Wan Show Ryzen upgrade discussion

[Nordek]

Hi
At 6:26 during the last Wan Show Linus starts talking about the upgrade path for old Ryzen processors. I have this exact situation: I bought an ASRock B350 Pro4 with a Ryzen 1600 in 2017. The board got support for 3rd gen Ryzen on my motherboard. It's great, I'm planning on buying a 3700X/3900X this fall. However, the process of updating BIOS is really frustrating and stressful. 
I think I currently have BIOS v2.4 (I don't remember exactly, my PC is at the college dormitory and I can't go there because of the pandemic) and to upgrade I need v5.8 or later. The path is as follows:
- flash v3.4
- install AMD all in one VGA driver
- flash v5.4
- flash v5.8
- change the CPU (if update further with Ryzen below 3rd gen installed there is a risk of bricking the board)
- (optional) flash latest v6.3
The process is a pain in the ass, but if I'm choosing between having a complicated upgrade and not having one at all, I'm going with the complicated path day or night. When I screw up I brick the board, but hey, without any upgrade option I would've had to buy a new one anyway.
Hail AMD.

 

Share your thoughts if you have upgraded to 3rd gen from 1st gen or if you're planning to!

[Statik]

If you're planning on upgrading in the fall you should just get the Ryzen 4000 series. No sense buying old tech when the new stuff is out. I also would not recommend putting a 3700x/3900x and for sure not a 4000 series in a B350/B450.

[CPT_BEEMO]

23 minutes ago, Statik said:

If you're planning on upgrading in the fall you should just get the Ryzen 4000 series. No sense buying old tech when the new stuff is out. I also would not recommend putting a 3700x/3900x and for sure not a 4000 series in a B350/B450.

*EDIT*

 

OP would have to purchase a new motherboard in order to do this, as any chipset below X570/B550 will not be supported with AMD's 4000 series Ryzen CPU's. 

 

That being said, I would really need to know what OP's rig is being used for but the way I see it, I dont think it would be worth while at all to purchase an 8 or 10 core CPU, put it on an old chipset only to game with it, let alone use it as a workstation, as you would not get all that you paid for by putting a current gen CPU on a 2-3 year old chipset. IMHO I think that is a waste of your hard earned money. If you really want to gain something out of an upgrade, go big or go home (again, thats my opinion). 

 

Riley talks more about 4000 series Ryzen and its compatibility on their latest TechLinked video, as well as yesterday's WAN and a couple other threads in the forum. We are on the last year of AM4 Socket support so if I could suggest anything I would likely wait until 2021 before making any kind of upgrade purchase. We are just shy of that AM4 dead end and I would wager we may see DDR5 memory module support on the future AMD sockets in 2021. 

 

If ultimately you cannot wait for an upgrade and you need something to get you by, while you could go with a 3rd Gen Ryzen CPU, I would not put the money down on the 3700X, 3800X or the 3900X for that matter. I would likely do the 3600 or 3600X as when it comes to single threaded performance (most games), you do not see much of a gain on the higher binned CPU's, at least, not enough to justify the extra $$. 3600/3600X is good price to performance.

 

 

[Statik]

14 minutes ago, CPT_BEEMO said:

*EDIT*

 

OP would have to purchase a new motherboard in order to do this, as any chipset below X570/B550 will not be supported with AMD's 4000 series Ryzen CPU's. 

 

That being said, I would really need to know what OP's rig is being used for but the way I see it, I dont think it would be worth while at all to purchase an 8 or 10 core CPU, put it on an old chipset only to game with it, let alone use it as a workstation, as you would not get all that you paid for by putting a current gen CPU on a 2-3 year old chipset. IMHO I think that is a waste of your hard earned money. If you really want to gain something out of an upgrade, go big or go home (again, thats my opinion). 

 

Riley talks more about 4000 series Ryzen and its compatibility on their latest TechLinked video, as well as yesterday's WAN and a couple other threads in the forum. We are on the last year of AM4 Socket support so if I could suggest anything I would likely wait until 2021 before making any kind of upgrade purchase. We are just shy of that AM4 dead end and I would wager we may see DDR5 memory module support on the future AMD sockets in 2021. 

 

If ultimately you cannot wait for an upgrade and you need something to get you by, while you could go with a 3rd Gen Ryzen CPU, I would not put the money down on the 3700X, 3800X or the 3900X for that matter. I would likely do the 3600 or 3600X as when it comes to single threaded performance (most games), you do not see much of a gain on the higher binned CPU's, at least, not enough to justify the extra $$. 3600/3600X is good price to performance.

 

 

That's a fair point. What I meant in my post is that OP should NOT purchase a 3700x/3900x and put it in his current board. Instead he should wait and just get a new board/CPU combo when Ryzen 4k comes out.

 

It just doesn't make sense to upgrade now when his current build is viable.

 

I'm also a believer in saving and UPGRADING. Going from a 1700 to a 3600 now, then in a year or two upgrading to Ryzen 4k, then a few years after that yaddy yaddy yadda. In the long run it costs just as much if not MORE money, but instead of having a beast, you're just continually upgrading a mediocre gaming PC. I suggest that OP just rides it out and gets a new board/chip combo with Ryzen 4000.

[CPT_BEEMO]

1 minute ago, Statik said:

That's a fair point. What I meant in my post is that OP should NOT purchase a 3700x/3900x and put it in his current board. Instead he should wait and just get a new board/CPU combo when Ryzen 4k comes out.

 

It just doesn't make sense to upgrade now when his current build is viable.

 

I'm also a believer in saving and UPGRADING. Going from a 1700 to a 3600 now, then in a year or two upgrading to Ryzen 4k, then a few years after that yaddy yaddy yadda. In the long run it costs just as much if not MORE money, but instead of having a beast, you're just continually upgrading a mediocre gaming PC. I suggest that OP just rides it out and gets a new board/chip combo with Ryzen 4000.

I couldnt agree more, I was only adding to what you were saying  Truly does not make sense to make a $700+ investment in a new CPU on an old chipset.

 

If anything I would probably take it that one step further and suggest that I don't even think its a good idea to to Ryzen 4K, for the simple reason that the AM4 socket will be obsolete in 2021 anyway with their new socket being released with who knows what else. Its just literally dumping money into a CPU, MOBO and possibly RAM configuration that will provide you with absolutely no upgrade path 12 months from its release. Sure it'll likely be good for a few years, but if OP hangs on for one more year if possible, he can start fresh on a whole new socket, 5th gen Ryzen if thats what they release, possibly DDR5 memory, sugar, spice and everything nice!

 

 

[Nordek]

Thank you for your suggestions!
Yes I threw a 3900X in there but I'm leaning more in direction of 3700X. I rarely play games and no demanding titles at all. I'm an aerospace engineering student and I participate in a club where we currently design a cubesat, so I'm doing a lot of CAD modelling and finite element analysis. Now the performance is passable, but the project is getting more and more complex (I'm not able to work off of a laptop but my team is pushing like crazy). I definitely need an upgrade when I come back to the campus.

 

Ryzen 4000 is also an option, maybe I'll go that way, we'll see. Maybe I could get my hands on an used 3700X? Who knows, we shall wait and see how the situation unfolds.