Vendor readies AMD motherboards for Zen 5 CPUs — FireRangePi 1.1.7.0 AGESA for AM5 makes way for Ryzen 9000

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By Aaron Klotz
published

Ryzen 9000 is likely just right around the corner

MSI B650 MPG Carbon
(Image credit: MSI)

HXL on X (Twitter) reports that MSI has officially released new UEFI firmware updates for its AM5 motherboards featuring "next-gen" CPU support. These updates reportedly support AMD's upcoming Ryzen 9000 CPUs, which will come with the Zen 5 CPU architecture.

Asus was the first motherboard manufacturer to adopt AGESA 1.1.7.0, with MSI being the latest board maker to utilize the new firmware update. AGESA 1.1.7.0 reportedly supports AMD Granite Ridge CPUs and Fire Range, believed to be AMD's next-generation Ryzen APUs based on Zen 5.

Zen 5 is AMD's next-generation CPU architecture that will succeed Zen 4. Little is known about this new architecture, but we've seen leaks that Zen 5 allegedly offers a 15% increased IPC improvement over Zen 4. The most significant improvements will come from the core and cache designs, which will be more advanced and boast even larger cache capacities than what Zen 4 is capable of today. Inevitably, AMD will also use a much newer TSMC process node, improving efficiency and potentially boosting clock speeds beyond the Ryzen 7000.

Granite Ridge is the codename for AMD's purported Ryzen 9000 series lineup, which will consist entirely of CPUs using a chiplet-style design philosophy. Fire Range is the codename for AMD's "Ryzen 10000" (or however they brand it) APUs, which will come with high-performance RDNA-based graphics and an XDNA-based NPU. These chips will be the successor to AMD's recently released Ryzen 8000G (Phoenix) desktop APUs and are expected to use a monolithic die just like all of AMD's current and previous APU designs.

Zen 5 is expected to arrive sometime this fall, which explains why AMD and its board partners are already publishing Zen 5-enabled BIOS updates. Asus and MSI are the only board makers that have already updated AGESA 1.1.7.0. But expect Gigabyte, ASRock, and the rest of AMD's board partners to follow suit shortly.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Freelance News Writer

Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • usertests
    The most noteworthy addition from Zen 5 leaks is that AMD purportedly doubled the CCD core count from 16 to 32. If this is true, it will represent the first core-count improvement since Zen 2 and means we could see 32-core Zen 5 CPUs on the AM5 platform.
    Janky leak report. The current CCD core count is 8, not 16, unless we're talking about 'C' cores.

    We can almost certainly expect an 8-core Zen 5 CCD like usual, since there has been a shipping manifesto leak of the 6 and 8-core variants. Even Wccftech got this right in their version of the story:
    https://wccftech.com/msi-agesa-1-1-7-0-patch-a-am5-motherboards-supports-amd-ryzen-9000-cpus/
    We have already seen 8-core and 6-core variants appear in leaks. Also, it looks like motherboard vendors already have early test samples of the Zen 5 "Ryzen" CPUs available with them, which are provided by AMD to enable early support for the chips such as BIOS tweaking.

    Then we'll likely see a 16-core Zen 5C CCD (allegedly made on TSMC N3 instead of N4).

    If core counts go up this generation, it will be because AMD put Zen 5C chiplets on AM5. Likely one of each for high-end 24-core CPUs. 8 faster cores, 16 slower cores, all same IPC and instruction set support.
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    Fire Range is the codename for AMD's "Ryzen 10000" (or however they brand it) APUs, which will come with high-performance RDNA-based graphics and an XDNA-based NPU. These chips will be the successor to AMD's recently released Ryzen 8000G (Phoenix) desktop APUs and are expected to use a monolithic die just like all of AMD's current and previous APU designs.

    I'm sorry, but the above info is NOT correct. The upcoming "Fire Range" APU will sport a multi-chiplet design/chiplet-style architecture. Not monolithic.

    These chips are going to be high-end mobility offerings succeeding the existing Dragon Range HX lineup. Just like Dragon Range, these chips will be using desktop-grade chiplet dies. These are also not direct successor chips of the Phoenix desktop APUs either, and in no way AMD will brand them under Ryzen 10000.

    "Ryzen 9055HX" series nomenclature sounds more plausible. These mobile chips/APUs will use the same Granite Ridge desktop silicon.

    Also, it is highly unlikely these chips will use "high-performance RDNA-based graphics" as the article claims. Nope. With the Dragon Range lineup, AMD went for a very modest/weak "2 CU" configuration even on the flagship 7945HX SKU, based on the RDNA 2-based 610M iGPU.

    So expect the same from Fire Range lineup as well. You may ask why ?

    Because, these HX-series chips are meant to be paired with discrete GPUs for graphics-intensive work. After all, these are desktop replacement laptop chips.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    Admin said:
    Fire Range is the codename for AMD's "Ryzen 10000" (or however they brand it) APUs, which will come with high-performance RDNA-based graphics and an XDNA-based NPU.

    Personally I think they should go for Ryzen ten billion. /sarc
    Reply
  • TechyIT223
    Why are these firmware updates only being released for select motherboard models ?
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    Because the vendors/AIBs and AMD might be having these particular mobo models already installed in their test labs/machines, since this is an evaluation and testing phase. The final firmware rollout will of course encompass the entire AM5 mobo/chipset lineup.

    Since some Motherboard manufacturers have early "test samples" of AMD’s Ryzen Zen 5 CPUs, AMD is just letting them test these chips in advance to launch a stable bios version at launch.

    The exact same thing happened even last year as well, as evident from the AIB channel's forum discussion page.

    Hence you will only find a BIOS rollout for some specific mobo models initially. It makes the early testing phase much quicker and easier. But there is no hard and fast rule to this, because this BIOS update/rollout if legit, shouldn't have been made public in the first place.
    Reply
  • TechyIT223
    Metal Messiah. said:
    Because the vendors/AIBs and AMD might be having these particular mobo models already installed in their test labs/machines, since this is an evaluation and testing phase. The final firmware rollout will of course encompass the entire AM5 mobo/chipset lineup.

    Since some Motherboard manufacturers have early "test samples" of AMD’s Ryzen Zen 5 CPUs, AMD is just letting them test these chips in advance to launch a stable bios version at launch.

    The exact same thing happened even last year as well, as evident from the AIB channel's forum discussion page.

    Hence you will only find a BIOS rollout for some specific mobo models initially. It makes the early testing phase much quicker and easier. But there is no hard and fast rule to this, because this BIOS update/rollout if legit, shouldn't have been made public in the first place.
    Makes sense.
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    MSI has an official update on this.

    MSI is here to announce the latest AGESA ComboPI 1.1.7.0 Patch A BIOS update for AM5 next gen CPU support on X670E, X670, B650, A620 motherboards. Users would simply need to update the BIOS to the latest version accordingly.
    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-AMD-600-Series-Motherboard-Ready-To-Support-Next-Gen-CPU-143496
    https://storage-asset.msi.com/global/picture/news/2024/mb/amd600-20240417-1.jpg
    Reply