Warning about certain upcoming 1.0.0.4B ABBA BIOS revisions

Otto_iii · November 16, 2019

Recently a certain German hardware provider pre-released many BIOS's for various AM4 chipset motherboards, originally they just had Beta but now also are offering official 1.0.0.4B ABBA before some official websites have listed them. Many people have noticed instability and inability to run stock XMP profiles on their RAM, i had this issue personally with ASRock's 3.85 implementation and decided to fire up Ryzen Master to see if i could spot anything. Personally i observed higher cpu core voltages but likely safe, but more worryingly VDDCR SOC at 1.2V which could potentially explain the RAM instability people are having. Personally i just reverted to 1.0.0.3 ABB (Asrock 3.60 for many b450 boards), i did not attempt to tweak SOC down to a more sane 1.1v or previous stock voltage of about 1.08

I just wanted to put this out there as 1.2V SOC may be potentially safe, but also potentially higher then should ever be ran with Ryzen 3000 according to many people (i believe der8auer said about 1.175-1.18 was safe maximum, 1.15 recommended), so if you do try out one of these new BIOS and are having problems check to see if SOC may be your issue, among other things. Im running Micron E-die Ripjaw 3600 C16 ram for what its worth but multiple people have reported ram instability after trying the new BIOS from said German website, thus why im not linking it, im hoping atleast in ASRock's case they make a small revision before listing it as its completely unstable, at the very least.

I will say before my crashes 1.0.0.4 was doing a great job boosting a extra 100-150mhz or so for me but its not worth the instability, i wasn't able to complete a single graphic or CPU benchmark without crashing (event Kernel-Power ID 41), i am somewhat tempted to reinstall it one more time and manually apply lower SOC, but for now will personally wait till i hear more feedback.

Skiiwee29 · November 16, 2019

SOC voltage is fine and safe up to 1.2v for 24/7 usage.

Otto_iii · November 16, 2019

It might be on certain well binned Ryzen 3000 chips, and with certain motherboards that have stable voltage, but cheaper boards, like what is talked about in that very video you linked, where voltage can swing out of specified range on occasion then likely i'd imagine it can cause issues, like we are seeing. Link to other people having same issue, http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=11976&PN=63&title=ryzen-3000-series-support

Likewise although 1.2V was normal for older Ryzen chips with 3000 i've personally heard to keep it lower, and don't know anybody in the overclocking community who recommends running SOC at 1.2V on Ryzen 3000 so I'm surprised this happened for a automatic setting. Anyways i can't 100% confirm its a issue with SOC Voltage just likely seems to be the cause, i didn't want the risk so uninstalled it after my 3rd crash during a benchmark, if ASRock releases the exact same BIOS (3.85) without any changes on their official website in a few days, and more people have this problem hopefully we will figure out what the cause is, if not SOC voltage.

This may not be a issue with SOC, but a general warning of instability if these BIOS's (From X German board vendor) are infact the official release as many have been lead to believe, even then this may only be a issue on certain ASRock B450 boards but i wanted to put it out there.