Earlier this month AMD announced that AMD will no longer support its next-gen Zen 3 architecture on 400-series motherboards. But after getting criticism from the loyal fan base and users, AMD has reversed its decision to not enable Zen 3 and Ryzen 4000 compatibility with existing B450 and X470 motherboards. AMD will supply beta BIOS for B450 and X470 motherboards which will enable support for the Zen 3.
But this upgrade will come with some downgrade too. These optional BIOS updates will disable support for many existing AMD Ryzen Desktop Processor models to make the necessary ROM space available. The select beta BIOSes will enable a one-way upgrade path for AMD Ryzen Processors with “Zen 3”. Flashing back to an older BIOS version will not be supported.
AMD added that the timing and availability of the BIOS updates will vary and may not immediately available after the Zen 3 release. AMD continues to recommend that customers choose an AMD 500 Series motherboard for the best performance and features with its new CPUs.
AMD is made clear that this is the final update for the 400 series motherboard. CPUs released after Zen 3 will require a new motherboard. One thing to remember the new BIOS revisions will enable the full functionality of Zen 3 processors, but you will still not gain access to the PCIe 4.0 interface on B450 and X470 motherboards.
