Compatibility

[gooberchoober]

Would the:

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

Be compatible with:

Gigabyte-GA-A320M-S2H

(or vice-versa, I don't know the correct terminology)

Semi-Beginner to PC's, barely understand what i would even be looking for to find out so i take to the forums to find out.

[r.linder]

It'll work with a BIOS update, but A320 is just awful. It will hold back the 3700X because the VRM is too weak for anything more than an APU.

[Autumn_]

Originally posted by Escorve:

It'll work with a BIOS update, but A320 is just awful. It will hold back the 3700X because the VRM is too weak for anything more than an APU.

This; nothing saying it wouldn't technically work. But the power delievery is garbage, so it won't allow it to reach proper speeds, or the VRMs would cook.

My advice, grab a decent board. Don't trust a good/great CPU in some cheapshit board. Even if it costs you a hundred or so dollars, better to know it works properly.

[_I_]

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-A320M-S2H-rev-1x/support#support-cpu

3700x requies bios ver F40
the board ships with bios ver F1

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-A320M-S2H-rev-1x/support#support-dl-bios
looks like it needs to be flashed to a few versions in order
stock F1 -> F32 -> F50

[Jamebonds1]

Originally posted by Autumn_:

Originally posted by Escorve:

It'll work with a BIOS update, but A320 is just awful. It will hold back the 3700X because the VRM is too weak for anything more than an APU.

This; nothing saying it wouldn't technically work. But the power delievery is garbage, so it won't allow it to reach proper speeds, or the VRMs would cook.

My advice, grab a decent board. Don't trust a good/great CPU in some cheapshit board. Even if it costs you a hundred or so dollars, better to know it works properly.

A320 is a good budget motherboard. Do you have a source that A320 is terrible?

[r.linder]

Originally posted by Jamebonds1:

Originally posted by Autumn_:

This; nothing saying it wouldn't technically work. But the power delievery is garbage, so it won't allow it to reach proper speeds, or the VRMs would cook.

My advice, grab a decent board. Don't trust a good/great CPU in some cheapshit board. Even if it costs you a hundred or so dollars, better to know it works properly.

A320 is a good budget motherboard. Do you have a source that A320 is terrible?

https://www.techspot.com/article/1584-amd-a320-vs-b350-motherboards/
https://www.gamersnexus.net/news-pc/2593-amd-am4-chipsets-announced-and-new-apu-specs

A320 is focused on low-end systems for basic use and not actually gaming, which is a large reason why there's no A420 or A520 chipset. They aren't in demand because they're terrible in comparison to B350/450/550 despite costing hardly anything less, so there's no point for most people to opt for a cheapshit A320 motherboard when you can get a B450 for hardly anything more.

A320 lacks overclocking support, limited memory support above 2666 MHz, A320 is also completely left out for any future CPU releases. So for 20$ less you're getting a much lower quality motherboard (compared to cheap B450s) with less PCI-e Gen2 lanes, a worse chipset lacking a few features and with lower bandwidth, no VRM cooling whatsoever on most A320s, and that VRM can struggle to handle more than a Ryzen 3 APU, because I've seen A320 users struggle with low clocks on an R3 1200. Everything was ruled out except the motherboard itself, which had one of the worst power delivery spec in the product stack.

The only instance where A320 makes sense is pretty much just home/office use with low end APUs like the Athlon series that don't necessarily care about maximum performance, just a system to get the job done. That isn't the case on Steam, where the primary focus is gaming. A320 does not make any sense for gamers. There is no logical reason for a gamer to spend 20$ less for a ♥♥♥♥ A320 when even the worst B450 is better than the best A320.

It's also amusing that you're trying to defend a product you know nothing about, because you're strictly an Intel user. You never recommend Ryzen for anything and have never used it, so how would you even know any of it anyway? It's literally like being an Apple employee telling people how good their products are when you've never actually used any of their products.

[Autumn_]

Originally posted by Jamebonds1:

Originally posted by Autumn_:

This; nothing saying it wouldn't technically work. But the power delievery is garbage, so it won't allow it to reach proper speeds, or the VRMs would cook.

My advice, grab a decent board. Don't trust a good/great CPU in some cheapshit board. Even if it costs you a hundred or so dollars, better to know it works properly.

A320 is a good budget motherboard. Do you have a source that A320 is terrible?

Please read Escorves post, it basically sums up my thoughts, acompanied by some decent sources.

[Jamebonds1]

Originally posted by Escorve:

It's also amusing that you're trying to defend a product you know nothing about, because you're strictly an Intel user. You never recommend Ryzen for anything and have never used it, so how would you even know any of it anyway? It's literally like being an Apple employee telling people how good their products are when you've never actually used any of their products.

