Windows 8 Ultra Fast Boot UEFI GOP

Yepp, the update.exe contains a few files inside. Most noticeable is an .rdata and .data file but none of which can be opened further to uncover the ROM/BIN file. If I open the update in an elevated privilege mode it still only stays open for a brief moment then auto closes. Not that it matters, mind you, as I really despise Windows based firmware updates. :-/

I replied back to his email for some possible further assistance but at this point I am looking to mail back my card and simply buying an MSI card since provide cards that already have it installed or can give you a much more... familiar method of updating firmware.
 
Can someone explain what UEFI Ultra Fast Boot does exactly?

Why is it only supported with Windows 8 and not Windows 7 (assuming Win7 is installed in UEFI mode)?
Is there something special about the Win8 UEFI boot loader that's not in Win7's to enable this?
 
DAMN MY LUCK

A: Hello Joshua,

Unfortunately I don't see this UEFI BIOS update for this card in our database currently, I will need to forward this along to our Product Management Team and see if we can get that for you, I apologize for any inconvenience, but we will follow up with you when we have an update.

Regards,
EVGA

Tech: Chris Sansalone
 
Milena said:
One question I got is if the Windows 8 Fast Boot is required in order to get Ultra Fast Boot on cold boots, e.g. when I turn my PC on its still the old boot procedure but when I restart Windows I get the full UEFI Ultra Fast Boot.
Click to expand...

Not sure if it is an EVGA problem or an ASUS one, but I have an ASRock board and I just got the latest MSI UEFI firmware and I am unable to boot into EFI upon cold boot. The only way to get into the EFI settings for me is via the Advanced options menu - within Windows 8.

I got tired of waiting around for EVGA and decided to go with MSI. I am glad I did. Cold boots, reboots and so on are now so fast that the Windows boot animation only last a second. :D
 
I already installed Windows 8 in normal mode.

Can I still have it boot in UEFI mode without reinstalling or reformatting my SSD disk?

It has that 350mb partition created by installer.

Note: I still haven't flashed the BIOS of my nvidia card, EVGA emailed it to me.
 
mito said:
I already installed Windows 8 in normal mode.

Can I still have it boot in UEFI mode without reinstalling or reformatting my SSD disk?

It has that 350mb partition created by installer.

Note: I still haven't flashed the BIOS of my nvidia card, EVGA emailed it to me.
Click to expand...

If you go into computer management, and look at your C: drive, if it has a 300MB recovery partition, and a 100MB EFI partition, then it is already running in UEFI mode.
 
got my update and everything setup, shaved a few seconds off of my boot time but still have to experiment with getting it all setup properly. For example I haven't enabled secure boot nor checked in to the CMS setting.... the rig in my sig boots up in 15 seconds with fast boot enabled in BIOS, with fast boot off it is about 19 seconds. seems like the longest part when turning it on is not BIOS POST or OS... but power getting to where it needs to go on the board. Even with fast boot off on my MSI Mpower Z77 board it would be about 5-8 seconds before I see the little numbers / letters in the lower right hand corner of the screen telling me it is posting, then the BIOS logo screen would come with the Win 8 swirl in the middle showing windows was loading, then windows start screen. With fast boot on I don't see anything on screen until the Win 8 loads.
 
Hello all, I have Win 8 working in UEFI mode... I have 120GB SSD and all three partitions are there...windows is running in secure boot mode and I have CSM off (updated 7870 with new BIOS)... My motherboard is Asus P8Z77-V with fast boot option on... The problem is I dont think I have ultra fast boot on as it take about 15 seconds for it to boot, power on and on restarts... Am I doing anything wrong or is it the best I can make?
http://www.asus.com/Motherboard/P8Z77V/

I understand my motherboard supports ultra fast (2 seconds startup :))
 
Well, I reinstalled Win 8 with all these settings in BIOS and I got super fast boot now! Its great!
 
powerwolf said:
Well, I reinstalled Win 8 with all these settings in BIOS and I got super fast boot now! Its great!
Click to expand...

I probably will not have a new videocard until early next year. Also, the dataplex software does not support GPT yet so I will have to wait on that. (SSD Caching software.) However, my computer does boot in about 11 seconds or so anyways.
 
powerwolf I get about the same, except I have 2x 480GB SSDs in RAID 0, raid config handled by UEFI BIOS so I don't have to wait for it on post it just goes.

I disabled GUI Boot, disabled drive indexing, disabled hybernation, disabled system restore, disabled page file, and about 50 other tweaks and I managed to get down to 13 seconds from cold boot to start screen.

