How safe is it to upgrade to Ryzen 3000 series?

[Fourjays]

I've been thinking of upgrading my Ryzen 5 2600X to one of the new Ryzen 3000 series ever since they were announced. As I need to replace my cooler and reinstall anyway, now would be the ideal time for me to do so. However, I'm not sure how much to make of these BIOS/driver issues people are having upgrading. Are they representative of what I'd experience, a loud minority or the result of people not reinstalling Windows/drivers/etc?

 

My motherboard is an ASUS ROG Strix B450-I (Mini-ITX). There is a BIOS with support apparently, but no idea if it is any good or not.

 

I'm also not sure if I'd need new RAM or not? I currently have Corsair Vengeance 16GB(2x8) DDR4 3000Mhz CAS 16-20-20-38 RAM.

[Origami Cactus]

I have the x470-i, it is pretty much the same board. The original 3000 bios broke mouse support in bios, but a new bios update fixed it. 

I haven't had any software problems (maybe), but my cpu idles at 50-60c.

I think it is because of the cooler, but idk. I will test a different cooler soon.

And asus maybe gives too much voltage to the cpu? But maybe not?

 

Ram is fine.

But i would stay on the 2600x for about a month more, just so all the issues are cleared.

[Tom H]

as someone who has 2 new ryzen systems: a 3600x and a 3700x, both on MSI B450 pro carbon motherboards, I would agree with Origami Cactus....it would be safer to wait a month or 2 before you upgrade

[nick name]

Expect to experience problems.  But problems in a way that means you're probably only going to see more performance as things mature.  So it's like getting a new CPU and then in a month or two getting another new CPU.  So Christmas and then Valentine's Day.  AMD "Merry Christmas have a Ryzen 3000" and then AMD "I love you have a new not buggy AGESA".  

[paulmohr]

I have a 3600 on a b450 tomahawk with the latest 1.9 bios. It seems to work fine for me. And I didn't re install windows. I just removed what drivers I could find and installed the new ones. By the time I was done I pretty much changed everything but my case, power supply and drives lol. New cpu, new motherboard, new video card, new ram and added a all in one water cooler. It did kind of bork some of my FSX settings though. I have to redo the graphics settings and nvidia profile inspector stuff. And for some reason it wiped my mappings for my flight stick so I have to remap all of that. Everything else seems to work fine.

 

Like the other said though, I honestly would wait a bit if you can. Give it while for them to work out all the bugs and let others do the testing for you if you don't want to mess with problems. At this stage we are basically beta testing for AMD and the motherboard companies without knowing it ahead of time lol.

[richie30]

I agree.. while i updated the bios on my b450i msi for when i get 3000 i had ram issues.

 

My gskill 3000 wouldnt go past 3000 kept green screening.

Yet on my old bios 3200+ no problems

[Fourjays]

It is tough to fight off my eagerness to upgrade. To some extent I don't mind dealing with issues, but it depends what they are. Sounds like the problems might be pretty widespread from what you guys say.

 

If I do put it off, would I need to reinstall Windows again when I upgrade? I've seen mixed messages about it.

[nick name]

5 minutes ago, Fourjays said:

It is tough to fight off my eagerness to upgrade. To some extent I don't mind dealing with issues, but it depends what they are. Sounds like the problems might be pretty widespread from what you guys say.

 

If I do put it off, would I need to reinstall Windows again when I upgrade? I've seen mixed messages about it.

Reinstalling Windows is always a breath of fresh air, but I wouldn't say it's needed.  And I would challenge anyone's assessment declaring it a necessity.  

[Origami Cactus]

8 minutes ago, Fourjays said:

It is tough to fight off my eagerness to upgrade. To some extent I don't mind dealing with issues, but it depends what they are. Sounds like the problems might be pretty widespread from what you guys say.

 

If I do put it off, would I need to reinstall Windows again when I upgrade? I've seen mixed messages about it.

I didn't need to do that. 

But i just incase updated my windows to the 1900 series, for the new 3000 series windows powerplans. that didn't change pretty much anything, and windows 1900 is uglier than 1800.

[paulmohr]

Well like you said, your going to get mixed messages lol. Some will say, yes, difinately re install windows its the safest way to do it. Others will say no you don't and it will be fine. I think its mostly about drivers issues and old drivers conflicting with new ones and stuff like that. With a fresh install of windows it wipes all of that and you just install the new drivers for your new stuff so there really isn't anything to conflict with. I removed most of the drivers I could find and re installed them and didn't have any issues that I know of. To be honest though it booted up and worked with all the old drivers for the most part.

