MSI to Make AM3+ Processor Upgrade Painless for its Users

btarunr · Apr 8, 2011

Internationally renowned mainboard and graphics card manufacturer MSI officially announced its AMD AM3 mainboards and the corresponding BIOS versions with full compatibility with all AMD AM3+ multi-core processors. By upgrading the BIOS with a few simple steps, users can enjoy the powerful performance of AMD AM3+ multi-core processors without extra expenses. The brand new AMD AM3+ multi-core processors have more cores and larger L3 cache memory capacity. Also, the built-in 2nd generation Turbo Core technology also boosts the performance of the new AMD AM3+ multi-core processors. Along with the latest 32nm process which significantly enhances the electrical specifications, AMD AM3+ multi-core processors will absolutely be the next-generation indicator of performance.

In addition to upgrading all BIOS on the existing AM3 mainboards supporting AMD AM3+ multi-core processors before shipping to correspond to the upcoming AMD AM3+ processors, MSI will post the BIOS of corresponding mainboards with support for the new AMD AM3+ processors for consumers to upgrade their MSI AM3 mainboards in order to meet their demands for system upgrade and experiencing the powerful performance of the next-generation AMD processors.

MSI AM3 mainboards with support for AMD AM3+ multi-core processors and corresponding BIOS versions:

For the latest information, please visit this page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

1Kurgan1 · Apr 8, 2011

Figured this was going to happen too most boards since there was an announcement about another company doing this a few weeks ago, good news!

X1REME · Apr 8, 2011

Nice to see MSI lead others by the nose, otherwise we could be waiting after the launch like most of the time with new AMD products :toast:

1Kurgan1 said:
Figured this was going to happen too most boards since there was an announcement about another company doing this a few weeks ago, good news!

that was asus to be exact

Athlonite · Apr 8, 2011

and the best thing is if can afford the board but not the procy then your old AM3 CPU will still work in the newer mobo and to make it easy to differentiate between AM3 and AM3+ the new socket will be black

Xaser04 · Apr 8, 2011

MSI 870A-G54 - On **** yes!

This £70 board gets better and better

Bulldozer here I come.

Frizz · Apr 8, 2011

I sort of foretold this! There were too many naysayers that changed my decision about getting an AM3 board because of supposed incompatibilities but man were they wrong now.
So, anyone wanna buy my SB setup off me?

caleb · Apr 8, 2011

Any precise ETA on the new CPU's ?

slyfox2151 · Apr 8, 2011

randomflip said:
I sort of foretold this! There were too many naysayers that changed my decision about getting an AM3 board because of supposed incompatibilities but man were they wrong now.
So, anyone wanna buy my SB setup off me?

no, they were mostly right...... not every amd3 board supports AM3+ CPU's...... my new 890FX UD5 does not support them.... only the newest revision of the boards do witch only just came out around 3 weeks ago.... add in the fact most stores will still have a bit of old stock they want to get rid of first.

i got my mobo 1 month ago.
Rev 2.1

you need 3 or 3.1 to support am3+

(according to the gigabyte news story last week.)

brandonwh64 · Apr 8, 2011

What i dont get is if bulldozer chips have the extra pin, how are they going to fit in the older sockets or was the extra pin scrapped?

mdm-adph · Apr 8, 2011

brandonwh64 said:
What i dont get is if bulldozer chips have the extra pin, how are they going to fit in the older sockets or was the extra pin scrapped?

That's what I want to know -- since I can use AM3 chips in my AM2+ board, why couldn't I use these AM3+ chips, as well?

SNICK · Apr 8, 2011

repman244 · Apr 8, 2011

brandonwh64 said:
What i dont get is if bulldozer chips have the extra pin, how are they going to fit in the older sockets or was the extra pin scrapped?

Well, no one saw the bulldozer CPU yet so maybe it does not have all the pins. It may end up having only 940 or 941 pins.

slyfox2151 · Apr 8, 2011

brandonwh64 said:
What i dont get is if bulldozer chips have the extra pin, how are they going to fit in the older sockets or was the extra pin scrapped?

they changed the socket to an AM3+ on the newest motherboards. the socket on a Rev 3.1 gigabyte UD5 890FX is a AM3+

Rev 2.1 and 1 are just AM3 sockets.

that is how these motherboards support the next gen CPU's.

Gjohnst4 · Apr 8, 2011

790FX GD70 isn't on the list :cry:

suraswami · Apr 8, 2011

No love for the 790FX-GD70

, may be too much to ask for.

But happy to see my 880GMA-E45 board on the list, hopefully the board I have is the same version that they intend to support, good I didn't sell it

AsRock · Apr 8, 2011

brandonwh64 said:
What i dont get is if bulldozer chips have the extra pin, how are they going to fit in the older sockets or was the extra pin scrapped?

mdm-adph said:
That's what I want to know -- since I can use AM3 chips in my AM2+ board, why couldn't I use these AM3+ chips, as well?

