After More Than 6 Years, AMD’s First AM4 Motherboards Are Still Getting Updates
After More Than 6 Years, AMD’s First AM4 Motherboards Are Still Getting Updates
AMD’s Socket AM4 have a bit of reputation for refusing to die of age: it’s one of the longest-supported platform in recent years, with the socket compatibility spanning from Raven Ridge (pre-Ryzen era) all the way up to Ryzen 5000 series. That longevity has won many users, and AMD themselves has supported them with new chips up until this year with the Ryzen 5 5600X3D – and it looks like on the software side of things, they’re not done yet.
Reddit user Yaris_Fan discussed on the new update courtesy of GIGABYTE GA-AB350M-D3H motherboard, and many users in the comments has also pointed out their first-gen Ryzen motherboards are still receiving firmware updates nearly 7 years on since the launch all the way back in February 2017.
While AMD 300 series motherboards lack modern features such as PCIe 4.0, the wide range of socket compatibility meant that upgrade path is very flexible for its owners. Most motherboard do offer BIOSes that facilitate upgrade to Ryzen 5000 series (a non-reversible action due to SPI ROM limitations), which is still a fairly recent generation offering some of the fastest gaming CPU, such as Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X as well.
On the contrary, Intel’s motherboard has received less hardware and software support over the years – namely, the LGA1151v2 that runs Skylake-derived processors (8th to 9th Gen) which is retired in 2021. The company has since introduced LGA1200, LGA1700 and will soon transition to the new LGA1851 socket for Arrow Lake next year.
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su has previous assured AM4’s continued presence. On the AM5 platform support, she said: “AM5 will be a durable rig like AM4. I think AM4 will remain on the market for a few more years.” For the foreseeable future, it looks like AM4 will continue to serve the budget-focused market for those who needs affordable performance.
Source: Videocardz
Pokdepinion: Good job for AMD and its partners to continue supporting AM4 hardware after all these years – and as we all know, long-term software support is the name of the game these days.
