Is this really true?
Many of us have bought AMD for the promise of support throughout 2020.
Is AMD going Intel full throttle? IS AMD becoming MAD?
Even worse, scamming customers with promise of future upgrades.
Intel at least gives no promises like: "We will support AM4 throughout 2020".
Intel has the tick/tock, you know that you get one generation or skip one and that's it. No promises attached.
And the promise for B450 was still active at the launch of Ryzen 3000 series. Read more on the quote of the AMD Marketing manager later in the post.
I bought recently B450 + Ryzen 3xxx. The B450 was the only midrange option, since B550 is not yet available.
And basically I have ZERO upgrade path?? That is worse than most intel upgrade paths, that usually offered one generation of upgrade.
The BIOS size is a moot argument, only boards that have less than 256Mbit BIOS chips might not have space for the new chips. But anyhow the new 128Mbit Gigabyte boards will miraculously not have this problem with Zen3? And if that really is a problem forking new BIOS revisions of series 400 chipsets to exclude support for pre-Zen chips is not an option?? Who runs A series APUs on 400 series board? And if so, they don't need to flash new BIOSes.
Edit: The BIOS size is a blatant lie. Read more about BIOS chip usage on the internet. Most of the higher part of the 128MBit BIOSes is filled with graphics while microcode uses only a part of it. The X570 also miracoulously supports both Zen2 and Zen3 without BIOS size issues.
This comes in one of the worst times possible as well. DDR5 and AM5 is on the horizon. So this move seems just a cash grab to sell more 500 series boards that would otherwise be less enticing.
Another thing that has been said is that AMD will not offer the necessary microcode for OEMs to implement support themselves, which is even worse. A confirmation about the real motivation behind this.
AMD just wants more $$ in this case. At the cost of losing their customer base.
Either that or they do not have the b*lls to tell to the motherboard partners: "Shut up and implement it, at the cost of removing some graphics from the BIOS"
I for one do not need another Intel. I already had one.
If this happens to be true, I am going back to Intel.
Yes they suck and are greedy, but they at least do not give false promises.
Intel never scammed me, AMD did, if this holds to be true.
I will not build AMD systems for others, and will do as much as I can to deter others from buying AMD. I am also prone to support anybody who opens a class action lawsuit, by searching for the statements made by AMD officials regarding this "future upgrade on AM4" subject.
One quote from the AMD Product Marketing Manager Erin Maiorino (1 year ago):
"With the launch of the AM4 platform in 2016, we at AMD made a commitment to maintain and support socket AM4 through 2020. During that time, we have continued to evolve the platform to offer new features, more performance, and greater functionality. With a single socket ranging from entry level to enthusiast class motherboards, consumers have the flexibility to start with the hardware that meets their needs today, and upgrade to their growing performance demands tomorrow. "
Still online: https://community.amd.com/community/gaming/blog/2019/05/27/socket-am4-platform-longevity-getting-ryz...
> "commitment to maintain and support socket AM4 through 2020 ... start with the hardware that meets their needs today, and upgrade to their growing performance demands tomorrow"
Start with a motherboard today and upgrade the motherboard tomorrow? If that was the intention then this is clearly and purposely a choice of words to trick the customer into buying and demands a court trial. Also there is no upgrade path if you choose B450 or B550, to jump forward from B450 to B550 you need to change the whole combo, CPU+Mobo, since B450 does not support Zen3 and B550 does not support Zen2. So the whole support of the socket is irrelevant. It could have easily be another socket with the same result.