 

If you have a fairly simple set up and not a ton of software, or sofware that isn't a pain to install and configure then yes, I would re install windows. Re installing windows from time to time on any system is a good idea to clean things up and fix problems. And windows 10 really doesn't take that long to re install compared to older versions.

 

However if you are like me and have a ton of software, some of which I am not sure where the keys are you can risk it and see what happens. I have a lot of stuff that needs to be reconfigured and set up. VST's for a midi keyboard, DAWS for music and other games with addons and stuff. Just keep in mind that if it doesn't work for some reason and you have issues you will have to re install windows anyway. For me, considering the amount of time and effort it woudl take to get things back to how they are it was worth the risk. I really should have done it though because its been while since I have done a fresh version of windows and I have done a lot of mucking about with it in that time lol. I may back everything up and take note of how I have it installed and configured and then re install it. Then use the back up to copy all the files over and stuff just so I dont' have to manually configure everything and make it a bit easier on myself. It will still be a lot of work though. And my main concern is if I will be able to get all software for my Komplet Kontrol midi keybaord again. All of it had to be downloaded with a key they sent me. If I can't get it back or it says I am trying to put it on a second computer or something I am screwed. I honestly liked it better in the old days when stuff came with a cd with the software instead of having to download it all.

[nick name]

13 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

I didn't need to do that. 

But i just incase updated my windows to the 1900 series, for the new 3000 series windows powerplans. that didn't change pretty much anything, and windows 1900 is uglier than 1800.

Honestly, I think it's one of the things I like most about it.  The look.  

[paulmohr]

I am still on 1809, how much different is 1900? I see it in my update section but haven't switched yet. And if I updated to 1900 would it basically re install windows for me but keep my all my programs and stuff? Sort of like doing a clean install but not losing my shit lol. That would be freaking awesome.

 

[bignaz]

Personally I would hold off a month or til the 3950x launch because the bios have some major issues and a big issues here that no one is talking about because they probably don't know how to check.

 

whea uncorrectable error when using a NVME.  Logs are full. In a day I get over a thousand.  On x470 and x570. Using a Samsung 970 Evo plus and Intel NVME. Known issue. Happens in me pcie/sata slot as well as my pcie.  AMD said that the data is fine but I will say I have gotten a few blue screens from it and I would personally just wait.  I seen this on x470 and x570 on my rigs and pcie gen 4,3 and 2 all still have this issue. So if you ask if it's safe. No it's not. You are going to have some early adopter issues. 

[paulmohr]

Something to keep in mind is you are seeing a handful of people having problems. Normally someone only pipes up if they have an issue and something doesn't work right. If everything goes smooth and works they tend not to anything. That is just how things work generally. By now they have sold thousands of cpus and motherboards with many models selling out in places. If most of these people were having issues it would be HUGE news. You would see tech news outlets, youtube and every computer forum flooded with people complaining and looking for help. And I would bet stores would hold off on selling them until the issue got fixed. I would say even if it was 20 percent it woudl be big news and people would be screaming for you not to buy them.

 

Are there some issues, yes most certainly there are. Did they rush things and release a product too soon? In my opinion yes they did, but dont' they always? Seems to be par for the course now a days.

[melete]

1 minute ago, paulmohr said:

Something to keep in mind is you are seeing a handful of people having problems. Normally someone only pipes up if they have an issue and something doesn't work right. If everything goes smooth and works they tend not to anything. That is just how things work generally. By now they have sold thousands of cpus and motherboards with many models selling out in places. If most of these people were having issues it would be HUGE news. You would see tech news outlets, youtube and every computer forum flooded with people complaining and looking for help. And I would bet stores would hold off on selling them until the issue got fixed. I would say even if it was 20 percent it woudl be big news and people would be screaming for you not to buy them.

 

Are there some issues, yes most certainly there are. Did they rush things and release a product too soon? In my opinion yes they did, but dont' they always? Seems to be par for the course now a days.

There’s already a decent number of those posts on Reddit. As well as news like this:

 

https://www.pcgamesn.com/amd/msi-max-motherboards-ryzen-3000-compatibility

 

Anecdotally, my X470 is mostly working fine. I either have very little room to overclock my memory or I am having memory overclocking issues, though. My 3200MHz CL16 kit won’t POST with just about any sort of memory OC, and especially if I change any timings.  I don’t have the expertise to know if it’s the motherboard though, as opposed to my kit just not being very good (it’s not high end RAM but I figured it would at least keep the same frequency with slightly better timings).

[Fourjays]

Thanks for all your input. Sounds like I should just wait until they've got the kinks worked out.