Will Biostar TA790GXB A2+ suppose Phenom II x6 eventually?

[Xellos2099]

Long story short, last year I made the jump to Phenom II X 4 with Biostar TA790GXB A2+ as newegg combo and I am been quite happy with it. Combine with my GTX 275, it play starcraft II just fine. However, Final Fantasy XIV that is coming out in September actually recommend either a I& or a X6. I went over to biostar site and it turn out my mobo is ONE of the few that doesn't support X6.

It kind of piss me off that my upgrade 10 month ago won't even suppose x6. I am wondering if biostar would eventually release bios for x6 in the future or I am at the dead end in terms of processor?

 

[jjmIII]

not looking good..

 

[ModestGamer]

AM2+. thuban x6 is AM3 socket IIRC.

 

[Xellos2099]

Well, the point of am2+ mobo is that it is suppose to support AM3 processor...

 

[Bandit1]

Correct.^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_AM2%2B

Do i feel duped thinking i had a further upgrade path than i actually did?Yeap!!.From what i've read around,few AM2+ boards actually exist that comply other than having the extra pinouts for am3 to physically fit in socket.


Going from memory of asking tech support this very question 2 months or so ago,the answer is something to the effect that the power phasing of the board is not compatible with x6 at least.further edited:my mistake,there are actually (2) am3 cpu models actually listed by my manufacturer to work with my mobo.Better than nothing i suppose.


p.s.-love my mobo,but this matter irritates me because it makes no sense and smells of fish!

 

[Xellos2099]

Can biostar actually be sue for this? People buy the mobo under the pretense it will work with AM3 processor? Hell, one of the reason that I choose that motherboard with 940 combo IS because it was NOT suppose to be a dead end upgrade path!

 

[Rifter]

yeah you and me both got fucked, i also have a AM2+ board with a PH II 940BE that i specifically bought so i would have an upgrade path that could still use DDR2.

AM3 boards were brand new at the time i purchased and i still had DDR2 ram i wanted to use so i figured since AM3 was supposed to be backwards compatable i was fine. There is no reason it should not work foxconn is just screwing me by not releasing a BIOS for X6 CPU's, or AMD is by not making AM3 as backwards compatable as they said.

Either way because of this my next CPU will be Intel and not with a foxconn board. If AMD wanted my business they could have kept there promise to make AM3 backwards compatable, if i need to replace board and RAM and CPU all at the same time i might as well go intel.

 

[ModestGamer]

yeah you and me both got fucked, i also have a AM2+ board with a PH II 940BE that i specifically bought so i would have an upgrade path that could still use DDR2.

AM3 boards were brand new at the time i purchased and i still had DDR2 ram i wanted to use so i figured since AM3 was supposed to be backwards compatable i was fine. There is no reason it should not work foxconn is just screwing me by not releasing a BIOS for X6 CPU's, or AMD is by not making AM3 as backwards compatable as they said.

Either way because of this my next CPU will be Intel and not with a foxconn board. If AMD wanted my business they could have kept there promise to make AM3 backwards compatable, if i need to replace board and RAM and CPU all at the same time i might as well go intel.

I have no idea what you guys are doing wrong.

I have also had a am2+ CPU in a am3 socket. No problem.

I now have a am3 socket cpu on the same am3 socket board.

again no problem.

I plan to upgrade to the 6x cores or maybe bulldozer when it comes out if it reviews strongly.

either way.

Its a am2+ socket issue. Not a AMD issue.

right now I have this MB and CPU together.

http://products.amd.com/en-gb/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=400

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=lco8LZWTqWIhdLmv&templete=2

WORKS FINE. I typed this message on that machine. AM3 has gretbackwards compatability. am2+ I have no idea about.

 

[lopri]

@ModestGamer: You are quickly becoming a new star in AT forums, but not for the right reasons. You've got things backward there. AM3 CPUs work on AM2+ boards with BIOS support, not the other way around.

X6 will work on AM2+ or even AM2 boards provided the vendors issue the supporting BIOS. 65nm Phenoms or Athlons do not work on AM3 boards, because they lack DDR3 controller. AM3 boards are DDR3 boards by definition.

OP: It sounds like you're out of luck, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to inquire directly to Biostar.

 

[bleucharm28]

You need six cores to play Final FantasyXIV?

 

[tcsenter]

Have you actually contacted BIOSTAR to inquire or request support for X6 models?

