Final nail in coffin for PCIe 4.0 on pre-X570 motherboards

As I previously touched upon, AMD is not keen on enabling PCI Express 4 on boards preceding the X570 platform, even if it might have been possible in some cases. It’s unsurprising considering that PCI-E 4 is a key benefit of upgrading to X570.  Now AMD hammers down a final nail in the coffin on the chances of getting the newer, faster interface on older mainboards.

As AMD and motherboard manufacturers prepared for the launch of the Zen 2 processor architecture and the third-generation Ryzen processors, it initially seemed possible for some older motherboards to not only access the new processor units but also access some of the big news with the processor generation.

After a BIOS update, users of older Gigabyte motherboards with the X470 chipset noticed that – all of a sudden – there was support for PCI Express 4.0 inside the motherboard’s BIOS settings:

It looked like the older motherboards would be able to use the new interface (in combination with one of the latest Ryzen processors) for higher bandwidth to and from products such as SSD drives that use this type of interface.

However, this was something that AMD later confirmed would not become a permanent feature of the older motherboards. Since AMD itself allegedly did not feel that they could be completely sure that their partner manufacturer’s motherboard could meet the requirements set by the new interface, support for PCIe 4.0 would be removed.

This is something that is happening all over now. With the new BIOS update AGESA Combo-AM4 1.0.0.3 ABB, the PCIe 4.0 support of all motherboards without the X570 control circuit will be blocked. According to AMD, AGESA Combo-AM4 1.0.0.3 ABB also comes with measures against minor problems that existed with processors from the Ryzen 3000 series as well as new XMP profiles for RAM and the “Event 17, WHEA Logger” warning in Windows Event Viewer.

Via Guru3D