New AMD G (2200 and 2400) APUs — Will all existing MBs require BIOS update? How possible w/o CPU?

[jgortner]

Howdy!

I am going to be doing a from scratch build with the new AMD 2400G APU. However, I've read that current / existing motherboards will require a BIOS update to use. But how am I supposed to update the BIOS if I don't have a CPU that works with it? Or do motherboards not require a CPU in them to update the BIOS?

Thanks in advance!

PS. This is the board I am thinking about.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nG98TW/asrock-ab350-gaming-itxac-mini-itx-am4-motherboard-ab350-gaming-itxac

 

[kanewolf]

If you have a specific MB in mind, check the manufacturer's website. After the CPUs are officially released the manufacturer will list if the CPU is supported. They will also list the minimum BIOS revision for the CPU. It is too early to tell what will be required right now.

 

[Snipergod87]

If your motherboard doesn't have a compatible BIOS it probably wont boot, and would need to get one based on the 400 series chipset for guaranteed support. Some High end 300 series boards have a method of flashing the BIOS without a CPU installed but they usually aren't cheap.

 

[geofelt]

I would be wary about buying a APU for gaming if I had any likelihood of future upgrades.
No doubt the new ryzen apu will have better cpu power than the old apu line.
But, you buy an APU for the superior integrated graphics.
Once you decide you need a graphics upgrade, you will have thrown away the big benefit of an apu and you would have been better off buying a cpu and gpu combo.

It might be prudent to wait for more information before buying a motherboard now.
I understand that motherboards with the appropriate bios will have a sticker on the box sayin 2000 series apu ready.

 

[jgortner]

"Once you decide you need a graphics upgrade, you will have thrown away the big benefit of an apu"

I don't get this. These chips are faster and cheaper than their counterparts. What exactly am I throwing away here by getting the APUs?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Howdy!

I am going to be doing a from scratch build with the new AMD 2400G APU. However, I've read that current / existing motherboards will require a BIOS update to use. But how am I supposed to update the BIOS if I don't have a CPU that works with it? Or do motherboards not require a CPU in them to update the BIOS?

Thanks in advance!

PS. This is the board I am thinking about.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nG98TW/asrock-ab350-gaming-itxac-mini-itx-am4-motherboard-ab350-gaming-itxac

"Once you decide you need a graphics upgrade, you will have thrown away the big benefit of an apu"

I don't get this. These chips are faster and cheaper than their counterparts. What exactly am I throwing away here by getting the APUs?

That's a very real problem to be worried about as it was common when AMD FX processors came... they'd work on the AM3 and AM3+ boards but they needed a BIOS update first. Vendors were flush with the boards and gladly shipped them with FX processors to unwitting customers. If you had access to an older processor that was great, but some people had to run out and buy a low-end Sempron just to load a BIOS.

Make sure your vendor will help out by having their techs install a supporting BIOS to make it work with the new APU's. And question them a dozen ways before pulling the trigger as they perniciously confuse the question since it SAYS in the literature it 'supports' the new APU but not that it will need a BIOS update to do it. This is honestly a case where it's much better to pay a little more to buy it locally if you can.

And about your last question: that's kind of the nature of the trade-off with an APU. I think they're mostly targeted at the retail market where fully configured boxed systems ship with out a GPU for owners who're less demanding about bleeding-edge graphics performance but very cost conscious. The 2200 and 2400 will reportedly knock Intel really hard since they have the middle-to-upper end of that segment all to themselves right now.

The CPU will be a 4-core/4 thread (2200) or 4-core/8-thread (2400) Ryzen processor so I'd expect similar performance, if I'm not mistaken. I think everyone is under NDA so they aren't talking specifics about graphics performance (assuming they have them to be testing yet) so that will have to wait until launch and the reviews start popping up. Even so, there will be a lot of speculators who look at the number of processors and render pipes and such to extrapolate performance but that's just guesswork, IMO, as an APU is much more in the whole than the sum of it's parts.