Intel Rapid Storage Technology version (BIOS vs. OS)

[havokator]

I am running an Asus P8P67 Pro motherboard with the newest BIOS revision 3602.
This BIOS uses Intel RST v10.5.0.1026 for the onboard RAID.

Also, on Asus' website, when I go to the SATA drivers for this board, the newest Intel RST driver available to download for Windows is v10.5.0.1026.

My question is, I know that there is newer versions of Intel RST available. Should I stick with the Windows driver version of Intel RST that matches the hardware version of RST that my BIOS uses? Or would it be better to upgrade to the newest version of RST for my Windows OS (which is 11. something I believe)?

 

[NoxTek]

Intel generally releases an updated OROM for every major driver release, but by no means does that mean you have to run the same version RST driver as your OROM version.

Generally you don't want to run an RST driver version OLDER / LOWER than your OROM version, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with running a newer driver version. Sometimes it can even net you performance benefits.


Hell, if it bothered you too much you could modify a copy of your motherboard's BIOS and inject/replace the Intel OROM with a newer version, I usually do that on my boards... but that procedure is pretty advanced.

 

[havokator]

So it would be ok to install the Intel RST v12.8.0.1016 drivers on my Windows 7 OS, even though the BIOS for my Asus P8P67 Pro motherboard uses Intel RST v10.5.0.1026 OROM? There won't be any kind of compatibility problem?

Also, would there be any advantage to me installing the newest Intel RST v12.8.0.1016 drivers on my Windows OS? Everything seems to be working fine now, so I don't want to screw anything up. I guess its one of those cases of if it aint broke, dont fix it which is mainly why I want to know if there is anything to gain from using the newest v12.8.0.1016 drivers on my Windows OS.

I know this is a fairly old motherboard, but it seems like Asus could update the BIOS to use the newer versions of Intel RST OROM. Right now, Asus only has Windows RST v10.5.0.1026 driver available for download which is the same version that is in their newest BIOS update. That is why I thought the two versions might need to match.

It seems like, as my motherboard gets older, the chances of Asus releasing a BIOS update that includes the newer versions of Intel RST OROM are probably gonna get slimmer and slimmer. So the gap between my BIOS's version of RST and the available software versions of RST is going to continue to widen.

I am mainly curious if anyone else has experienced this same situation. I would love to hear some other user's experiences upgrading to newer versions of Intel RST in Windows even though their BIOS uses an older version. Thank you.

 

[Old Hippie]

You can mix-'n-max to your heart's content and won't do any damage.

No MB manfg is going to bother with updating the BIOS every time Intel (or who ever) updates the driver.

Go for it!

 

[CPL0]

Depends on your setup and what you want.

For me RST driver 11.2 offers best performance, the only down side is incompatibility with running UEFI Sata driver, which for now basically means slightly slower BIOS initialization time from having to use a legacy OROM, i.e. CSM cannot be disabled.

The BIOS UEFI SATA drivers add an ACPI SATA performance table but I do not know what advantage it brings.

For trim support with RAID0, OROM version is required to be 11 and for pre 7-series, such as your P67, a further requirement of a modified 11 or higher OROM is required.

Using W8, file level trim (not to be confused with normal trim) works for me with RST 11.2 but not for RST 11.5 and upwards.

Starting with one of the RST 12.x (I don't remember the exact version) DSA is introduced but AFAIK currently only works with 8-series.

Forgot to mention, IIRC in the early days of P67 there were some people having problems with DVD's that were only fixed with using OROM 11 and up. While some other manufacturers updated their P67's with 11.+ OROM's, ASUS remained steadfast that 10.x was good enough.