In an interesting twist, some existing AM3 Asus motherboards may be compatible with AMD’s upcoming Bulldozer CPUs. According to an article at SweClockers, the Crosshair IV Extreme, Crosshair Formula IV, M4A89TD PRO/USB3 and M489GTD PRO/USB3 are BIOS-upgradeable to take AMD FX-series processors that were thought to only be compatible with the upcoming AM3+ socket. A while ago there was talk that Bulldozer CPUs would be compatible with the AM3 socket, but John Fruehe, Director of Product Marketing at AMD, squashed that idea in a forum post at AMD Zone back in August 2010. In a crude Swedish-to-English translation from SweClockers:
“For those who already own or plan to buy an AMD-based computer system motherboard for socket AM3 will be good news when Asus reveals that some models need only update the BIOS to also manage next-generation processors for Socket AM3+ , by all accounts FX series with the Bulldozer architecture.”
I haven’t been able to dig up any official Asus or AMD source, so please take this news with a grain of salt. If you manage to dig up any more details or have an opinion on the matter, I encourage you to leave a comment below.
UPDATE #1: Apparently Asus might not be the only company with BIOS-upgradeable Bulldozer support. According to a recent post at German site, Planet3DNow, MSI is also planning on providing a BIOS update for certain AM3 boards to make them compatible with the upcoming processors. HOWEVER, John Fruehe was quick to refute this just a couple of weeks ago saying that “Bulldozer is supported in AM3+ only. That is the official word from AMD.” Perhaps the partners (Asus and MSI) have found a way to make their AM3 sockets and BIOS compatible, but this is just another reason to take this news with a grain of salt.
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Major thanks for the article post.Really looking forward to read more. Fantastic.
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