Is Phenom II compatibile with AM2?

[ther00kie16]

I've searched quite a bit and only found a couple of places where AM2 is mentioned (both places claim it's compatible) with one of them being a post in AMD's forums. Does anyone have any solid information on this topic or will it be up to the motherboard companies to come out with a bios to support the new chips?

Edit: so here's the AMD forum thread. about 2/3 of the way down one post says "It's already been confirmed. The new 45nm Deneb will work in all excising and future AM2 & AM2+ motherboards" That was 7 months ago though and there's nothing on AMD's site about Deneb and AM2.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I think the AM2+ only, not sure though...

 

[heyheybooboo]

I imagine it will be up to the mobo manufacturers. Even without a BIOS update it might work but wouldn't be properly recognized, and if it booted would probably run like a dawg.

AM2 would be limited by the 1000MHz HT and the tweaks the 'plus' brings to the system - split power planes, timing and memory adjustments, DDr2 1066MHz, etc ...

 

[ther00kie16]

Yea, seems like some motherboard companies have only announced support for some AM2+ boards (Asus) while Gigabyte has it for all of theirs. And so far it seems there's no announcement of any AM2 support from any company. Looks like no easy upgrade for me. That just means they won't see my business for awhile longer. Hoping for oct-core with 16 threads in a year or so. The announcement of 45w quads makes an enthusiast 125w oct-core seem very doable now.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Consider: some older AM2 mobos are unable to run current Phenoms, and some mobos built around a fairly recent chipset (780g) are restricted to 95W Phenoms. The 1st PhII's to be introduced will be 125W parts.

As heyheybooboo pointed out, some AM2 boards that will be able to run PhII will do so only at reduced performance levels.

The poster who stated, "It's already been confirmed. The new 45nm Deneb will work in all excising and future AM2 & AM2+ motherboards" is talking out of his...

 

[geokilla]

My M2N-E seems to support the new Phenom II with a BIOS update, despite it being a crap board. That said, check with your board manufacturer. Chances are high that your motherboard will support Phenom II with just a BIOS update.

 

[ther00kie16]

Originally posted by: geokilla
My M2N-E seems to support the new Phenom II with a BIOS update, despite it being a crap board. That said, check with your board manufacturer. Chances are high that your motherboard will support Phenom II with just a BIOS update.

How do you figure your mb has Phenom II support? It doesn't appear to me to be the case according to Asus

 

[geokilla]

Originally posted by: ther00kie16

Originally posted by: geokilla
My M2N-E seems to support the new Phenom II with a BIOS update, despite it being a crap board. That said, check with your board manufacturer. Chances are high that your motherboard will support Phenom II with just a BIOS update.

How do you figure your mb has Phenom II support? It doesn't appear to me to be the case according to Asus

Woops. Mistook the new Athlon X2 7XXX for the Phenom II. My bad. But I guess a BIOS update would officially support Phenom II once Phenom II is released.

 

[Extelleron]

Phenom II is fully compatible with AM2 boards, however it is up to the manufacturers to update the BIOS to support the new 45nm CPUs. Likely most will not go back to update old boards and users will be left in the dark. It was the same with Phenom AM2 support; many boards were not updated to support it.

 

[formulav8]

Originally posted by: Extelleron
Phenom II is fully compatible with AM2 boards, however it is up to the manufacturers to update the BIOS to support the new 45nm CPUs. Likely most will not go back to update old boards and users will be left in the dark. It was the same with Phenom AM2 support; many boards were not updated to support it.

That is basically my understanding as well for PhII support.



Jason

 

[Quizard]

*Most* AM2/AM2+ boards will support them from the get go and BIOS update will help with stability issues and better support

 

[Kraeoss]

keyword.... erm acronym am2/am2+ not am2 alone therefore u can look at it like am2/am2+/PH II

 

[BlueBlazer]

Mostly AM2+ boards only (and mainly those that support 125W or 140W processors)... You can check them at the motherboard manufacturers websites.

Older AM2 boards are no go... since they do not have split power planes, and required a new power regulator design (many old AM2 motherboards support 89W and 95W processors only).

 

[f4phantom2500]

i have a tforce 550, and was hoping someone could shed some light on this. im currently running a brisbane 3600. it would be a pretty exciting upgrade, personally i don't see a reason to upgrade to anything else on this motherboard, since i can get this chip at least to 2.6ghz, and at one time i had it running at 2.8 for a few months. then my psu died.

anyway, there's very little documentation on support for new processors on biostar's site. if i could get a phenom ii to work in this board, i would really consider that. elsewise i would either opt for a p45 board and an e5200, or just not upgrade at all. we'll see.

