AMD Motherboards: Processor Support
by Wesley Fink on June 28, 2005 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Socket 939 Motherboards with Dual-Core BIOS
In addition to the Official X2 Support list from AMD, manufacturers are releasing x2 BIOS updates for their motherboards. Below is a list compiled from the manufacturers that claim x2 compatibility with their BIOS update.In general a board must be Socket 939, and the x2 updates, at least for the present, are mainly limited to the nVidia nForce4 family and a few VIA K8T890/K8T800Pro motherboards. The new ULI 1689 chipset also features x2 support, with AGP 8X on the M1689 and PCIe with the M1695. There are also several older VIA AGP boards in the X2 support list. ATI Crossfire AMD and SiS 756 also support dual-core, so new motherboards using these chipsets will support the new X2 Athlon 64.
"Check Web Site" means we could not find BIOS support for x2 processors at the website, and that you need to check the website or contact the manufacturer for an updated support lisitng.
Dual-Core BIOS Revision is the earliest listed BIOS to support Dual-core. Later BIOS for the same board can reasonably be expected to also support x2 processors.
AMD Dual-Core BIOS Releases |
||
Manufacturer |
Model Number |
Dual-Core BIOS Revision |
Abit
|
Fatal1ty AN8 SLI AN8 SLI AN8 Ultra AN8 AN8-V |
1.5 (6/16/05) |
AV8 - 3rd Eye AV8 |
2.1 (6/16/05) |
|
Albatron |
K8SLI K8NF4U K8NF4X |
1,07a (Beta) (5/30/05) |
AOpen |
Check Website |
Check Website |
ASRock |
K8 Combo Z (ULi) K8 Upgrade-VM800 |
2.1 (5/19/05) 1.4 (6/03/05) |
Asus |
A8N-SLI Premium A8N-SLI Deluxe A8N-SLI A8N-E |
1005 1010 1008 1004 |
A8V Deluxe A8V |
1013 0205 |
|
Biostar |
N4SLI-A9 NF4UL-A9 NF4ST-A9 |
nslia614 nf4ua614 nf4sa614 |
Chaintech |
VNF4/VNF4 Ultra |
V5.0 (6/03/05) |
S1689 (ULi) |
0523 Beta (5/23/05) |
|
DFI |
LANParty nForce4 SLI LANParty UTnF4 SLI-D LANParty UTnF4 SLI-DR LANParty UTnF4 Ultra-D LANParty UTnF4 Ultra-DR |
NFLD510 Beta (5/10/05) NOTE: 6/23/05 Recommended |
LANParty UT LP NF3 Ultra-D |
Shipping BIOS |
|
ECS |
KN1 Extreme nForce4 A939 |
1.1A (6/02/05) 1.0D (6/02/05) |
KV2 Extreme KV2 Lite |
1.2C (6/27/05) 1.1B (6/27/05) |
|
Epox |
9NPA+ SLI |
Beta 05.05.26 |
Foxconn |
NF4UK8AC NF4K8AA |
See Website (www.foxconnchannel.com) |
Gigabyte |
K8N Ultra SLI Check Website for other nF4 |
F3 (6/28/2005) Check Website |
K8U-939 (ULi-AGP) |
F1 |
|
Jetway |
939GT4-SLI 939GT4-Ultra |
Check Website |
MSI |
K8N SLI Platinum K8N Diamond K8N Neo4 Platinum K8N Neo4-Fi K8N Neo4-F |
3.4 (6/02/05) 1.4 (6/02/05) 1.5 (6/03/05) 1.5 (6/03/05) 1.5 (6/03/05) |
MSI K8T Neo2-F/FIR |
9.1 (6/08/05) |
|
RS480-M2 (ATI) RX480-M2 (ATI) |
3.4 (5/13/05) |
|
Soltek |
SL-NF4PRO-939 |
1.1 (6/02/05) |
SL-K8TPro-939 SL-B9D-FGR SL-K8T-939FL |
W1.5 (5/25/05) G1.3 (5/16/05) F1.1 (5/23/05) |
57 Comments
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Den - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
Both the ASUS A8N-E and A8V support the E4 (in addition to E3 and E6) stepping according to AMD's page though your article just lists E3 and E6. See cut and paste below...Asus
A8N-E
# 2.0 ATX nVidia nForce4 Ultra Cool'n'Quiet
# PCIe™
# Supports up to processor stepping: E3
# Supports up to processor stepping: E4
# Supports up to processor stepping: E6
xeizo - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
You forgot to mention in the text that there are indeed older K8T800Pro/agp-boards that supports dual-core, in fact they are on your list, like the Abit AV8 2.0 and the Soltek K8TPro-939 ....Olaf van der Spek - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
> Date: June 28th, 2005> Topic: Business
> Manufacturer: 3Com/U.S. Robotics
> Author: Wesley Fink
Did someone do too much copy/pasting?
BTW, _new isn't a valid target for an anchor.
Houdani - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
Is there any value with including which SFF designs are X2 / Rev E compatible?I'm fairly certain the Shuttle SN25P does support the X2.
Aikouka - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
Just as a note, Gigabyte released the BIOS update for the GA-K8N Ultra-9 nForce 4 motherboard today.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
$6 - While AMD did not officially support DDR400 with 4 dimms on earlier Athlon 64, the fact is almost every board we tested ran fine at DDR400 with 4 dimms. Check our earlier roundups. The boards that would NOT do DDR400 with 4 dimms stood out, since most would. Also 2x1GB has never been a problem at 1T in our testing.#7 and others - It's good to hear there are new BIOS' to support x2 on nForce3. The websites did not list any nF3 with x2 support when we suveyed the last few days, but readers with nF3 boards will be happy to know some are becoming available.
#10 AMD says that if the board supports Rev. E the X2 chip should run in single core mode to allow BIOS update. If the board does NOT support Rev. E chips you will need a new BIOS chip or an earlier A64 to flash.
arswihart - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
this is what one user that I know of reported when he installed an X2 in an Epox 9nda3+ (NF3) mobo.elpheer - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
Nice article.I'm unclear on one particular point though; am I correct in assuming that if you mount an X2 on a motherboad that has an outdated BIOS, it will successfully boot on just 1 core, thus allowing an OS installation?
This in-case there is no immediate second hand PC available to make a BIOS disk to flash..
bigtoe36 - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
#62x1gig dimms have been doing 1T for a while already with winchester and Clawhammer proving easliy capable of supporting the feature, it was however not guaranteed.
4x double sided will always be 2t in my books, but E die seems to allow some good overclocking so much of the speed can be clawed back.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link
#5 - You're Correct and this has been updated.