07-13-2019, 07:13 AM
https://www.techspot.com/review/1872-ryz...herboards/
Quote:The good news for those who own entry-level AM4 motherboards is that they can easily handle the new 3rd-gen Ryzen processors, from the R5 3600 all the way up to the Ryzen 9 3900X. We observed no issues with the exception of questionable memory support, though that wasn't new from 1st and 2nd-gen Ryzen parts.
The Ryzen 9 3900X works fine in its out of the box configuration, but don’t expect you’ll be able to go overclocking the 12-core CPU. Again, memory support on this particular B350 board was limited to DDR4-3200, but that’s all you need to get maximum performance anyway, assuming you’re using low latency memory. We don’t believe 3900X support is relevant right now, but in a few years' time when you can buy these CPUs second hand for what we’re guessing will be around $100-$200, then getting one and sticking it on a cheap B350 board will be a nice option.
As for higher-end B350 boards, we’ve yet to test any but those with a beefier VRM should be even better, assuming BIOS support is there. We’re also in the early days of support on older motherboards, so things could improve. No performance difference should be seen between AGESA 1.0.0.1 and 1.0.0.3, but memory compatibility could be improved, along with stability in general.
We are aware of the challenges AMD and its board partners face due to the promise of backwards-compatibility. For example, the storage capacity of the SPI flash EEPROM chip that stores the motherboard UEFI firmware isn’t big enough to fix the latest AGESA microcode, and this is a problem for a number of entry-level and mid-range boards that only use a 16MB EEPROM.
Asrock has made a lite-version of the BIOS that doesn’t feature any colors and has a very basic layout. The X570 motherboards have been upgraded to a 32MB EEPROM, no doubt to combat this issue moving forward, though they do drop support for first-gen parts anyway.
The bottom line is AMD's AM4 upgrade path is there to be taken advantage of, sooner or later, your choice.