Worth updating bios for B450 Aorus Elite and Ryzen 2600?

[RainingTacco]

Built a PC for nephew and waging whether i should upgrade bios[and risk a failure] or not. I don't have UPS, the motherboard don't have USB flashback recovery like MSI boards do. So currently mobo is on F5 BIOS. There are like ten newer bios out there

https://www.gigabyte.com/eu/Motherboard/B450-AORUS-ELITE-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios

My bios don't have newest AGESA but does it really improve anything?

The second question, there are some warnings about order of installation on some bioses. Check the link i've provided. Since the newest bios don't have warning, is it safe to update to the newest bios straight away from F5 to F60c, without any intermediary steps/bioses?

I would love to hear from actual ryzen 2600/b450 aorus elite owners.

 

[EarthDog]

I'd say yes...doesn't matter if Im a 2600/b50 elite owner. There are slight performance improvements, stability improvements and more.

You should upgrade when you build it, period.

As far as the order, follow what the website says to do. If you need to incrementally update, you need to. Looks like you need to go F41, F42f, and F50, then the newest.

 

[RainingTacco]

I'd say yes...doesn't matter if Im a 2600/b50 elite owner. There are slight performance improvements, stability improvements and more.

You should upgrade when you build it, period.

As far as the order, follow what the website says to do. If you need to incrementally update, you need to. Looks like you need to go F41, F42f, and F50, then the newest.

1. Warranty probably expired on that mobo[it was bought two years ago and left to just sit in the corner]
2. I don't have UPS, so many bios updates, one power outage and it's bricked
3. No USB flashback on this in case of bricking

If the improvements are minor[and i heard it's just compatibility with newer CPUs] then i will pass
Though i would like to hear a confirmation that indeed i need that bios jumping thing. From reading this
https://www.reddit.com/r/gigabytegaming/comments/brd7uo I see many horror stories

 

[EarthDog]

Sounds like you don't want to do it. I absolutely would, regardless of the reasons you've repeated.

All the confirmation you need is on the page you listed. I would flash through the bios using the order the link says/I mentioned.

That is a 53 reply thread at reddit, what there do you want us to read/is your concern?

 

[tabascosauz]

F5 is quite old, but so is the 2600, and the AGESA packaged in that one is fine for Ryzen 2000. Ryzen 3000 I would say stay reasonably up to date due to the significant improvements in boosting algorithms, but Ryzen 2000 is pretty simple by comparison. I don't think there's noticeable performance gains to be had in updating for Pinnacle CPUs. More than the BIOS, I'd focus on keeping Nvidia/AMD drivers up to date for better performance.

Used to have the same B450I Aorus Pro Wifi board as my friend. I had a 3700X, he had a 2600. He's still on F4, haven't had any problems. I've been through F4, F42a, F42c, F42g, F50a, and final F50, some of those gave me issues. Gigabyte provides very timely updates, but some of their BIOS updates can be quite spotty, rushed and certainly not guaranteed to be fully working/problem free.

Update if you need it (new CPU, specific problem you think it'll solve, etc.), don't if you don't have a reason to. Don't fix what ain't broke. Learned that the hard way a number of times. Especially seeing as it's out of warranty, and especially since it's a board without BIOS Flashback.

Also, never use the bundled in-Windows firmware update tool. Put it on a USB, put it on a reliable (native to the CPU) USB port in the back, and use Q-Flash in the BIOS to find and flash the file. BIOS flashing is inherently risky, no reason to play with more fire trying to do it within OS.

 

[VuurVOS]

@RainingTacco
This might be a solution as well: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001347399521.html

After a bad flash I used the CH314 programmer to reflash my old MSI B350 Tomahawk motherboard.
I would recommend to make a backup with the CH314 programmer first since it will also backup the UID and serial number (Required for Windows activation).

 

[RainingTacco]

Apparently all gigabyte motherboards have something called dual bios so they have two bioses, and it can revert ot backup in case of failure. The problem is the procedure, there's no guide on what to do and in what order. I don't have problem with bios flashing i did it many times with MSI, i even bricked my mobo and reflashed it again thanks to USB flashback[somehow it can clear the bios eprom].

