GA-M61P-S3 F7F Bios - Phenom II Compatibility

Likely problem is no one knows, or can find out what "AGESA 3.3.2.4" is! I've looked fairly extensively; is quoted in a number BIOS release documents, mostly from GB, as well as a couple of Asus', but so far I come up empty; that is one of the (myriad) reasons I stick to Intel, both for my own toys, and for industrial client pieces - I recently decided to start looking into the i7/x58 architecture, and pulled down more than 50MB of docs - over 5000 pages - from Intel; the main problem then becomes 'sifting' and figuring out what matters, but at least the info is there, and painfully public; AMD - not so much, and nVidia - forget it - I think the effing NSA is running nVidia, you can't pry anything out of them... My remaining idea is to try some alternative search engines, and then inquire of the linux guys - they usually know their hardware, and have pried into every aspect of it!

I would think that since AM3 CPU are fairly new, this would imply all of them..

I can confirm the GA-M61P-S3 with F7F does work with Phenom II X3 710 (AM2+). I had a friend let me borrow the chip, plugged it in and accepted it without a problem. I assume that all of the AM2+ chips will work. Thanks for the help everyone.

Hey thanks for posting this. I just started looking to upgrade and stumbled upon the fact that AM3 is supposed to be backward compatible and then cam across you post. Looks like a Phenom II X3 720 is in my future

Jumping in a bit late but ...

Based on the latest CPU support page at Gigabyte's site, the GA-M61P-S3 does support AM3 CPUs; they list the Phenom II X2 550 80w CPU as compatible using the F7F BIOS:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support [...] #anchor_os

BTW the Phenom II X3 710 steven zwickel tested is a 95w AM3 CPU (not an AM2+) as well:
http://www.amd.com/us/products/des [...] rison.aspx

If we add all of this up:

1) Two Deneb-derivative (Callisto=Phenom II X2, Heka=Phenom II X3) AM3 chips work on the GA-M61P-S3, and
2) A 95w Deneb-derivative works (according steven zwickel), and
3) According to Gigabyte, the board supports 125w CPUs (Windsor cores)

then theoretically the Deneb-derived AM3 CPUs up to 125w should work on the board. What I'm finding kind of odd is that 45nm AM3 chips seem to work but Gigabyte isn't certifying any 45nm AM2+ chips.

I'd volunteer to try the AM3 Athlon II X4, but I'm waiting to see how AMD prices the Athlon II X3 chips when they ship in a month or so.

AhHa! I finally found out what it is, and why I can't get it!

"AGESA, an acroynm for 'AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture', is a bootstrap protocol by which system devices on AMD64-architecture mainboards are initialized.

The AGESA software in the BIOS of such mainboards is responsible for the initialization of the processor cores, memory, and the HyperTransport controller.

AGESA documentation is only available to AMD partners that have signed a non-disclosure agreement."

It's the nVidia NSA 'documentation protection' agents again - now they've got AMD - I better go back to wearing my tinfoil hat, so they'll quit 'tapping' my brainwaves!
Actually, I'll go see if I can execute and NDA w/AMD, so at least I might understand when it goes wrong, why it goes wrong!! even though I won't be able to tell anyone...

Why, exactly, would Intel care to have a copy of AMD's ratty, secret initialization routines? You wanna know how to start up (or build, for that matter) an 17/X58? Go to Intel's site and download the 5,531 pages of (not counting whitepapers and powerpoints) documentation that's freely available - or get the lot here http://www.mediafire.com/?yzj5ggmyt4g , where I've zipped it all up... You wanna 'test drive' parallel programming using hyperthreading? Go here http://software.intel.com/sites/pr [...] Form5.html to download Intel's Visual Studio add-on: parallel composer, inspector, and amplifier... Or the TBB 2.2 (threading building blocks) open-source or commercial toolset, here: http://www.threadingbuildingblocks.org/ver.php?fid=140 Need to look up the current i7 errata list - Intel's policy is "our screwups are no secret!"; here http://download.intel.com/design/p [...] 320836.pdf is the 'October 09' list... Wanna see the 'roadmap' to the six core twelve thread 32nm Gulftown? http://download.intel.com/pressroo [...] _Press.pdf Care to see the lowdown on the new HKMG tech, or the 32nm immersion litho? Keep an eye on the 'pressroom', and hunt the archives http://www.intel.com/pressroom/ And, if you just browse around, you'll be amazed - a few weeks back I read an Intel research report on quantum tunneling, that's expected to be a roadblock somewhere around 11 nm, and 2013... You get my drift - the reason I have stuck with, and continue to stick with Intel, since I abandoned my original beloved Zilog Z-80 (and Zilog also documented everything - and publicly!) is that they recognize the value of transparency - to themselves, and to their customers...

