Question AsRock Steel Legend B450M - does it worth upgrading to Ryzen 5000? (Home Studio / Audio)

[Diogrus]

Hey guys. I'm needing an advice...

I have a home studio (I work with audio), activity where the raw power and count of cores/threads of the CPU really do matter. My current built (full specs on the signature) has a B450M Steel Legend (BIOS v3.30), with a 3500X and 32GB RAM (4x8GB @ 3200MHz). It's running smoothly, but I frequently reach full capacity of the CPU when inserting a cert amount of plugins in Reaper (which is a DAW that has an efficient multithreading usage).

I'm looking initially for a "direct upgrade" (3700X / 3800X), where I'd be able to keep the same BIOS version (which is stable within this built), but the issue is that is getting harder to find them (at least here in Brazil), unless looking at the second-hand market.

So my question is: are any of the latest BIOS updates for the Steel Legend to the Ryzen 5000 series stable, so that would allow me to keep the same equipment, and especially allow me to use the same RAM (I need the 32GB, if possible with the XMP Profile activated at 3200MHz), just by changing the CPU for one of a newer generation (5700X / 5800X)? I took a look at the AMD site, where I found this info about RAM usage (Max Memory Speed):
2x1R - DDR4-3200
2x2R - DDR4-3200
4x1R - DDR4-2933
4x2R - DDR4-2667

I've seen something similar in the Steel Legend specs, where Matisse and Vermeer series seems to behave the same:

ASRock B450M Steel Legend

Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 2000, 3000, 4000 G-Series, 5000 and 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors; Supports DDR4 3533+ (OC); 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x1; AMD Quad CrossFireX™; Graphics Output: DisplayPort, HDMI; 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC892/897 Audio Codec); 4 SATA3, 1...

www.asrock.com

However, my 3500X is running normally at 3200MHz.

 

[Shmee]

With a BIOS update, you should be fine with a Zen 3 chip. I would highly recommend a 5700X as an upgrade, or maybe higher, like a 5900X or 5950X, if the work you do really likes multiple threads.

It is true that Vermeer and Mastisse use the same memory controllers, so in general the rated specs are the same when talking about memory. Now Vermeer chpis usually tend to have slightly better binned chips for their IO die, to my knowledge, but 4x8GB at 3200MHz shouldn't be a problem for either, not with modern UEFI revisions. It is when the IF clock gets around 1900MHz that most chips will start to get close to their limit. So this would be around DDR4 3800. This is why most memory overclockers on AM4 will only go for around 4000MHz or often less, but will instead choose to tighten timings.

 

[Diogrus]

One month update:
The 5700X arrived in November 24th, and the Noctua NH-U12S Redux (air cooler) arrived in November 26th, so, almost one month ago. I took the advantage of the necessity to open the PC to change the air cooler and the CPU, and also changed the PSU (DeepCool DA500 came out, Corsair CX650F came in), due to the good value of the PSU and to already prepare the system for a future GPU swap. Apart from some adjustments that were necessary to make in the BIOS after changing the processors, the swap was almost plug'n'play (I've upgraded the BIOS from v3.30 to v.4.30 previously to the arrive of the components). And, well... for the audio working, it reached a whole new level of experience. A project I was getting some issues (audio glitches, due to overusage of the processment of the CPU with the 3500X) is running smoothly with a lower Buffer Size (more processing), which is incredible.


And the memories are running smoothly at 3200MHz.