Information About AMD SATA Controller Driver Compatibility with Windows® Based Desktop Systems

This article provides information about the compatibility of the AMD SATA Controller driver with Windows® based desktop systems.

Introduction

Most current motherboards come built with a number of SATA ports for connectivity with mass storage devices. Depending on the motherboard chipset SATA controller, these ports may be configured in the BIOS to operate in IDE, RAID, or AHCI mode.

On a Windows® based system, the operating system detects the SATA controllers during boot and loads device drivers supporting the configured SATA mode. For the purpose of this article, only AMD SATA controller for AHCI mode is covered.

Driver Compatibility

AMD SATA AHCI drivers for AMD 6-Series, 7-Series, 8-Series, or 9-Series chipsets are included in the chipset driver package and is compatible only with desktop systems running Windows® 8.1, Windows 7 or older (depending on chipset).

The AMD SATA controller component is not compatible with and will not be offered nor installed by the chipset driver package on AMD desktop systems running Window® 10 or using AMD Socket AM4 and Socket TR4 chipsets. Forcing a manual driver installation via Device Manager on these systems is not supported and may cause stability and performance issues with some mass storage devices, such as solid-state drives (SSD).

Recommendations

Desktop systems based on AMD 6-Series, 7-Series, 8-Series, 9-Series, Socket AM4, and Socket TR4 chipsets running Windows® 10 should use the Microsoft provided Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver that comes installed with Windows® by default. This configuration ensures compatibility and offers the best experience with most types of mass storage devices.

As example only:

If the system is not using Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver and is experiencing stability and performance issues with connected SATA devices, use the Roll Back Driver option to restore to the default controller.

To roll back the driver, in Device Manager, double-click on the device and select the Driver tab. In the Driver section choose Roll Back Driver, as shown in the example below.  A system restart may be required to complete the process.

NOTE! Desktop systems based on AMD 6-Series, 7-Series, 8-Series, 9-Series chipsets using AMD SATA AHCI driver in Windows® 8.1, Windows 7 or older may experience stability and performance issues with some newer types SSDs. In these cases, using the Microsoft provided Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver may help resolve the problem.