Beware Asus Z690 1003 Bios!

[kirbyrj]

I installed it this morning and have practically been left with a non-functioning computer under my old settings. I had to loosen timings and drop the command rate to 2T or else the computer wouldn't boot. Definitely no extra stability like they claim.

ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 BIOS 1003
01. Improve system performance and Window 11 OS stability.
02. Update USB PD FW to 1.0F.
03. Update Intel ME FW to 16.0.15.1620 V3
04. Add Thunderbolt FW update method for onboard Thunderbolt models and ThunderboltEX 4 Card support models
05. Update Intel microcode.
06. Improve DRAM compatibility
07. Change PCIe speed hotkey item from F9 to F6.

Also, AVX512 was not removed from this BIOS as was speculated.

 

[chameleoneel]

Did you try loading the bios defaults/optimized defaults or clearing the CMOS----before applying your settings?

 

[kirbyrj]

Did you try loading the bios defaults/optimized defaults or clearing the CMOS----before applying your settings?

Yes several times.

I don't have any stability issues with the new bios. It's just I have to go retweak everything.

 

[D-EJ915]

New microcode sometimes doesn't impact much and sometimes it makes all your previous oc settings not work at all which seems to be the case here, I remember a bunch of people on DDR4 Z690 reverted to older bios with old microcode for this reason.

 

[ikjadoon]

This update (1003) also came for my Z690-I with the same changelog: luckily, worked without issue and didn't need to re-tweak anything, though this is a DDR5 board. Using "XMP I" timings with G.SKILL 2x16GB DDR5-6000 / 36-36-36-75 1.3V, at 2T. I heard some people had DDR5 issues that 1003 seemed to fix.

 

[kirbyrj]

This update (1003) also came for my Z690-I with the same changelog: luckily, worked without issue and didn't need to re-tweak anything, though this is a DDR5 board. Using "XMP I" timings with G.SKILL 2x16GB DDR5-6000 / 36-36-36-75 1.3V, at 2T. I heard some people had DDR5 issues that 1003 seemed to fix.

Yeah, I wonder if it "broke" DDR4 by fixing DDR5?

 

[kirbyrj]

Fwiw, I tried the new beta bios and it is the same as the 1003.

 

[ikjadoon]

Yeah, I wonder if it "broke" DDR4 by fixing DDR5?

That was my suspicion, too. The Z690-I doesn't seem to have a beta yet.

I'm a tad wary to tweak too much as seems like things are still settling in. Maybe they'll diverge the D4 vs D5 branches?

 

[kirbyrj]

That was my suspicion, too. The Z690-I doesn't seem to have a beta yet.

I'm a tad wary to tweak too much as seems like things are still settling in. Maybe they'll diverge the D4 vs D5 branches?

I haven't played around with ddr5 yet. Can you even set it to 1T? That's the biggest problem now for me is that it will blue screen immediately in Windows unless I set it to 2T where before it ran perfectly fine with XMP timings and 1T prior to the 1003 bios.

 

[Furious_Styles]

This the same components you're selling kirby? If so, mind me asking why you're selling your new AL setup?

 

[ikjadoon]

I haven't played around with ddr5 yet. Can you even set it to 1T? That's the biggest problem now for me is that it will blue screen immediately in Windows unless I set it to 2T where before it ran perfectly fine with XMP timings and 1T prior to the 1003 bios.

1T does work on DDR5. Like DDR4, though, it depends heavily on the kit + mobo + IMC.

It’s the Gear 2 that’s less negotiable, but with such a high frequency, the total latency (via AIDA64) penalty isn’t as damaging vs DDR4 in Gear 2.