 

[ModestGamer]

ahh wrong. New sockets AMD3 support older am2+ cpu's. Not older sockets supprting newer cpu's.

Head on over here and have a read.



RTFM

Oh even wiki got it right

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_socket

look at the bottom of the amd socket family compatability lists.

am2+ sockets will not run a am3 cpu. Power plane changes and a few other things are different.


Its not just s bios revision.

sorry you feel duped.

am3 cpu's will never run on am2 board. Power plane differences and other issues aside.

AM3 socket supports am2 am2+ and am3. but am2+ and am2 will not support am3 cpu's.

got it now ?

@ModestGamer: You are quickly becoming a new star in AT forums, but not for the right reasons. You've got things backward there. AM3 CPUs work on AM2+ boards with BIOS support, not the other way around.

X6 will work on AM2+ or even AM2 boards provided the vendors issue the supporting BIOS. 65nm Phenoms or Athlons do not work on AM3 boards, because they lack DDR3 controller. AM3 boards are DDR3 boards by definition.

OP: It sounds like you're out of luck, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to inquire directly to Biostar.

 

[tcsenter]

AM3 socket supports am2 am2+ and am3. but am2+ and am2 will not support am3 cpu's. Got it now?

 

[sonoma1993]

Either way because of this my next CPU will be Intel and not with a foxconn board. If AMD wanted my business they could have kept there promise to make AM3 backwards compatable, if i need to replace board and RAM and CPU all at the same time i might as well go intel.

AMD did keep their promise about AM3 cpu's being backwards compatible with AM2 and AM2+ motherboards. But it up to the motherboard manufacture to provide a BIOS updates to support current AM3 cpu's. I have a biostar TA790GX A2+ motherboard, according to their site the latest AM3 cpu it support upto is the Phenom II X4 945. Wish I could a bios support for for the x6 cpu though.

 

[Rifter]

ahh wrong. New sockets AMD3 support older am2+ cpu's. Not older sockets supprting newer cpu's.

Head on over here and have a read.



RTFM

Oh even wiki got it right

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_socket

look at the bottom of the amd socket family compatability lists.

am2+ sockets will not run a am3 cpu. Power plane changes and a few other things are different.


Its not just s bios revision.

sorry you feel duped.

am3 cpu's will never run on am2 board. Power plane differences and other issues aside.

AM3 socket supports am2 am2+ and am3. but am2+ and am2 will not support am3 cpu's.

got it now ?

You have no idea what you are talking about, IT IS JUST A BIOS REVISION!!!

Otherwise explain my Asus M3A78-EM, its a AM2/AM2+ Motherboard that has been out and i bought before AM3 even existed and guess what, the latest bios update adds support for the new X6 CPU's as well as all the other Athlon II and Phenom II AM3 CPUs.

so to sonoma1993 i guess you are right, its foxconn dropping the ball not AMD, strange since foxconn is such a large company you would think they would be up to date with bios revisions.

 

[Davidh373]

Just buy the $70 AM3 motherboard and be done with it. Tech gets outdated fast. Quad core will last you a while yet. Pretty soon 8 core processors will be out and you'll be wanting an AM3+ for all you know. If you want the upgrade, make it happen.
If the game you upgrade for is FFXIV then you are going far beyond your needs. The "possible" minimum system requirements are a Core 2 Duo, or an Athlon II. So basically even though it's just speculation, Quad Core will be more than enough, as will that GTX275. In fact, they will be overkill in my opinion. The Graphics required are a Geforce 8600 or equivalent ATI.
No MMO can succeed without low system requirements. If they have high requirements they don't have as many players and the whole point of MMOs is player count. You'll be fine. If you were saying you wanted to upgrade for Crysis 4 (maybe 3? lol) I might say you have a point, but you aren't.

 

[Xellos2099]

True, I will probably wait till the game come out before I decide if I need upgrade or not. The recommend spec is insane through, Come they actually said the recommend spec is I7 combo with GTX460.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=256550

 

[heyheybooboo]

I second that


And you are right to wait, OP, but you really have no one to blame but yourself. Biostar makes an excellent mobo these days but their BIOS support is not quite at the level of Gigabyte, Asus or MSI. Same with Foxconn.

Blaming AMD is LOL crazy. They made the CPUs pin-compatible and include both a DDR2 and DDR3 memory controller. Your issue will be the GTX275 (which you most likely overpaid) and DX11. I'd be okay with DX10 and a little less eye-candy but you may not feel that way.

