AMD's Zen 6 Ryzen CPUs will work on AM5 motherboards with 32 MB or 64 MB BIOS

Marketing for the new ASUS X870 AYW GAMING WIFI W motherboard specifically mentions 'Zen 6' support, however its 64MB BIOS size has people worried.

AMD's Zen 6 Ryzen CPUs will work on AM5 motherboards with 32 MB or 64 MB BIOS
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TL;DR: AMD's upcoming Zen 6 Ryzen CPUs, expected in late 2026 or early 2027, will use advanced 3nm and 2nm TSMC processes, offering improved performance and efficiency. Zen 6 will support the AM5 platform, with both 32MB and 64MB BIOS AM5 motherboards compatible, ensuring broad upgrade flexibility.

AMD has yet to confirm or formally announce details on its next generation of desktop Ryzen CPUs that will be built using the company's on-the-horizon Zen 6 architecture. Credible leaks, rumors, and speculation suggest that Zen 6 will feature a mix of TSMC's 3nm and 2nm process nodes, offering more cores than previous generations, along with notable improvements in power efficiency, latency, and performance.

AMD's Zen 6 Ryzen CPUs will work on AM5 motherboards with 32 MB or 64 MB BIOS 2
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Marketing for the new ASUS X870 AYW GAMING WIFI W motherboard confirms 'Zen 6' support

It's also expected that the Zen 6 generation of Ryzen CPUs will be supported by the AM5 platform and current Ryzen motherboards, even though the release is expected sometime in late 2026 or in the first half of 2027. This aligns with AMD's commitment to supporting motherboard chipsets for multiple CPU generations, as reflected in the new X870 AM5 boards listed as "future CPU ready."

And when it comes to new AM5 motherboards being ready for Zen 6, ASUS recently and presumably mistakenly labeled its new X870 AYW GAMING WIFI W motherboard with a 64MB BIOS as ready for Zen 6 (via hardwareLUXX). This is one of the first times Zen 6 hardware has been officially or unofficially confirmed by AMD or one of its partners, and by putting 'Zen 6' next to the board's 64MB BIOS spec, which is double the 32MB standard of most AM5 motherboards, it has sparked debate on whether or not Zen 6 might be limited to newer AM5 motherboards with larger capacity BIOS chips.

It's a legitimate concern that support for more CPUs and architectures on AM5 motherboards means an increase in BIOS size. If you were planning to buy a new motherboard now with the intention of upgrading the CPU later, you wouldn't want to be stuck with a motherboard that doesn't have the BIOS capacity to support Zen 6.

On that note, it does look like listing Zen 6 next to the '64MB BIOS' label for the new ASUS X870 AYW GAMING WIFI W motherboard is a false alarm, as well-known and established AMD leaker HXL has taken to social media to state, "both 32MB and 64MB variants of the 600-800 series AM5 motherboards support Zen 6."