Some viewers got upset that I couldn’t test the Rosewill PB240 AIO liquid cooler on the AMD Athlon 25W AM1 processor. Rosewill claimed AM1 socket compatibility on the box. That wasn’t true. Without a compatible mounting bracket, I couldn’t mount the cold plate on the AM1 socket.
Since I don’t have long hair like Steve at Gamers Nexus, I can’t get the Newegg-owned company to admit their mistake. If I can’t test the AM1 processor with the AIO, I’m testing the AMD Athlon 3000G 35W AM4 processor.
AMD announced two weeks ago that their forthcoming B550 mainboards will work with the current Ryzen 3000 processors and the future Ryzen 4000 processors, and the Ryzen 4000 processors will work only on the 500-series mainboards.
For users of the Ryzen 3000 processor and/or the X570 mainboard, the future looks bright — if AMD continues the AM4 platform beyond 2020. The existing roadmap started in 2017 and ends this year. AMD haven’t revealed their roadmap for 2021 and beyond.
For users of the Ryzen 1000/2000 processor and/or the 300/400-series mainboard, the future looks dark. Older processor won’t run on the newer mainboards, newer processors won’t run on the older mainboards. Users are crying foul that their recent purchases are now semi-obsolete.
AMD stated that they were breaking platform compatibility because the ROM chip for the BIOS on older mainboards was too small to contain the microcode for multiple generations of processors. Without the microcode in the BIOS, the mainboard won’t recognize the processor to boot the system.
Enthusiasts — a small but very vocal user base — called BS on that specious rationalization. BIOS fragmentation began last year when the Ryzen 3000 BIOS update needed space on the now too small ROM chip. It didn’t help that AMD recommended the 400-series mainboard to users who couldn’t afford the more expensive X570 mainboard, and everyone expected to drop in a Ryzen 4000 processor when they become available later this year.
AMD backed off their initial statement and offered limited BIOS support for the Ryzen 4000 processors on the 400-series mainboard. A default BIOS that supports the existing Ryzen 1000/2000/3000 processors, and an optional “beta” BIOS that supports Ryzen 3000 and beyond (the catch being unable to downgrade the BIOS for an older processor). Not surprisingly, the 300-series mainboard won’t be getting the Ryzen 4000 BIOS update.
For those of us who went through the BIOS woes for the Athlon 200GE and 3000G last year, the Ryzen 4000 processors will probably offer the same pain to an entirely new audience that haven’t dealt with it before.
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I just finished building my new test PC and tried to overclock the AMD Athlon 3000G processor out of the box. The Asrock B450 Pro4 ATX mainboard came with BIOS version 3.60 (08/06/2019) installed. That version supported the 3000G — except for one small detail. No matter what changes I make in the BIOS to overclock the processor, the settings revert to stock speed at 3.5GHz after reboot.
We’ve seen this behavior before when the Ryzen 3000 BIOS updates removed the unofficial feature for overclocking the Athlon 200GE. I updated the mainboard to BIOS version 3.90 (12/16/2019) and easily overclocked the 3000G to 3.9GHz. The main selling point for the 3000G was the ability to overclock the new $50 USD budget processor on any Ryzen 3000.
For the Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2019 shopping weekend, I bought the AMD Athlon 3000G processor, Microsoft Windows 10 (MD-100) certification practice test, and the AMD Ryzen 7 2600 processor to upgrade my editing PC. Why did I buy two very different AMD processors for the same PC, and a practice test for a certification I still haven’t taken?
AMD started shipping the Athlon 3000G, their newest $50 USD budget processor, to retailers last week. Initial reports spotted Amazon pre-order pages for various countries in the European Union. Neither Amazon nor Newegg had pre-order pages for the US. Does any online retailer have a pre-order page for the 3000G? Surprisingly, it’s B&H.
AMD made several announcements for their Athlon, Ryzen and Threadripper families of processors this week. I’m interested only in the Athlon 3000G, the new $50 budget processor that replaces the Athlon 200GE. Unlike the mistake AMD made with the 200GE last year, the 3000G is officially unlocked for overclocking. I’ll do a review of the 200GE and explain the advantages of the 3000G in a “Ryzen 3000 Ready” world.
