Thunderbolt 4 AIC compatibility with older MBs

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   Hi everyone,

I have an interrogation that I hope someone will elucidate for me.

On the Asrock Thunderbolt 4 AIC and Thunderbolt 4 AIC R2.0 add-in card that both use the Intel JHL8540 Thunderbolt 4 controller (the only difference between those cards seems to the jumper locations on the boards themselves) and the list of compatible motherboard seems to be longer on the R2.0 model on the Intel side. Nothing moved on the AMD motherboards list.

Both revisions of the card officially support the AM4 X570S PG Riptide and B550 PG Riptide motherboards. My question is the following. Can either card work on an older X570 motherboards like the X570 Taichi that officially support the Asrock Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 card ?

I don't look for official support. The main reason why I am looking for this card is because it is still available right now on the market while the Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 model seems discontinued.

Are there any limitation embedded on the motherboard itself that could prevent newer TB4 cards to work on TB3 compatible motherboards since both technologies have some specifications in common like the 40Gbps bidirectional bandwidth and identical headers on the cards ?

I know from this source on the forum that other brand cards like Gigabyte work on Asrock MB https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=12076&PID=66382𐍎 . Can newer Asrock TB cards work on older Asrock MB ?

Thank you in advance,

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Silverfox Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15 Nov 2023 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 65	Post Options Post Reply Quote Silverfox Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Thunderbolt 4 AIC compatibility with older MBs Posted: 15 Nov 2023 at 7:04am
	Hi everyone, I have an interrogation that I hope someone will elucidate for me. On the Asrock Thunderbolt 4 AIC and Thunderbolt 4 AIC R2.0 add-in card that both use the Intel JHL8540 Thunderbolt 4 controller (the only difference between those cards seems to the jumper locations on the boards themselves) and the list of compatible motherboard seems to be longer on the R2.0 model on the Intel side. Nothing moved on the AMD motherboards list. Both revisions of the card officially support the AM4 X570S PG Riptide and B550 PG Riptide motherboards. My question is the following. Can either card work on an older X570 motherboards like the X570 Taichi that officially support the Asrock Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 card ? I don't look for official support. The main reason why I am looking for this card is because it is still available right now on the market while the Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 model seems discontinued. Are there any limitation embedded on the motherboard itself that could prevent newer TB4 cards to work on TB3 compatible motherboards since both technologies have some specifications in common like the 40Gbps bidirectional bandwidth and identical headers on the cards ? I know from this source on the forum that other brand cards like Gigabyte work on Asrock MB https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=12076&PID=66382𐍎 . Can newer Asrock TB cards work on older Asrock MB ? Thank you in advance,
	Proud X570 Taichi owner Ryzen 9 5900X Dual Samsung 990 Pro SSD 48 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600 MHz Radeon RX6750 XT

poit57 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 24 Dec 2023 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote poit57 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 24 Dec 2023 at 9:31pm
	I don't know if you ever figured this out, but this post came up in a search when I was seeking an answer to the opposite scenario. In my case, I have just built a new computer using a Z790 PG Lightning motherboard that supports Thunderbolt 4, but instead of ordering a new card, I wanted to know if I could use the Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 that I purchased for my Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 motherboard. I didn't want to buy a new card if the existing one would still work. I'm pleased to announce that my Thunderbolt devices are still working the same as they always have as long as the TBT header is the same. Having the same TBT header connector is a big factor for why I stuck with an ASRock motherboard this time around. I don't know for sure how Thunderbolt backwards compatibility works, but I assume that it works like USB where the slowest device connected is going to be the limiting factor. My card has no RTD3 pins. I went ahead and enabled that option in the settings despite the fact that my card doesn't seem to support it.

Silverfox Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15 Nov 2023 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 65	Post Options Post Reply Quote Silverfox Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Feb 2024 at 12:55pm
	Hello poit57, Thank you for your reply. I do have something new to bring about this topic. A couple of days after I posted my topic on this forum, I sent a support ticket to Asrock America and a very concerned person helped me find a solution for my problem. That person contacted the headquarter and someone provided him a costom BIOS for my x570 Taichi motherboard to test. In that costom BIOS, some change was made to enable support for the Thunderbolt 4 AIC card. In theory, the X570 Taichi is only compatible with the Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 card. I'm using this costom BIOS version 5.50D for almost 2 months now and it works flawlessly. I didn't want to change my whole setup, in fact, I'm really happy with it and I feel like I can enjoy it for many more years again until USB4 becomes more widely available.
	Proud X570 Taichi owner Ryzen 9 5900X Dual Samsung 990 Pro SSD 48 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600 MHz Radeon RX6750 XT

Roberto Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14 Jan 2019 Location: Italia Status: Offline Points: 16	Post Options Post Reply Quote Roberto Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 25 Feb 2024 at 8:58pm
	Riesci a passarmi il BIOS 5.50D da usare su Asrock x570 Taichi grazie la mia email danybra@tin.it