This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

AMD-Ryzen-Feature-3

If you've ever tried to upgrade your motherboard to a newer CPU, y'all're probably aware that the process tin exist dicey. In some cases, a newer CPU may non be properly detected, but the system will boot and can then be flashed with an updated BIOS / UEFI. Of course, y'all can avoid the trouble entirely by flashing the UEFI before you switch to a new CPU, which is definitely something I've remembered to do before. Sometimes. At least twice. If the board fails to boot, you've always got the option to fall back to your older CPU and consummate the UEFI update that style.

This process is somewhat more complicated if y'all purchase a Ryzen APU and a motherboard with an older UEFI variant. Tech Report tried exactly this, dropping a new Ryzen APU into a Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 motherboard that hadn't been updated since they first received the board. The lath failed to Postal service.

One potential way around this problem is if your Ryzen motherboard (Run across on Amazon) has UEFI Flashback protection. Different companies refer to this past different names, but if your motherboard can update its BIOS without a CPU or GPU fastened, y'all tin load the new UEFI prototype from a flash drive (instructions on how to perform this pace will be located in the motherboard manual, typically bachelor online if you've lost the dead tree version). This should neatly solve the trouble, provided y'all have a style to download the UEFI image in the first place.

If your new motherboard doesn't back up BIOS / UEFI flash back, fixing this problem is going to exist trickier. Some motherboard manufacturers might exist willing to provide a UEFI flash as part of an RMA (it'south a long shot, but you might as well enquire). Buying and then returning a Ryzen CPU that you know the board supports is another choice — not a nifty i, to exist sure, but if you tin find an online store that'll process the RMA, it may work. A local reckoner shop might also be willing to aid if you explain the situation.

ryzenwarning

AMD has created a sticker program to assistance buyers differentiate between motherboards updated for Ryzen APUs and those that aren't. The "AMD Ryzen Desktop 2000 Ready" moniker means that you can safely driblet the APU in and await it to work.

We should also note that this problem is non unique to AMD. In the by, there have absolutely been Intel motherboards striking past similar issues. If Intel has avoided the issue more often than its smaller rival, it's only because Intel has a habit of forcing its customers to purchase new motherboards much more speedily than AMD does. The flip side to that, however, is that it may exist a bit trickier to ensure the motherboard you purchase has an updated firmware matching your CPU.