 

[chucky2]

GigabyteColin has said Gigabyte is working on a Beta BIOS for the <edit>AMD chipset</edit> AM2 boards...not sure which one and not sure if it'll ever make it to the public. Sure would be nice though...a nice 45nm quad core - even low GHz - would make a great final upgrade to these 690G boards.

EDIT: I just went and checked both the English Taiwan site, and the USA site for Gigabyte for the <edit>AMD chipest</edit> AM2 boards. The English Taiwan site has the updated BIOS's listed, the USA site does not.

If you have a Gigabyte <edit>AMD chipset</edit> AM2 board, I'd head on over to the English Taiwan site and download now...just in case they get pulled later.

Thanks Gigabyte!

Chuck

 

[Andrew1990]

Hmm, any word on the Nforce 570 SLI support? I think I read somewhere that the Phenom IIs work in a lot of older boards but they show up as Unknown in the bios and whatnot.

 

[chucky2]

Edited first post in this thread.

 

[BlueBlazer]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500i have a tforce 550, and was hoping someone could shed some light on this. im currently running a brisbane 3600. it would be a pretty exciting upgrade, personally i don't see a reason to upgrade to anything else on this motherboard, since i can get this chip at least to 2.6ghz, and at one time i had it running at 2.8 for a few months. then my psu died.

anyway, there's very little documentation on support for new processors on biostar's site. if i could get a phenom ii to work in this board, i would really consider that. elsewise i would either opt for a p45 board and an e5200, or just not upgrade at all. we'll see.

I've had several people asking me about that board, and from what I've seen from the Biostar website... the answer would be NO...

As can be seen at http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/...u_support.php?S_ID=180 this board supports up to 89W processors mostly... and no mention of AM3 compatibility. Try contacting their support...

Originally posted by: Andrew1990
Hmm, any word on the Nforce 570 SLI support? I think I read somewhere that the Phenom IIs work in a lot of older boards but they show up as Unknown in the bios and whatnot.

Why don't you check GigaByte website on your motherboard details... whether there are any BIOS updates available for Deneb. Try contacting their support...

 

[JavaMomma]

I have a M2N32-SLI ... it'll be 3 years old this June, great board. I'd love to get support for the new PIIs, currently using a x2 3800+ ... if it doesn't get support I'll probably wait for the 9950s to drop in price, 125 watt version apparently works.

 

[ther00kie16]

Originally posted by: chucky2
GigabyteColin has said Gigabyte is working on a Beta BIOS for the <edit>AMD chipset</edit> AM2 boards...not sure which one and not sure if it'll ever make it to the public. Sure would be nice though...a nice 45nm quad core - even low GHz - would make a great final upgrade to these 690G boards.

EDIT: I just went and checked both the English Taiwan site, and the USA site for Gigabyte for the <edit>AMD chipest</edit> AM2 boards. The English Taiwan site has the updated BIOS's listed, the USA site does not.

If you have a Gigabyte <edit>AMD chipset</edit> AM2 board, I'd head on over to the English Taiwan site and download now...just in case they get pulled later.

Thanks Gigabyte!

Chuck

Chuck, I'm thinking the same thing you are: drop a Phenom II in a Gigabyte 690g board sometime in the future. I downloaded the new bios but the site doesn't say what updates have been made other than "Update CPU ID (AGESA3.3.2.0)". Any idea what that means? I'll try the new bios out and hopefully I won't lose voltage setting that I have now with F3a.

Edit: Looks like Taiwan gigabyte site shows official support for Phenom II. That's just what I wanted.
Thanks, Chuck.

 

[dajeepster]

The ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe has support for the Phenom II with the 1406 Bios update

 

[phoenix79]

Originally posted by: JavaMomma
I have a M2N32-SLI ... it'll be 3 years old this June, great board. I'd love to get support for the new PIIs, currently using a x2 3800+ ... if it doesn't get support I'll probably wait for the 9950s to drop in price, 125 watt version apparently works.

I've got the same board and this is exactly what I'm gonna do. With a BIOS Upgrade it can currently run DDR2-1066 and the Phenom 9950 pretty well from what I've read. When the P-II's hit the price of the 9950 should drop and I'll grab one of those and some new RAM.