 

[tabascosauz]

Apparently all gigabyte motherboards have something called dual bios so they have two bioses, and it can revert ot backup in case of failure. The problem is the procedure, there's no guide on what to do and in what order. I don't have problem with bios flashing i did it many times with MSI, i even bricked my mobo and reflashed it again thanks to USB flashback[somehow it can clear the bios eprom].

That's not true for the B450 Elite and all AM4 Gigabyte boards that aren't absolutely top-of-the-line (Masters and Extremes). Single BIOS. And on all but the highest end Gigabyte boards that have the manual DIP switches for BIOS selection, you'll more than often wish you didn't have dual BIOS.

I don't get what's confusing about this. Gigabyte does place certain hard barriers at certain revisions, where you must update to that version before proceeding further, but it's always mentioned in the description. Update, clear CMOS, repeat until you get where you want.

But like I said, I highly doubt you stand to get more than negligible gains on the Ryzen 2000 chip, not to mention this board has no BIOS flashback, so...

 

[RainingTacco]

But like I said, I highly doubt you stand to get more than negligible gains on the Ryzen 2000 chip, not to mention this board has no BIOS flashback, so...

Yeah that's what i thought. No double bios, no flashback =one error, one power outage and mobo is bricked. And the premise of improvements is elusive. Rule of thumb: if it works, dont touch it, if my nephew will have some weird problems with usb/audio i will consider flashing new bios. Until then i think he will be fine. And 3000mhz CL15 ram works fine on this, so im satisfied.

 

[EarthDog]

Apparently all gigabyte motherboards have something called dual bios so they have two bioses, and it can revert ot backup in case of failure. The problem is the procedure, there's no guide on what to do and in what order. I don't have problem with bios flashing i did it many times with MSI, i even bricked my mobo and reflashed it again thanks to USB flashback[somehow it can clear the bios eprom].

Not all Giga boards have a dual bios. Be sure yours does.

Edit: thats what I get for stopping reading. Lol


I'd still do it. F5 is one of the original bios. Generally, the later the bios the more compatible memory you can run, the more stable it is, and there may be some minor performance improvements with the updated AEGESA. The chances of a power outage is slim...people dont need a ups to flash their bios, lol. Dont do it in a thunderstorm, eh?

But yeah, if you're building this now, flash it to the latest bios...its how you're supposed to roll.

 

[silentbogo]

1) It's pretty much my board, only with B450 hub planted on it and slightly stripped down.
2) It has dual-BIOS, so in case of failure you can always boot from secondary SPI flash and fix the mess
3) If you don't have occasional and unexpected power outages, then don't worry about it. I live in the area where this can happen, and I'm still not worried about it. Just check if your power company has any maintenance scheduled for nearest days, and also don't flash your board when you have a storm/blizzard warning. That's about it.
4) You will get a heckton of improvement on that board. I bought mine when it just got released, and over time they've fixed lots of things, mainly improved memory compatibility and OC, fixed glitches with XMP/AMP, fixed some things related to NVME and RAID, patched some vulnerabilities etc. etc. etc. So, it's not just microcode and new CPU support.

Just do it, don't be a chicken. Also, make sure that you don't click "Also flash secondary BIOS" or whatever it's called. I'm already patched to the latest F60c w/ 5000-series support, but I do like to keep the older version for emergency situations (e.g. CPU dies and I have to pull out my old Bristol Ridge APU etc.).

The second question, there are some warnings about order of installation on some bioses. Check the link i've provided. Since the newest bios don't have warning, is it safe to update to the newest bios straight away from F5 to F60c, without any intermediary steps/bioses?

No. Read through all versions and do it in order. All critical updates and related notes are highlighted in red, so you won't miss it (or just read through all NOTE sections, if there are any).
I think it's F6(or older) -> F30 -> F32 -> F40 -> F50 -> F60c, though I'd skip the last one for now, if you aren't planning on moving to 5000-series today.