I re-enabled most of those again since there was no significant gain in performance, with the exception of no GUI boot and it still is at 13-14 seconds.
 
I finally got around to trying this and I came away unimpressed. My system was already booting pretty damn fast.(Shrugs)
 
KENNYB said:
I finally got around to trying this and I came away unimpressed. My system was already booting pretty damn fast.(Shrugs)
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You mean you video cards support UEFI GOP, you set yours drives as GPT and you turned on Ultra Fast boot, right?
 
ManofGod said:
You mean you video cards support UEFI GOP, you set yours drives as GPT and you turned on Ultra Fast boot, right?
Click to expand...

Both cards have been updated. I received an updated BIOS for each card from eVGA.
Yes, fast boot is enabled in UEFI and in the Windows Power control panel. I even disabled every option that would delay post. I have to use an Asus utility to get back into UEFI.

I tested with only my OS drive to see if it's worth the time converting my other drives from MBR to GPT. Cold boot time is much better, but not nearly as fast as videos I've seen. The delay between pressing the power button and seeing something on screen is where most of the delay occurs.
 
We did this with my son's rig, and he has the z68 board from asus. The weird thing is his mouse won't work in metro when we do, so we turned it off. Its odd because you know that annoying lock screen that comes up on boot, (that we most always disable), you have to alt-tab to get the mouse to click on it, like its in the back ground or something, which is how the mouse acts with all metro apps. I don't know, its weird, if there was a work around, he would probably use it, but since there isn't he is just sticking with the normal 30 second boot up...
 
ob1 said:
We did this with my son's rig, and he has the z68 board from asus. The weird thing is his mouse won't work in metro when we do, so we turned it off. Its odd because you know that annoying lock screen that comes up on boot, (that we most always disable), you have to alt-tab to get the mouse to click on it, like its in the back ground or something, which is how the mouse acts with all metro apps. I don't know, its weird, if there was a work around, he would probably use it, but since there isn't he is just sticking with the normal 30 second boot up...
Click to expand...

The keyboard will randomly not work for me. Last night I left my computer on. When I awoke it didn't go to sleep (which was expected), but the keyboard did not work. Unplug/reconnect the keyboard didn't fix the problem either. I had to cold boot and after Windows booted unplug/reconnect the keyboard to fix the issue.
 
On a Gene V it appears it takes about 12 seconds just to reach POST. I'm using 4 drives (1 partitioned GPT drive for the OS, and 3 others partitioned as MBR). A cold boot requires almost 18 seconds to boot from POST to Windows. Booting only the OS drive cuts downs the POST to Windows time to 7 seconds. Converting all disks to GPT actually makes the POST to Windows time worse.
 
is it really needed when one has a ssd for OS anyway?

My system now takes longer to get thru the bios post than it does to load windows 7. Once the bios is done windows 7 loads in about 3-4 secs of ssd.

UEFI boot great in the era of slow hdd but not so great now.
 
KENNYB said:
On a Gene V it appears it takes about 12 seconds just to reach POST. I'm using 4 drives (1 partitioned GPT drive for the OS, and 3 others partitioned as MBR). A cold boot requires almost 18 seconds to boot from POST to Windows. Booting only the OS drive cuts downs the POST to Windows time to 7 seconds. Converting all disks to GPT actually makes the POST to Windows time worse.
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like something is setup incorrectly. UEFI GOP Boot is designed to essentially skip the post entirely and boot right into the OS. However, Windows 7 does not support UEFI GOP Boot but only Windows 8 does.
 
chrcoluk said:
is it really needed when one has a ssd for OS anyway?

My system now takes longer to get thru the bios post than it does to load windows 7. Once the bios is done windows 7 loads in about 3-4 secs of ssd.

UEFI boot great in the era of slow hdd but not so great now.
Click to expand...

UEFI GOP Boot is even faster with a SSD than windows 7 is. Also, as I just said in the previous post, it is designed to essentially skip the post and boot right into the OS.
 
ManofGod said:
UEFI GOP Boot is designed to essentially skip the post entirely and boot right into the OS. However, Windows 7 does not support UEFI GOP Boot but only Windows 8 does.
Click to expand...

It doesn't skip post otherwise you would have no graphics. GOP is a UEFI driver to replace the legacy 16-bit Video Option ROM and FYI it can also work with W7.
 