What problem? I saw it myself, and it is a good motherboard.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by Jamebonds1:

Originally posted by Escorve:

It's also amusing that you're trying to defend a product you know nothing about, because you're strictly an Intel user. You never recommend Ryzen for anything and have never used it, so how would you even know any of it anyway? It's literally like being an Apple employee telling people how good their products are when you've never actually used any of their products.

What problem? I saw it myself, and it is a good motherboard.

No, it literally underclocks most AM4 CPUs under heavy load because the VRM can't actually handle it. B450 doesn't cost much more but does a better job of actually handling the task of powering every core.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0Q4PIuNz8

The fact that there's no OC support alone is just a deal breaker because you can't overclock a 3100 or 3300X, which is literally one of the main selling points of those 2 CPUs, because they can actually overclock and beat Ryzen 5 in games using ~4 cores.

[Jamebonds1]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Originally posted by Jamebonds1:

What problem? I saw it myself, and it is a good motherboard.

No, it literally underclocks most AM4 CPUs under heavy load because the VRM can't actually handle it. B450 doesn't cost much more but does a better job of actually handling the task of powering every core.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0Q4PIuNz8

The fact that there's no OC support alone is just a deal breaker because you can't overclock a 3100 or 3300X, which is literally one of the main selling points of those 2 CPUs, because they can actually overclock and beat Ryzen 5 in games using ~4 cores.

Really? It play game well.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by Jamebonds1:

Originally posted by Escorve:

No, it literally underclocks most AM4 CPUs under heavy load because the VRM can't actually handle it. B450 doesn't cost much more but does a better job of actually handling the task of powering every core.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0Q4PIuNz8

The fact that there's no OC support alone is just a deal breaker because you can't overclock a 3100 or 3300X, which is literally one of the main selling points of those 2 CPUs, because they can actually overclock and beat Ryzen 5 in games using ~4 cores.

Really? It play game well.

Cheapest A320 = 54$
Cheapest B450 = 72$

Literal 18$ difference but you don't lose anything when going for B450. There is no logical reason for a gamer building a system with a 1660 SUPER and Ryzen 3 (or better) CPU to use a ♥♥♥♥ A320 just to save 18$.

Anyone can figure that out.

[Jamebonds1]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Originally posted by Jamebonds1:

Really? It play game well.

Cheapest A320 = 54$
Cheapest B450 72$

Literal 18$ difference but you don't lose anything when going for B450. There is no logical reason for a gamer building a system with a 1660 SUPER and Ryzen 3 (or better) CPU to use a ♥♥♥♥ A320 just to save 18$.

Anyone can figure that out.

CAD or USD?

[r.linder]

Originally posted by Jamebonds1:

Originally posted by Escorve:

Cheapest A320 = 54$
Cheapest B450 72$

Literal 18$ difference but you don't lose anything when going for B450. There is no logical reason for a gamer building a system with a 1660 SUPER and Ryzen 3 (or better) CPU to use a ♥♥♥♥ A320 just to save 18$.

Anyone can figure that out.

CAD or USD?

USD.

In CAD, the difference is only 9$ currently:
Cheapest A320 = 71$
Cheapest B450 = 80$

Both still don't have VRM heatsinks, it's on sale, and the closest B450 in price from that is 98$. 27$ difference, which in Canada is pretty much nothing to us regardless. Canada's poor really don't struggle as much for cash as America's poor do.

I'll also mention that the cheapest B450 in the US also happens to be one of the best value B450 boards -- Gigabyte's B450M-DS3H. Aside from the ASRock B450M Pro4 and MSI's B450 MAX series, the B450M-DS3H is one of the best budget AM4 motherboards, and it defeats the purpose of A320.

[_I_]

the board isnt horrible
it has 4+1+1 vrm config (4 for cpu, +1 for imc, +1 for igpu)
no vrm cooling tho, but still beefy enough for 100-150w cpu

if you can find a board with vrm heatsinks at the same price range, go for it

[r.linder]

Originally posted by _I_:

the board isnt horrible
it has 4+1+1 vrm config (4 for cpu, +1 for imc, +1 for igpu)
no vrm cooling tho, but still beefy enough for 100-150w cpu

if you can find a board with vrm heatsinks at the same price range, go for it

Can get a B450M-DS3H for 18$ more, considerably better board
And there's more issues with A320 beyond VRM, and I've seen it struggle with powering the R3 1200.

[_I_]

ya, the a boards are amd's bottom tier chipset boards
2 dimm slots, few sata ports, some without m.2

most are backward compatible for older build upgrades, ps2 k/m ports, serial/parallel ports, surprised they dont put psta(ide), fdd and pci (non express) slot on it

get a b or better board if possible
the min i look for is 4x dimm slots, 6 sata ports to filter out most junk