Stuck between 2700X and 5600X BIOS support on B450 Aorus Elite
Posted by Virtual-Kiwi-7526@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 9 comments
Hi everyone,
I have a Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite motherboard.
Current BIOS: F67
Current CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X (works fine)
Old CPU: Ryzen 7 2700X (does not boot)
The 2700X does not POST on F67 (black screen, fans spin).
My goal:
I want to test the 2700X before selling it, so I need a BIOS version that supports both CPUs (if such version exists).
As far as I understand, F51 should work with 2700X, but then 5600X will not be supported.
Question:
Is there any BIOS version that supports both Ryzen 2000 and Ryzen 5000 on this board?
Or is downgrading the only option?
Thanks in advance!
VoraciousGorak@reddit
The latest BIOS supports both CPUs. Try clearing CMOS settings after installing the 2700X.
BIOS listings will say when a CPU is no longer supported, and this board does not have any such notifications.
Virtual-Kiwi-7526@reddit (OP)
I couldn’t find any clear information that it’s fully supported on the latest BIOS. On the official support page, it only mentions the minimum required BIOS version for the 2700X (F1), but nothing about support on newer versions like F60+. If you have a source confirming it works on the latest BIOS, could you share a link?
VoraciousGorak@reddit
No source of confirmation, just knowledge of the way motherboard BIOS updates work, and that no motherboard I know of removed support for Ryzen 2000 if it already had it. Any motherboard that removes support for a CPU will list that support removal clearly in its BIOS description, see F30 and F40 BIOS descriptions on https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-AB350-Gaming-3-rev-1x/support#Support-Bios for an example of what that looks like.
300 and 400 series boards often dropped support for the pre-Zen APUs with later updates, extremely rarely dropped support for Ryzen 1000 chips, and 500-series boards never had support for Zen 1 and Zen+ in the first place, but every 400-series board I've ever seen can run a Ryzen 2000 chip on any BIOS.
I specifically have a Ryzen 5 2600X in my "tester CPU" bin because a lot of B450 and X470 boards pass through my house so I can test / update them with a known good CPU.
Virtual-Kiwi-7526@reddit (OP)
Thanks, that’s actually very helpful, I appreciate the insight.
In that case, I’m trying to figure out what else could cause the 2700X not to POST. I already did a CMOS reset by removing the battery, and the 5600X works fine on the same board.
Do you have any suggestions on what I should check next?
jasons7394@reddit
Without looking to confirm - BIOS chips have limited storage and sometimes BIOS versions are limited in the CPUs they will support.
This is likely one of those cases. I would flash the old version, test, then flash back.
psimwork@reddit
Agreed. Though for what it's worth, sometimes going to a BIOS version that supports Ryzen 5000 is a one-way trip. So OP may-or-may-not be able to flash in the version that supports the 2700X.
jasons7394@reddit
Looking at the support page I do not see where this particular motherboard lost support for any CPU, so the 2700x may just be dead.
Virtual-Kiwi-7526@reddit (OP)
I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.
From what I’ve seen, starting with newer BIOS versions (F60+), the board uses newer AGESA versions mainly optimized for Ryzen 3000/5000. Because of BIOS chip size limitations, support for older CPUs (like Zen/Zen+) can become unstable or partially broken, even if they are still listed as “supported”.
There are quite a few reports of Ryzen 2000 CPUs having POST issues or instability on newer BIOS versions, especially on B450 boards
That’s why I suspect it’s more of a BIOS/compatibility issue rather than a dead 2700X.
psimwork@reddit
Also true.