Most AM2 Motherboards Not Phenom Ready

The Phenom Plug-In Upgrade Doesn't Work

Our Phenom launch article showed clearly that AMD's new quad core cannot compete with Intel's high end processors - despite being clearly faster when comparing individual cores including the entire cache hierarchy. Hence AMD adjusted its product strategy and points at the value of the Phenom processor together with the AMD790 chipset (Spider platform) as well as Phenom being an excellent upgrade option for the majority of socket AM2 systems on the market. Such an upgrade scenario is very likely, so we grabbed nine different socket AM2 motherboards to see if Phenom would really work with them Compare Prices on AMD Phenom Processors.

In theory, a motherboard should provide a suitable core voltage to a processor automatically, and since the HyperTransport interface hasn't changes as well (with the exception that Phenom supports the faster HT 3.0), chances are that a Phenom processor could boot on a compatible motherboard even without having updated the BIOS. We've seen this in the past when AMD released faster Athlon 64 X2 models or stepping upgrades. Some motherboards would boot and display generic processor information together with a clock speed. Though this is not ideal due to missing support for processor features and probably improper processor settings together with missing micro code updates, it can help to check whether compatibility is there. We don't recommend to run a system with a processor not officially supported by the motherboard.

The more reliable approach is to look for a BIOS update on the website of your motherboard manufacturer. We've compiled a list of links to the download pages of the most popular motherboard manufacturers; you'll find it at the end of this article. Make sure that your desired processor is supported once you find an updated BIOS version for your motherboard. The BIOS update process depends on the motherboard, as there are multiple approaches to flash the firmware. We will discuss the upgrade options first and have a look at the nine socket AM2 motherboard, which we tried to upgrade with a Phenom 9600.

As this article deals with Phenom as an upgrade option, please note that the motherboards we used are somewhat aged and mostly end of life product. We wanted to know if and how well Phenom would work with existing products and will look at current socket AM2+ in the near future.

  • spearhead
    too many vendors boycott the upgradebility they just dont want to release a simple bios update because they want to force costumers to buy a new motherboard. it would anger me i would have bought a am2 motherboard and the vendor was such a bastard to boycott the upgrade.today those bios updates are rare too find. so far i have only few vendors who upgrade there bios. apperently ASUS support it the best so that is why i will choose ASUS above all those cheap bastards from now on
    Reply
  • will it run a am2 quad core or not?
    Reply
  • how d o get a mamuall for this motherboard0000 MSI K9NU Neo-V (ULi/Nvidia M1697)
    Reply
  • how d o get a mamuall for this motherboard0000 MSI K9NU Neo-V (ULi/Nvidia M1697)
    Reply
  • Where can i find the driver for this mother board winfast k8t890m2aa-krs2h
    Reply