[TechPowerUp] AMD Zambezi (Bulldozer) will work with AM3 motherboards with a BIOS update

[mrcrusty]

Title says it all.

http://www.techpowerup.com/142251/AM...OS-Update.html

[Top-Tier-Tech]

But won't the new CPU's be limited by the older motherboards?

[ROFL Copter]

But won't the new CPU's be limited by the older motherboards?

Probably, but its nice for poor people like me to tie us over till we can afford a better one.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

Probably, but its nice for poor people like me to tie us over till we can afford a better one.

AMD motherboards are cheap.

[Sir Shfvingle]

AMD motherboards are cheap.

So will AM3+ motherboards be that expensive? Much more so that current AM3s?

[Top-Tier-Tech]

So will AM3+ motherboards be that expensive? Much more so that current AM3s?

I can't imagine them costing very much more than current AM3 boards but do not know for sure. AMD boards have always been a good bit cheaper than intel boards.

[ROFL Copter]

I agree, but when I said poor, I mean flat broke. If I can afford to buy a new CPU, thats all I can afford.

[mrcrusty]

It makes sense if you have a top of the line AM3 motherboard (Asus Crosshair Formula/Extreme or a Gigabyte UD7) and don't have the money to switch to an equivalent AM3+.

As for the motherboards limiting the CPUs, probably, but I imagine the biggest drawbacks and issues of using an AM3+ CPU on an AM3 motherboard would be related to the IMC (memory & northbridge) or power adjustment (Turbo Core 2.0, etc), not necessarily CPU performance.

[da_bradler]

more importantly will they work in AM2 boards?

[mrcrusty]

more importantly will they work in AM2 boards?

That's a negative sir.

AM2 and AM2+ motherboards still use DDR2 RAM. Bulldozer is strictly DDR3.

I think one of the reasons the Phenom II IMC was so weak compared to the Nehalem's was because they had a dual memory controller catering to both DDR2 and DDR3.

The fact that it works with AM3 at all is a minor miracle as everyone had assumed it would be like Intel where you need a new motherboard for the new CPUs.

[Big Boss]

He's under NDA, but he shared this with us.

The issue is the ROM size. 16MB is needed for Bulldozer and not many boards have that.

In addition, NOT ALL Bulldozer-class CPUs will be compatible with these boards. Only certain ones will.

That's why some AM3 boards will work, and some have needed newer revisions.

Source.

[Devilmaypoop]

Sorry to ruin this for you guys, but Zambesi will not support AM3

Originally Posted by JF-AMD
I have just verified with our desktop guys.

BULLDOZER SUPPORTED IN AM3+ ONLY, NOT AM3

Please go about your usual business. I am not answering any other questions about desktop, this was a one time favor because I could see the rumors getting out of control.

That's what a guy who works for AMD said on overclock.net. There is a link in the quote.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

The Thread title should be changed to minimize the misleading information.

[Sir Shfvingle]

If they would release some boards already we could go about our usual business...

[Big Boss]

Sorry to ruin this for you guys, but Zambesi will not support AM3

That's what a guy who works for AMD said on overclock.net. There is a link in the quote.

That's marketing schtick. Note how he says "Supported". AMD won't support Bulldozer in AM3, sure as hell doesn't make it impossible. Similar to Core unlockingin that regard.

If they would release some boards already we could go about our usual business...

They have. Check out Gigabyte 890FX-UD5P Rev 3.1 for instance. Has the AM3+ socket.

[mrcrusty]

That's marketing schtick. Note how he says "Supported". AMD won't support Bulldozer in AM3, sure as hell doesn't make it impossible. Similar to Core unlockingin that regard.



They have. Check out Gigabyte 890FX-UD5P Rev 3.1 for instance. Has the AM3+ socket.

This.

While John Fruehe is a stand up guy, he can only talk about what AMD allows natively.

This is not an AMD designed compatibility, it is a manufacturer designed compatibility. It still doesn't change the fact that Bulldozer CPUs will be compatible with certain AM3 motherboards.

As Big Boss correctly points out, this has already been seen with Core Unlocking. Something that AMD did not support out of the box, but motherboard manufacturers designed hardware to take advantage of it.

Another example is ASRock, when they designed the P67 Transformer motherboard. P67 chipset, but LGA 1156 socket. Intel claimed they needed a new socket to accommodate the chipset, ASRock proved them wrong.