X470-F - 4x8Gb B-Die or 2x16Gb non B-Die? Need to update Bios?

[VictorMOSTV]

If you can help me I would appreciate it.

My setup: X470-F Rog Strix (Bios 4207)
Ryzen 2700x 2x8GB
G.Skill F4-3200C14D-16GTZR (running in 3200Mhz, Samsung B-Die). It is not the RX version for sure. It is the R version.

I need more RAM because I realize that 16Gb is at the limit for my current usage. My intention is to switch to 32Gb. My first question is: should I buy another 2x8Gb F4-3200C14D-16GTZR kit to get 4x8Gb? Or am I better off buying a 2x16Gb F4-3200C16D-32GTZR kit (which is the 2x16Gb kit I found with good availability in Brazil but is not Samsung B-Die)?

I know that the F4-3200C16D-32GTZR kit is not on the motherboard's QVL list, and neither is the 4x8Gb F4-3200C14D-16GTZR. Could I run stable 3200Mhz being 4x8Gb or 2x16Gb? So, do you think it is essential that I update my Bios? I see that there are many versions after mine (4207): what is the sequence I should update, please?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Note: I made the same post on the AMD forum about this. I am also waiting for answers there.

[emissary42]

As someone that used the X470-F for quite some time, I would tend to recommend 2x16GB over 4x8GB. Unless your B-Die were manually overclocked, the performance difference between XMP 3200 CL14 and CL16 is negligible. Personally I did not have issues with a 2x16GB kit that was not on the QVL, but YMMV. In my case it was a set of F4-3600C14D-32GTZNA @ 3800 CL14.

With the 2700X the XMP of the F4-3200C16D-32GTZR might not work and in that case, you would have to either settle with less frequency or manually adjust memory settings. That probably wouldn't be an issue with a Zen2 or Zen3 processor/APU however, since those tend to reach DDR4-3200 with almost any two modules you throw at them.

Some of the later BIOS updates are primarily geared/tweaked towards the 5800X3D and some of those are apparently not exactly great for memory overclocking. So depending upon your upgrade plans and unless you have a specific issue with your current version, you might want to skip those completely.

In general the download section usually tells you, if a bridge BIOS is required, before updating to newer versions.