[SOLVED] How Well Is Gigabyte's Motherboard Support History? Is My Z490 Board Likely To Get Any More BIOS Upgrades?

[Cyber_Akuma]

I have a Gigabyte Z490 AORUS PRO AX motherboard, and the BIOS hasn't been updated in a while. Thing is, the latest BIOS updates added better support for Windows 11.... and fixed some "major vulnerabilities" that they highly recommend you update.

My issue is... that update also claims it changes the way the BIOS itself is written and once I update to it, I can no longer downgrade to any previous version.

That specific part is what worries me, since both the 10th gen and 11th gen Intel CPUs were rather lackluster, and now that 12th gen has been released and is doing well, I worry that Z590 and especially Z490 boards are just going to be ignored from now on, and mine ended up with the most recent BIOS both being a recommended onw for Windows 11 support and to fix security issues.... while also being one I can't downgrade from in case it gives me issues.

If Gigabyte continues to update this board I wouldn't be as worried, but my main concern is due to it being a 10th gen chipset and 12th gen being out now and how lackluster 10th and 11th gen were, that these boards will be ignored now and not get further upgrades. Anyone have any experience with how well or poorly Gigabyte tends to support older motherboards?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

a specific manufacturer does not have any regular update pattern.
it all depends on the chipset, generation of hardware, issues that may be determined through the lifespan, compatibility updates, etc...

I worry that Z590 and especially Z490 boards are just going to be ignored from now on

my older Z370 has had some recent BIOS updates.
you will still see many Z9* series boards even still receiving updates when necessary.

 

[tennis2]

Can't comment on support longevity, but:

• BIOS updates are generally issued for:
  • Security patches - May impart a performance decrease. Research the security patch and whether it's important/relevant to you
    • Recently these are CPU-related and would be pushed to all vendors by Intel.
      • I was getting 2018 Spectre/Meltdown BIOS updates from AsRock for my i7-3770. Maybe search some older Gigabyte boards' BIOS lists to see roughly how many years they got updates?
  • Added compatibility - Not necessary to update if your current hardware works without issue.
  • Performance updates - The Win11 patch is probably worthwhile. Google around or read patch notes to see what exactly the update is improving
    • Win11 performance improvements are most likely pushed to all vendors by MS/Intel.
  • Big fixes - May or may not be applicable to your setup.
    • If a BIOS update introduces a bug that affects enough people and the vendor gets enough complaints, they'll issue a fix

Call it blind trust, but I wouldn't have any reservations to updating your BIOS in this situation.

 

[Bazzy 505]

I wouldn't worry about bios updates too much. Very few board manufacturers make their own bios, they order it/its patches from AMI as needed. Once bios reaches feature complete state, which happens within a year or so, there's a little reason for OEMs to revisit it once supported harware list is complete. On intel platform it is quite rare to have support for more than one generation of processors on the same chipset.
And there's no new hardware comming to 10/11th gen platform.

In regard to those speculative execution side channel vulnerabilities you've mentioned, only first basic patch came from board vendors. Bulk of the patch payload came from Intel/Microsoft through windows update much much later. You cannot rely on any board manufacturer to provide extended support of this kind. Not unless you're buying enterprise grade hardware. Having said that, there was quite a bit of hysteria around those side channel vulnerabilities, they've been around, in one form or the other, ever since speculative execution has become cornerstone of design of all modern CPUs. Most of these vulnerabilities, even before patches were not easily or practically exploitable.

There is no such thing as secure hardware, for the most part there's just hardware that's secure enough. The best you can do to have have a stable and relatively secure system is to keep your OS updated and limit your harware upgrade options to what is listed in supported harware list for a given motherboard.