A PhenomII is a PhenomII is a PhenomII. Last Fall your mobo/cpu combo was less than $190. And you're pissed, now? How much less is that than what you paid for the GTX275?

The 940BE should easily run 3.4-3.6GHz with the IMC/NB at 2400-2600MHz. That is more than enough jam to push any video card on the market today.




--

 

[StrangerGuy]

I second that


And you are right to wait, OP, but you really have no one to blame but yourself. Biostar makes an excellent mobo these days but their BIOS support is not quite at the level of Gigabyte, Asus or MSI. Same with Foxconn.

Blaming AMD is LOL crazy. They made the CPUs pin-compatible and include both a DDR2 and DDR3 memory controller. Your issue will be the GTX275 (which you most likely overpaid) and DX11. I'd be okay with DX10 and a little less eye-candy but you may not feel that way.

A PhenomII is a PhenomII is a PhenomII. Last Fall your mobo/cpu combo was less than $190. And you're pissed, now? How much less is that than what you paid for the GTX275?

The 940BE should easily run 3.4-3.6GHz with the IMC/NB at 2400-2600MHz. That is more than enough jam to push any video card on the market today.




--

Nonono...Only a 4GHz i7 is fast enough for us hardcorez gamerz who games at 2000 fps with lowest details at 640x480 compared to just 1000 fps of AMD sucky CPUs! After all it's 100% faster amirite? See the math PROVES my point!

*ahem* And oh:

Socket AM3 - AM3 CPUs only
Socket AM2 - AM3/2+/2 CPUs

 

[Davidh373]

Nonono...Only a 4GHz i7 is fast enough for us hardcorez gamerz who games at 2000 fps with lowest details at 640x480 compared to just 1000 fps of AMD sucky CPUs! After all it's 100% faster amirite? See the math PROVES my point!

*ahem* And oh:

Socket AM3 - AM3 CPUs only
Socket AM2 - AM3/2+/2 CPUs

I like you StrangerGuy you're... realistic lol...

 

[pcsavvy]

I have the Gigabyte 760G microboard which is an AM2+ motherboard, I have the AM3 Athlon II X3 235 in it and it runs just fine and if I wanted to get a AM3 with more cores, the mb will support it.
It is all dependent upon the mb bios. I got this board because it was a great deal and I wanted to use my DDR2 Ram and not have to pay more money for DDR3 which in my case is not needed.

 

[tcsenter]

Contact BIOSTAR. Can't remember which board it was now, but a few years ago I had an ECS board that technically was capable of supporting some newer processors but ECS hadn't released a new BIOS for it in about a year. I contacted ECS and requested it. ECS USA support replied that the board probably wouldn't get any more BIOS updates. Two weeks later, they released a new BIOS.

 

[Bandit1]

Figured i would post back this word for word answer BIOSTAR gave me after asking,yet again.The question is easy to guessMy exact board being the 790gx AM2+:

>Unfortunately, no your motherboard does not support the 6-core CPU because the CPU requires a dual power plane design. A BIOS update will not help.<

There must be some differences amongst am2+ boards because for instance i looked at the asus am2+ boards and they are supporting all am3 cpu i could see including x6.A dissapointment,but my theory is the boards were designed prior to certain events within AMD.:shrug:

 

[tcsenter]

There is no difference. AM2+ boards supporting AM3 CPUs are all the same as far as dual/split power plane designs go. Unfortunately, you just received a canned response from a low-level help desk employee who most likely doesn't know any better, probably getting paid $2/day in India.

ANY AM2+ board that can support ANY AM3 Phenom II and Athlon II models are supporting the split power plane requirements of ALL AM3 processors. Some boards may not support the higher TDP requirements (e.g. above 95W) of the X6, but that's a different issue than split power plane support. Every 790GX board I can find from BIOSTAR is supporting plenty of other Phenom II and Athlon II AM3 models, so its definitely not a hardware/design limitation (subject to TDP support limits).

 

[Bandit1]

Well,if you say so about a canned response.It said no to me.It was the same answer i got 2 months ago but i could'nt remember how it was worded.The TDP is no excuse there because several on the list of approved cpu have a tdp of 125 watt.Alss,they are missing a couple x4 am3,the 3.2 and 3.4ghz models,and they sidestepped that part of my question.

Like i said earlier this makes no sense,but i don't make motherboards either and try not think i am just being snowed over because they don't fell like making any further bios for the board.Either way,my next board will likely be asus for timely bios and the good things i hear.