Rumors suggest that AMD might include Ryzen 9000 F-series support, or at the very least support for the Ryzen 7 9700F, in the upcoming AGESA microcode update 1.2.0.3e. Spotted by HXL on X, the firmware update allegedly sports “upcoming CPU compatibility,” according to an Asus BIOS update sporting the new microcode.
HXL provided additional context by linking to a ChipHell forum post where several posters believe AGESA 1.2.0.3e will support upcoming F-series Ryzen 9000 parts. Hugable Carrot in the aforementioned forum post wrote: “I checked here and found that AGESA 1203E does support a new model of 9 series without core graphics…”
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Resident leaker on X, MegasizeGPU, also responded to HXL’s post, saying: “9700F, I guess”.
If the rumors are true, AMD will be launching either a lineup of F-series Ryzen 9000 series parts, or just the Ryzen 7 9700F, possibly sometime later this year. The F signifies a CPU model in AMD’s lineup that sports disabled integrated graphics, though Intel uses the same letter for the same purpose with its own CPUs as well. Selling CPUs with disabled graphics allows AMD to recycle bad chips that might have a perfectly working CPU, but defective integrated graphics, improving yields and reducing waste.
If AMD goes through with a Ryzen 7 9700F, it will undoubtedly be a graphicsless counterpart to the Ryzen 7 9700X, sporting eight Zen 5 CPU cores and 32MB of L3 cache. Ever since AMD started adding RDNA 2 integrated graphics to the SoC chiplet starting with Ryzen 7000, the company has been capable of making F-series versions of its high-performance desktop chiplet-based Ryzen CPUs in addition to its monolithic Ryzen APUs. Previously, F-series parts always signified a Ryzen APU based on a monolithic die, since those were the only Ryzen chips that had integrated graphics capabilities before the Ryzen 7000 series.
The Ryzen 7 9700F will represent the highest-end F-series part AMD has ever created (assuming it goes on sale). Up until now, AMD has had four F-series SKUs since the Ryzen 7000 series launch: two chiplet-style based, featuring the Ryzen 5 7400F and Ryzen 5 7500F, and two monolithic models, the Ryzen 5 8400F and Ryzen 7 8700F. The main difference between the monolithic and chiplet-style parts is the neutered 16MB of L3 cache on the monolithic APU models. By contrast, AMD’s Ryzen chiplet-style CPUs always have 32MB of L3 cache (not counting 3D V-Cache).
Potential new chips aside, AGESA microcode update 1.2.0.3e also rectifies a security vulnerability with Pluton TPM and AMD’s built-in fTPM that could allow attackers to disrupt the TPM’s functionality and/or gain access to sensitive data within the TPM.
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