feature-set. These motherboards also come with out-of-the-box support for all of the 3rd generation Ryzen processors launched so far, as indicated on the box. The boards also retain support for A-series "Bristol Ridge" and "Raven Ridge" Athlon APUs that had faced the axe with the latest BIOS updates. The B450 Tomahawk MAX and Mortar MAX are characterized by matte-black heatsinks replacing silver; while the B450-A PRO MAX has the "MAX" logo clearly printed on the VRM heatsink. Pricing of these boards are expected to be on par with the models they're replacing.
40 Comments on MSI MAX AM4 Boards Real: 32MB BIOS ROMs and Ryzen 3000 Out-of-the-Box Support
I wish they would have annouced it before so i would have bought a MAX version of my B450 Tomahawk.
I used to be a huge fan of MSI's mid end boards, but the seem to have gone downhill in the last couple of years...
For the person with a bricked BIOS: I can really recommend having something like this around: www.ebay.de/itm/263572007947 . Let me save a few motherboards/controllers already, pretty easy to use with a Rasperry Pi. Also, desoldering the SPI Flash is not that big of a deal either. If you have a fine tipped soldering iron or a heatgun it works really well if you are careful. Did that to a display controller board that I bricked (one of those to convert laptop LCDs into VGA/HDMI monitors). If you have a (cheap chinese) desoldering station even easier.
Will be interesting to know if we can replace the 16MB chip with a 32MB one ourselve and flash the GUI BIOS. I'm probably not going to try though, just a funny thought.
Never underestimate the hype hehe
I still think the ASUS TUF B450M-Pro is a better choice. Bigger BIOS or not.
And the Asus seems like a good board, but lacks BIOS flashback (depends if you need it), rear panel IO is a bit reduced compared to Mortar (DVI but not DP, 2 fewer USB 3.0, no optical out and only 3 audio jacks), only three fan headers (I know people who don't like splitter cables), those fewer USB 3.0 aren't even available as internal headers, no diagnostic LED (according to the website I have open). And the second M.2 slot is a 3.0 x2 vs 2.0 x4. Depending on your drive it matters or it doesn't (for me it doesn't but someone with a x4 2.0 SSD would have better results in the Mortar vs the TUF). The only actual improvement I see is the better audio codec (ALC1220 vs ALC892). And the Google Doc AM4 VRM says it performs worse in that regard as well vs the Mortar. And it is 10€ more expensive where I live. So while a good choice for some. I don't see it being the better one overall. Oh and the Mortar being discontinued was only a US thing last I checked. It's been available throughout in the European countries I check.