Does my AMD 970 Chipset need a BIOS update to work with a FX-8350?

[THAT1GUYIDK]

Alright, so I have this motherboard (Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P -- AMD 970) and it is rev. 2.0.
I have a FX-6300 CPU and wanted to upgrade my CPU to a FX-8350 because I want to get a gtx 980 and be able to keep up with it.

On PC part picker, it warns me "Some AMD 970 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Vishera CPUs."

To prepare for this I wanted to update my BIOS for this motherboard, but the automatic updater only gives me the option to update for Rev. 1 motherboard of this type, and I don't wanna risk bricking my stuff with that. Do I really have to update my BIOS (on my Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P Rev 2.0) to work with this processor (FX-8350)? If not that would be cool, because I don't know how to manually update the BIOS, and I don't want to mess it up. If I have to, instruction would be awesome.

EDIT: So I checked the support page, it says my mobo supports its since version FA, but my board has version F5 (what Speccy is telling me) which is a version from the rev. 1. mobo. It also tells me to make sure my board is up to date, but it kinda contradicts itself. My mobo's BIOs is from 8/6/13.

I'm currently running a FX-6300 cpu. Evidently there was some update or change to processors or gpu's 2 years ago. I bought my cpu from Ibuypower 2 years ago, and I don't think I'm up to par with cpu's motherboard wise.

Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Model 970A-D3P (CPU 1)
Version To be filled by O.E.M.
Chipset Vendor AMD
Chipset Model RD9x0
Chipset Revision 02
Southbridge Vendor AMD
Southbridge Model SB910/950
Southbridge Revision 40
System Temperature 38 °C
BIOS
Brand American Megatrends Inc.
Version F5
Date 8/6/2013

 

[BSOD BSTD]

yes you will need to update to FA, if you have USB 3.0 then update to FC (the newest one) as it has an improvement.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5193#bios

 

[farnell121]

I think you have a Rev.01 board. It looks like Rev.02 was released in 2014 and has NO BIOS updates for added CPU compatibility. It says Rev.01 boards can have BIOS F5 to the latest F6a, Rev.02 boards come with FA as stock. That being said...

Buy the AMD CPU, put it in your motherboard, if it doesn't boot, you will need to put in your old processor and update the BIOS to F6a. If it does you may very well have a Rev.02 board. If you seem to be having problems with the new CPU, it may 'work' without a BIOS update but wont function within spec, so it will need an update.

There should be a section in your BIOS that tells you all of this info, what exactly is it reading that you have?

 

[farnell121]

yes you will need to update to FA, if you have USB 3.0 then update to FC (the newest one) as it has an improvement.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5193#bios

Remember, he is running BIOS V.F5, which is a BIOS version on Rev.01 boards. Rev.02 boards come with FA loaded as stock and nothing older than this!!

 

[THAT1GUYIDK]

I think you have a Rev.01 board. It looks like Rev.02 was released in 2014 and has NO BIOS updates for added CPU compatibility. It says Rev.01 boards can have BIOS F5 to the latest F6a, Rev.02 boards come with FA as stock. That being said...

Buy the AMD CPU, put it in your motherboard, if it doesn't boot, you will need to put in your old processor and update the BIOS to F6a. If it does you may very well have a Rev.02 board. If you seem to be having problems with the new CPU, it may 'work' without a BIOS update but wont function within spec, so it will need an update.

There should be a section in your BIOS that tells you all of this info, what exactly is it reading that you have?

Yeah, I noticed that. Is this really a rev 2 board? Because it has a rev 1 version on it. When using the Gigabytes' auto-updater it only has the rev 1 option, but I don't know if I'm rev 1 or not. I got that info from Speccy from Piriform.com. But that's the thing, I'm super afraid of manually updating this BIOS. I haven't looked in the BIOS, I guess I'll try that.

 

[THAT1GUYIDK]

The BIOS says it's version F5, not a error on the program I use, however I don't know what rev. it is.

 

[farnell121]

The BIOS says it's version F5, not a error on the program I use, however I don't know what rev. it is.

Yeah, that was the first thing I compared. F5 is an update for Rev.01 board. F5 was never released for Rev.02. Rev.02 boards were released in 2014 with BIOS version FA. So from process of elimination I think it's safe to say you can update to BIOS F6a, as you have a Rev.01 board. =]

 

[THAT1GUYIDK]

The BIOS says it's version F5, not a error on the program I use, however I don't know what rev. it is.

Yeah, that was the first thing I compared. F5 is an update for Rev.01 board. F5 was never released for Rev.02. Rev.02 boards were released in 2014 with BIOS version FA. So from process of elimination I think it's safe to say you can update to BIOS F6a, as you have a Rev.01 board. =]

Nah, no good. Motherboard's bricked now lol. Welp, all these upgrades I'm getting, Motherboard won't be a big deal right?

 

[farnell121]

No way! Call Gigabyte right away as their support offices should still be open now. Give them all of the steps you took and ask them if there is a way to recover the BIOS. some motherboards like that have two BIOS's so if you do brick one you can activate the secondary BIOS. Ask them if there is an option to boot from USB to update a bricked BIOS. I refuse to believe it is truely dead...!

 

[THAT1GUYIDK]

No way! Call Gigabyte right away as their support offices should still be open now. Give them all of the steps you took and ask them if there is a way to recover the BIOS. some motherboards like that have two BIOS's so if you do brick one you can activate the secondary BIOS. Ask them if there is an option to boot from USB to update a bricked BIOS. I refuse to believe it is truely dead...!

Yeah, it's back on now. Evidently mine is just a Rev. 1, and it's already up to date, except for the beta bios. If it doesn't work with it's current version, I'm just gonnna buy a new mobo. Thanks for the help tho Farnell121!