If ya look at a AM3 chip there is spaces so it's just a matter of a pin being in one of those places.
AMD Phenom II X4 820 Deneb 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cac...

And maybe in some cases were the spaces are in the chip on some mobos they were completely disconnected ?. Maybe that's why they will not work on other mobos ?.

dezz · Apr 9, 2011

brandonwh64 said:
What i dont get is if bulldozer chips have the extra pin, how are they going to fit in the older sockets or was the extra pin scrapped?

The two extra pins (compared to AM3) are for that it can be put in an AM3 socket, but not AM2+ (because of the lack of DDR2 support).

It would need one more pin to prevent it from putting in to an AM3 socket, and so allowing only AM3+ socket. Later models may have this pin, sometime.

mdm-adph said:
since I can use AM3 chips in my AM2+ board, why couldn't I use these AM3+ chips, as well?

There are DDR2 ram slots on the AM2+ boards, in contrast of DDR3 on AM3 ones. AM3 CPU's support both DDR2 and DDR3, so they can work on both AM2+ and AM3 boards, as well. But AM3+ chips support only DDR3.

---

Hmm, that Gigabyte slide is very confusing... The listed models are all CPU's, not APU's, so neither has Radeon cores in them...

Dr. Nick · Apr 9, 2011

I hope Gigabyte does this. I'd hate to spend another $200 on an 890FX board.

Athlonite · Apr 10, 2011

Dr. Nick said:
I hope Gigabyte does this. I'd hate to spend another $200 on an 890FX board.

I'd love to spend $200 on an 890FX mobo cheapest here is Asrocks 890fx Deluxe 4 at $271.06

stinger608 · Apr 10, 2011

Dr. Nick said:
I hope Gigabyte does this. I'd hate to spend another $200 on an 890FX board.

I have to agree here. I hope both Gigabyte and Asus support this with a bios update. I have the Asus Crosshair IV Extreme and can just hope that Asus gets their crap together for support. However I am not sure if they foreseen this coming and added the AM3+ socket to the crosshair motherboards.

dezz · Apr 10, 2011

stinger608 said:
I have to agree here. I hope both Gigabyte and Asus support this with a bios update. I have the Asus Crosshair IV Extreme and can just hope that Asus gets their crap together for support.

There is already a BIOS update for your mothorboard to support the upcoming AM3+ CPU's:
http://event.asus.com/2011/mb/AM3_PLUS_Ready/

However I am not sure if they foreseen this coming and added the AM3+ socket to the crosshair motherboards.

It has no AM3+ socket (you can tell it from that it's white, not dark grey), but never mind: the point is to support the new CPU's even on some AM3 motherboards. ASUS and MSI has finally found a way to make this possible, in case of a few select boards, at least.

Though, this is merely a "hack" and so not officially supported by AMD. It seems Gigabyte holds to this and support AM3+ CPU's only with new versions of some of their motherboards, replacing the AM3 socket with an AM3+ one (along with some other modifications, as it's not only the socket pinout that has changed with the AM3+ platform).

wrathchild_67 · Apr 10, 2011

randomflip said:
I sort of foretold this! There were too many naysayers that changed my decision about getting an AM3 board because of supposed incompatibilities but man were they wrong now.
So, anyone wanna buy my SB setup off me?

Indeed, but luckily the naysayers didn't sway me at all. I even correctly guessed the first motherboard mfg. to offer Bulldozer support on AM3.

NC37 · Apr 10, 2011

Forgot AM2 boards with AM3 CPUs. Running that here atm

.

Think i'll wait for the AMD 9 series chipsets before I upgrade. Be nice to be able to have both SLI and Crossfire ability.

mikaelz · Jul 11, 2015

Hello,

MSI 870a-G54 does not work with AMD FX 8320E black edition.

config:
MSI 870a-G54
bios 7599vHK / v 17.20 (released end of 2012)

symptoms:
CPU was able to fit into socket, though after starting the monitor didn`t start up (no signal to mon probably) and no error information coming from status diodes (kept beeing blue)

question:
Have you managed to run FX AMD cpu in this motherboard? If yes, please specify:
- which CPU (release/version),
- which BIOS did you use,
- what procedure did you undertake to make it work,
- any special information worth publishing that can help

Thank you,
mikaelz

AsRock · Jul 11, 2015

The information in the OP's post was made incorrect at a later time as MSI backed out and did not support that whole list. I remember due to having one of their boards in that list and they changed what was actually supported.

Which tome was another nail in their coffin for me.

System Name	RBMK-1000
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Case	Lian Li O11D XL ROG edition
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MSI to Make AM3+ Processor Upgrade Painless for its Users

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System Name	---
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Memory	8GB Samsung 30nm DDR3 1600 @ 2133 9-10-10-20-1t 1.45v
Video Card(s)	Asus Geforce 480 GTX w/low idle voltage BIOS
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Audio Device(s)	Onboard
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