Officially, Zen3 processors are not supported by motherboards with 300 series chipsets. On the other hand, we learn that Gigabyte and Asus offer a M.A.J. allowing the support of Ryzen 5000. For now, this concerns A320 boards.
A320: you can install a Ryzen 5950X if you want!
As our colleagues at Tom’s Hardware said, if you want a motherboard to support a CPU that it is not supposed to, you have to turn to a third-party bios. The problem with this type of solution is that it does not guarantee a 100% reliable system. Moreover, being often the initiative of enthusiasts, this type of bios is only available for a limited number of cards.
In this case, the M.A.J. bios is the initiative of the manufacturers Gigabyte and Asus. They update the bios of their A320 boards allowing the installation of Ryzen 5000 processors. However, this update is not without consequences since the 7th generation A-Series processors and the Athlon x4 series are not compatible anymore. But hey, between a Ryzen 5000 and an Athlon whose architecture dates back to the AMD FX era, the choice is quickly made.
For the moment, only Gigabyte and Asus seem to offer this type of update. It remains to be seen whether ASRock and MSI will do the same. In the same vein, let’s hope that the B350 and X370 cards will receive this precious sesame. This would allow a number of users to migrate to the latest AMD CPUs without having to completely change platforms. Moreover, it’s a pity not to be able to install a Zen3 on a Crosshair VI Hero, X370 XPower Titanium or a X370 Taichi.
Anyway, don’t hesitate to visit the website of your motherboard manufacturer. This will allow you to know which bios to install and which procedure to follow.
Here are the technical data sheets of Asus and Gigabyte !