CPL0 said:
It doesn't skip post otherwise you would have no graphics. GOP is a UEFI driver to replace the legacy 16-bit Video Option ROM and FYI it can also work with W7.
Click to expand...

Can work with windows 7 and does are not the same thing at all. UEFI GOP is designed to work with Windows 8 in an Ultra Fast Boot environment that Windows 8 directly supports. (Windows 7 does not directly support it nor does Microsoft support it in Windows 7 either.)
 
ManofGod said:
Sounds to me like something is setup incorrectly. UEFI GOP Boot is designed to essentially skip the post entirely and boot right into the OS. However, Windows 7 does not support UEFI GOP Boot but only Windows 8 does.
Click to expand...

It's not setup incorrectly. The Asus BIOS is the problem. It takes about 10 seconds just to reach POST. Yes, POST is over quickly, but getting to POST takes a long time.
 
I was all excited to get fast boot working on my crosshair 5 formula z, and Asus 7970 dc2, but the dc2 doesn't have the uefi GOP bios. Contacted Asus support but that's a lost cause. No one does the bios modding thing these days either, man what a bummer!
 
Veedo, this is VBIOS modding (Graphics) rather than BIOS modding (Mainboard) and AFAIK basically for now uses hybrid VBIOS, one for legacy and one for UEFI. IOW a whole new VBIOS is added with the existing leagacy VBIOS.

I suspect later on when legacy becomes a bit long in the tooth it will be just UEFI VBIOS but for now some compatibility is required for the next few years.

It also begs the question for those that have been told their video firmware chip is too small to incorporate the UEFI GOP VBIOS, whether or not the legacy BIOS could be replaced altogether with the UEFI GOP VBIOS so it does fit.

BTW I have seen a VBIOS for Asus 7970 DC2T with UEFI GOP support so hopefully there should be some hope for you still.

So what are your disadvantages of not having it, maybe lose a couple of seconds on booting. No secure boot, but what benefit does secure boot bring you? Not so bad maybe?
 
Thanks for the explanation! Its just one of those things that would be really cool to have working, especially on testing days when you reboot many times in a row. Having formatted my ssds gpt, having a motherboard that supports quick boot, and the graphics card is the only thing holding me up.

Now, if you could point me in the right direction on where to find that bios, you would be my new bff cpl0!
 
AFAIK that VBIOS is only for the DC2T (overclocked DC2), but I might be wrong there as other DC2 also show DC2T in VBIOS. Flashing a VBIOS for a different sub model usually results in a bricked card. It may be possible your graphics card has a BIOS switch. I'm no expert, ask the VBIOS guru's to be sure.

I don't know how well it works or not, Asus HD 7970 CUII Top VBIOS with UEFI GOP. You could try looking through some of the others listed but you'll probably lose all those seconds you would have gained lol.
 
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I am fairly certain the dc2t is just a higher binned dc2, its worth a shot. It has a second bios switch. How do you know the vbios is a uefi GOP bios? Thanks!
 
From 7970 VBIOS.
gopped.png


If your 7970 VBIOS does not contain GOP support then the last 64k (64k-128k) will not contain the GOP ROM but be blank. Let us know how you get on but whatever you do, please do not brick your card.
 
Ahh far out. Should flash to my card just fine. If not, I'll figure it out. Thanks, you tought me something today!
 
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just letting you know it worked. you the man cpl0! the only bad thing is, the voltage control that I just got working on my card no longer works with this bios. its always been a finicky card when it comes to this, so it is not a real huge deal. I may poke around with some other dc2t bios's to see if any have the gop bios inserted. if I copied 64-128k from the gop bios to a different bios without the gop, do you think it would work?
 
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Thanks for the update Veedo. Lucky I think that you just happened to post in the right place at the right time. I am not familiar with VBIOS but also wanted to try out UEFI so have been doing some searching. Still looking into it when I have the time but it's going to be a steep learning curve for me.

There was a post in German by user animefan that mentioned making some changes in the legacy section too when adding GOP support.

I have an old 5450 which I can play with if I ever get that far.

So now you have had a chance to play with UEFI drivers what do you think?
 
