Our friend, TechEphiphany over at Twitter, has shared some interesting information regarding AMD's Ryzen 5000 CPU and entry-level AMD A320 chipset-based motherboards. As you know, it was only recently that a few motherboard vendors decided to start offering Ryzen 5000 support aimed at 300-series motherboards but after looking at the video published by TechEpiphany, it's looking like even the cheapest motherboards can support the highest-end Ryzen chips without major issues.
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core Flagship CPU Runs Perfectly Fine On A $60 A320 Motherboard, Proves That AMD Should Allow Zen 3 & Zen 3+ Support on Its First-Gen Ryzen Motherboards
There has been a lot of debate going on whether AMD should or shouldn't allow Ryzen 5000 CPU support on older platforms such as its first-generation 300-series boards including X370, B350 & A320. Consumers won huge time when they made their voices heard during the Ryzen 5000 CPU launch and prompted AMD to allow motherboard makers to open up Ryzen 5000 CPU support on 400-series motherboards which would otherwise have been locked down to just 500-series boards.
But for the 300-series motherboards, the battle rages on as motherboard vendors have and then backed out of supporting the platform due to warnings from AMD. There are certain boards that did receive a silent BIOS upgrade to support AMD's Ryzen 5000 CPUs but these links were quickly taken off. It's not like you can't find these BIOS on tech forums or several online repositories but having them announced in an open fashion is still what most companies avoid or to face the wrath of team red.
So what's the issue? Well, AMD has several reasons to move its consumer base to a new platform just so they could utilize the new features of the Ryzen processors or is to virtually lock each CPU lineup behind a new series of motherboards, not forcing but making consumers desperate and willing enough to upgrade to the next great thing? It's actually a bit of both and both AMD & board makers want their newest and greatest things to sell to make profits. But that comes at the cost of depriving the older generation users. It's not like Intel doesn't do that either, they are well known for this, and their 400-500 series platforms were a recent example.
Sometimes, the platform & the motherboard jump is necessary and that's when something truly revolutionary comes. It was Ryzen 1000 on AM4 and it will be Ryzen 7000 on AM5, same with Alder Lake which warrants a new board platform. But the likes of Rocket Lake, Coffee Lake, and the past three iterations of Zen didn't offer that much to make users say, 'Oh boy, I need to upgrade my PC'. PCIe Gen 4, PBO, SAM, all these features are great but they also aren't as big of a deal to kill off an entire past generation of motherboards.
TechEpiphany proved that the first-generation AMD AM4 motherboards still have live in them and demonstrated an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, a 16 core top-of-the-line, flagship CPU which has a TDP of 105W, running on an entry-level $60 US, ASUS A320M-K motherboard. For reference, the A320M-K received Ryzen 5000 support from ASUS very recently Again this was just from a recent wave of board makers offering Ryzen 5000 support on older 300-series boards.
So back to the test, the PC is able to run the AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU just fine and even gets PBO spikes of beyond 5 GHz. The motherboard was also able to run the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X perfectly for over a year and we know that Zen 2 is much power-hungry than Zen 3.
AMD RYzen 9 5950X won ASUS A320M-K with 5Ghz+ PBO spikes
Please share the word. The fight is not over
#AMD #AMDRyzen #AMDNews #AMDPC #ASUS pic.twitter.com/SQJkCZsoY8
— TechEpiphany (@TechEpiphany) January 8, 2022
The funny thing is that my Ryzen 9 3900X worked well for a year in this board is a bigger power hog than the 5950X https://t.co/gJ84gQ4Elp
— TechEpiphany (@TechEpiphany) January 8, 2022
Btw, I can touch and stay on the VRMs with my fingers under load... https://t.co/UlZy4aUow8
— TechEpiphany (@TechEpiphany) January 8, 2022
That is incredible of an entry-level board and what's more impressive is that the VRMs on this entry-level motherboard are bare of any heatsinks but despite that, TechEpiphany can touch them during lead and barely feel the heat. And what's important here is not the Ryzen 5000 compatibility with a 300-series motherboard but an A320 motherboard.
This video proves that there is a whole range of motherboards featuring the B350 & X370 chipset out there that can do the same & better thanks to their higher-quality VRM and cooling design. Now while users have found a way to bypass this restriction through Bootleg, it is still an unofficial and more dangerous route to go as installing the incorrect BIOS version on your motherboard can simply brick it as most of these boards lack a dual BIOS chip. So we will ask all of you to avoid that unless you (possibly) want to kill off your old and trusted 300-series partner.
It looks like the voices have started reaching AMD though as in a recent interview with tech outlet, Tom's Hardware, AMD's CVP & GM of Client Channel Business, David McAfee, told that the Ryzen 5000 and AMD 300-series board compatibility is something that they are trying to figure out.
"It's definitely something we're working through. And it's not lost on us at all that this would be a good thing to do for the community, and we're trying to figure out how to make it happen,"
"I know that this has been a topic that, honestly, gets a lot of attention and a lot of discussion within AMD. I'm not joking when I say that — I've literally had three conversations on this very topic today. And I'm not talking about with members of the press; I'm talking about internal conversations within our engineering teams and planning teams to understand what options we have and what we can do, and how can we deliver the right experience for a 300-series motherboard user who wants to upgrade to a 5000-series processor,"
"So, it's certainly something that we're not just leaving on the side and ignoring; we definitely understand there's a vocal part of the community that's passionate about this. And we want to try to do the right thing. So we're still working through it."
AMD's CVP & GM of Client Channel Business, David McAfee - Tomshardware
I mean, opening up support for AMD's Ryzen 5000 CPUs on 300-series motherboards will do the red team better than harm. Intel's entry-level and mainstream lineup with its 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs is coming out really strong and AMD desperately needs some action in this segment. Several AMD users who were running older AMD platforms have been noted to be planning to switch to the blue team only because of these support issues. If Ryzen 5000 support comes sooner then these users might just stick to their current PCs for another year by upgrading to a Ryzen 5000 or Ryzen 5000G chip. This would mean that AMD can maintain its market share and not give it away to Intel before AM5 launches. Overall, we expect AMD to make a decision that's in the interest of its consumer base.
The post Here’s AMD’s Flagship 16 Core Ryzen 9 5950X CPU Perfectly Running On An Entry-Level $60 A320 Motherboard by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.
