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.
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40 Comments on MSI MAX AM4 Boards Real: 32MB BIOS ROMs and Ryzen 3000 Out-of-the-Box Support

#26
hojnikb
I'd happily take the DOS like interface, as long as features are still there. It's not like you're looking at bios screens all day.
Posted on Reply
#27
olymind1
MetroidThe problem may lie ahead, you will be stuck with that bios and any future updates to it even if there are unfixable things cause it requires a larger bios. Raid support is broken, msi says it will return, not sure about that.
MSI B450 Tomahawk v19 bios changlog says: - Fix RAID issue.
Posted on Reply
#28
hat
Enthusiast
If I'm not mistaken, the issue was that, in the face of AMD saying Socket AM4 would be supported through 2020, some board manufacturers used smaller ROM chips than they should have, which created problems with Ryzen 3xxx compatibility. Thank God these board manufacturers have stepped up to solve this issue by selling new motherboards... :kookoo:
Posted on Reply
#29
shmuck
Hope this does not mean they are now done with updates for the non-max Tomahawk...
Posted on Reply
#30
Wavetrex
Somebody at AMD forgot to send AGESA code through zlib.
What could be the reason for it growing so much? 3000 series work just fine on 1.0.0.2 too...

Wouldn't surprise me if they release 1.0.0.4 later which is back to the size of 1.0.0.2 (or near), so all 16mb boards can be updated again without any issue.
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#31
Metroid
olymind1MSI B450 Tomahawk v19 bios changlog says: - Fix RAID issue.
Version 7C02v19
Release Date 2019-07-10

msi b450 gaming plus still on v18, that is good news.
Posted on Reply
#32
zlobby
hatIf I'm not mistaken, the issue was that, in the face of AMD saying Socket AM4 would be supported through 2020, some board manufacturers used smaller ROM chips than they should have, which created problems with Ryzen 3xxx compatibility. Thank God these board manufacturers have stepped up to solve this issue by selling new motherboards... :kookoo:
You are right. Mofo mobo manufacturers surely suffer financially from backward compatibility, but AMD is also at fault here, as they didn't exercise tight control of the whole ecosystem. You know, making good CPU is just half of the story.
Posted on Reply
#33
moob
MetroidThe problem may lie ahead, you will be stuck with that bios and any future updates to it even if there are unfixable things cause it requires a larger bios. Raid support is broken, msi says it will return, not sure about that.
As my dude said above, it's supposedly fixed already on my board as well. Though I don't use RAID so I can't test it: www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B450-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-AC
Posted on Reply
#34
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
This is why SPI should be socketed
hatIf I'm not mistaken, the issue was that, in the face of AMD saying Socket AM4 would be supported through 2020, some board manufacturers used smaller ROM chips than they should have, which created problems with Ryzen 3xxx compatibility. Thank God these board manufacturers have stepped up to solve this issue by selling new motherboards... :kookoo:
Its MSI's fault for their bias
Posted on Reply
#35
MortalKombat
There are 16 mb memory and $ 0.70 difference between the two motherboards. So all that user satisfaction was sacrificed to make more profits of $ 0.70 dollars? (Is it a fool made to lower the cost of $ 0.70 in the previous version?) MSI users are probably responsible for all of this! The company is well managed! (The company is releasing the new Max version.) But the MAX version does not correct the shortcomings of the previous version, taking into account user comments. The USB version does not add innovations, except to upgrade. They could increase the number of more USB ports, add PCIE 4.0, etc.( It only needs one signal change and the BIOS version and PCIE 4.0) But this could not be done either. Who runs this company? Company management acting recklessly and unpredictable! Even a child can run this company better.
Posted on Reply
#40
Ergastolano
Do you have news about the availability for the MAX, especially the B450M Mortar Max? Some US/EU shop have it?
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