Yeah - I remember Pitofsky - he's the one that Clinton used to initiate (vaguely successfully) regulation of video games and song lyrics... A - it's expired; B - it's more aimed at 'patent arguments' between companies with common markets, than anything else; C - it only compelled action concerning the complainants; and D - if the FTC had the power (which it doesn't), the inclination (which it may acquire during this ditzy administration), and the right (which it will never have, but the constitution has been progressively more ignored ever since, oh, Roosevelt...) to force technical documentation 'out into the open', I would be (regardless of my underlying principles) hugely in favor of it, just for convenience' sake! I continually make the case to manufacturers, whenever I have the opportunity, that one of the best sales techniques available is to have clearly published links to clearly written documentation; and the other is word-of-mouth, which you get by having people satisfied with both the product, and its support!

I have a few policies regarding system construction that a large number of people would do well to learn (if you read this forum regularly, you know how many answers boil down to RTFM, but expressed a little more delicately, often with clips posted alongside a reference to 'page xx of your manual'...); the first is to read all the available documentation, 'pre-purchase', on the parts under consideration; the second is related - if the manufacturer can't be bothered to put a manual for their POC on their website, then I can't be bothered to send them my money for the POC, either! I have recently been working on an Excel 'conversion file' for i7 RAM, that takes in the latencies at whatever rated frequency, and standardizes them to (the only speed officially supported by Intel) 1066 - so one can compare physical latencies, rather than high frequencies, which i7s pretty much don't really seem to care about... In the process, I've discovered that two of the 'known names' in memory only publish CAS latency, and don't even bother with tRCD, tRP, and tRAS, much less voltage - so, after running into a couple of examples, I promptly removed them both from the table - who would want such stuff?

I'm amused to be called a 'fanboy (and somewhat complimented to be called an anythingboy at my age - way back when, on my fortieth, my ex posted a sign over the entrance to the party hall that read "put the horses in the wagon - it's all downhill from here"...), but it isn't just Intel who gets my kudos, its anybody who has the insight to provide excellent documentation for things that, well, need excellent documentation! I use a fairly capacious, intricate boot manager (BootItNG from TeraByte - http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/s [...] ation.htm) whose feature set is huge, and every single aspect of it, along with just about every problem you can create with it, is meticulously documented... A lot of open source stuff, as well, (a good example is the OpenMediaLibrary: http://www.openmedialibrary.org/ ) goes above and beyond; on the other hand, I've written AMD/ATI three times in the last six months (or three releases of Catalyst - however you choose to 'mark time') to ask when the Avivo codec, which is otherwise a wonderful piece, is going to learn to close a file handle when it's done processing - and no one there can even be bothered to answer support email; apparently, if your question doesn't fit in a 'pre-answered' category, you're on your own! The only thing that keeps me from going to their competitor is that I've dealt with nVidia, and they're even worse!

I can confirm that a Phenom II X2 545 (AM3) works on it (BIOS F7F). The CPU is recognized correctly and running properly. Indeed, good overclock to 3,6 GHz (240 FSB).

Although the performance is not so good if we compare with an AM2+ or AM3 board (unlocked the other two cores to X4 B45 ), it add a plus over my old Athlon X2 5000BE.

From looking at other Giga-byte BIOS pages, it appears we need AGESA 3.5.3.x to support the latest chips on this board. Perhaps if enough of us ask, they'll do it.

Athlon II X4 630 also working on this MB.

BIOS F7F detect CPU right, but i think Cool&Quiet set too much voltage in Load - 1,4V (real 1,46V), in idle 1,15V.
I can overclocked CPU to about 3500Mhz, but my old heatsink Coolermaster Hyper TX had lot work.
Power Supply Calculator said at 1,46V/3500MHz it generate 176W. http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
In this power the MB start generating different scary whistling sounds, so i rather slow down.
I really don't need extreme OC, i bought this CPU as a last upgrade for my old MB, so I'm verry happy that is even work!:bounce:
I can't find right load voltage, diferent sources said different value.
Right now i have set stable voltage 1,3V, FSB 220MHz x 14 multiplier = core speed 3080Mhz.
I'll be experimenting for few days.


Sorry for my english, Happy New Year from Czech rep.

I bought a Athlon II X4 635 (2.9GHz) and it works perfectly in my M61P-S3. It was in the list of supported CPU's and there has been no issues. I even undervolted it to 1.225V to save some power and the system uses just 5W more at idle than my Athlon X2 3600+ did. Of course, at full load it uses quite a bit more, around 30W above the X2.

hey evilrex

Also, to anyone who had this board, it is not compatible with any cpu rated over 100W(like the X4 965). Simply put, the motherboard can't give enough power to the cpu. Maybe you can try to sell it on a forum? Then get the 945 instead.

Wow, this is an old thread.

It looks like Gigabyte has published another firmware update (F7I) that brings even more compatibility to newer chips. The new big daddy for this mobo is a 955 (95w) but I cannot find it anywhere. Anyone know where to find one?

On a side note, I am starting to slowly upgrade to a new system and I have a question for you guys with the same mobo: Will this mobo work with newer video cards like the GTX 480 or 5870?

I have used Phenom II 955 on GA-M61P-S3 with bois f7i. It realy works, but the window 7 performance is 3.7, lower than my previous Athlon X2 3600 which score is 4.9. In my computer property, the 955 is work on 1.61G, not 3.2G