Asus adds 64MB ROM to Strix Neo AM5 motherboards, following Gigabyte — capacity large enough to fit pre-installed Wi-Fi drivers
Asus has incorporated a 64MB ROM into its all-new Strix Neo AM5 motherboards to support future Ryzen releases. For now, though, Asus is using the extra capacity to hold an integrated Wi-Fi driver, handy for new Windows 11 installs.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Asus is taking lessons learned from the AM4 era and has significantly improved the ROM capacity of its latest AM5 motherboards. In a blog post, the motherboard maker announced that its new Strix Neo AM5 boards feature a 64MB ROM, double the capacity of previous AM5 variants. The extra capacity is intended to support future Ryzen CPU releases for the AM5 platform, but in the meantime, Asus is using it to pre-install Wi-Fi drivers.
The four new boards getting the boosted ROM capacity are all ROG-branded, including the ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi7 Neo, ROG Strix X870E-A Gaming WiFi7 Neo, ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi7 Neo, and the ROG Strix B850-A Gaming WiFi 7 Neo. Asus first showed these boards off at CES 2026.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
The AM4 generation ran into problems during the Ryzen 5000 series launch, where motherboard BIOS ROMs did not have enough capacity to support all Ryzen CPU generations (at that time). This forced board makers to make sacrifices in CPU support and/or motherboard UEFI features that were not critical to board functionality (such as fancy BIOS graphics and RGB controls in the BIOS). To remedy this, board makers introduced new 400- and 500-series motherboards with 32MB ROMs instead of 16MB.
Gigabyte and now Asus are seemingly preparing in advance for the same issues to occur with AM5. Up until now, there have been no issues with Ryzen compatibility on AM5 motherboards, so doubling the ROM capacity now will give these new AM5 boards plenty of headroom to support future Ryzen releases without making any serious sacrifices elsewhere. For now, though, both board makers are using the extra space to add pre-installed WiFi drivers, something which will come in handy now that Microsoft prevents users from installing Windows 11 fresh without a Microsoft account.