KENNYB said:
It's not setup incorrectly. The Asus BIOS is the problem. It takes about 10 seconds just to reach POST. Yes, POST is over quickly, but getting to POST takes a long time.
Click to expand...
My Gigabyte MB has that problem. Spends almost 30 seconds @ post. Once it posts bam it shoots up and then you're launching Windows. I fee like there will be a reboot and it will never come out of post some time in the (hopefully far future)
 
yea, I would have never figured this one out on my own, and to google this stuff at this point and time is next to impossible. thanks for the german link. a little hard to understand but I think I can make heads or tails of it. it might take a couple tries, and the card should still boot fine with the regular bios section if something does go wrong.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with the fast boot yet, but I surely do not have a 2 second boot time. it does zip straight to the windows loading circle after a reboot, but I think with my hardware setup I am looking at a 15 second boot to the desktop.

currently am working on a boot issue that existed before the uefi and fast boot arrangement, I am getting a black screen right after the spinning windows loading circle, instead of the lock screen I am getting a black screen, no response from the computer. happens randomly and does not appear to be hardware related, so I am in the process of nailing down what piece of software is causing it on start up.

heres my setup:

crosshair v formula z
fx8350
asus dc2 7970
asus xonar stx
hauppage 2250 tv tuner
4x4gb Samsung wonder ram
seasonic platinum 760
sandisk extreme 240gb ssd formatted gpt, on the amd ahci controller with amd drivers
windows 8 pro x64

for fastboot to work, csm set to disabled in bios. I am also not 100 percent up to date on secure boot, but I have verified it is enabled with the powershell command "confirm-securebooteuefi"
it will kick back "true" if working.
 
There is a way to bypass that windows lock screen. Try that and see if it helps.
 
ob1 said:
There is a way to bypass that windows lock screen. Try that and see if it helps.
Click to expand...

right on, I will give that whirl also. seems like there are actually quite a few people having issues with windows 8 booting in one way shape or form. might a completely different issue for me, or might not. some patches are supposed to roll out Tuesday, maybe a fix is rolled up.

and op, sorry to hijack your thread, but I think its all good info, right?

edit: rebooting with fast boot takes about 20 seconds, something isn't right there. but if I shut down and start up, it hits the desktop in like 3 seconds. crazy fast. hmm. is fastboot not supposed to work on restarts? and the windows lock screen being disabled didn't help my other problem. still working on that.

edit: from a windows blog:

What About Restart?

When you restart the computer, that typically means that you want a completely new Windows state, either because you have
installed a driver or replaced Windows elements that cannot be replaced without a full restart.
As a result, the restart process in Windows 8 continues to perform a full boot cycle, without the Hibernation performance improvement mentioned above.

learned something else new. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/olivnie/archive/2012/12/14/windows-8-fast-boot.aspx
 
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2 seconds or less is the expected time for BIOS initialization when using ultra fast boot, that is CSM is disabled and UEFI drivers are used in place of legacy OROMs. This time does not include OS loading.

Right Veedo, W8 uses the OS "fast start" (not to be confused with the BIOS setting) to semi hibernate the system and resume from this next boot start, something which W7 does not have.


Here's an example of using the "Windows Assessment Console" on W7 with ultra fast set in the BIOS, yes it says in the BIOS "ultra fast" requires W8 but can also work for W7 to run full UEFI (no CSM). Of course on W7 we can only use "full boot" that's like doing a restart, and not "fast start" which W8 can do with.

wacx.png


So a full reboot takes about 10 seconds on W7, that is measured from start of shutdown to desktop i.e. includes shutdown time.

Some things to note on my system with ultra fast boot set (Asrock Z77 Pro3),
  • IGD seems a little faster initializing than discrete.
  • Turn off VESA in bcdedit and preload IGD driver for W7
  • Using discrete graphics requires PCIe to be set in BIOS for graphics priority if using W7.
  • W8 uses to native monitor res on loading (passed on by BIOS), W7 switches to standard res.
  • W8 seems faster with fast start than W7 but slower with full restart
But probably the biggest dilemma for me is that I run RAID0 and the best driver for that so far is RST 11.2. Unfortunately when using the BIOS RAID UEFI driver to boot then the OS needs RST 11.5 or higher drivers, 11.2 does not work. So while I might get faster boot times, disk performance overall is reduced.
 
Veedo said:
yea, I would have never figured this one out on my own, and to google this stuff at this point and time is next to impossible. thanks for the german link. a little hard to understand but I think I can make heads or tails of it. it might take a couple tries, and the card should still boot fine with the regular bios section if something does go wrong.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with the fast boot yet, but I surely do not have a 2 second boot time. it does zip straight to the windows loading circle after a reboot, but I think with my hardware setup I am looking at a 15 second boot to the desktop.

currently am working on a boot issue that existed before the uefi and fast boot arrangement, I am getting a black screen right after the spinning windows loading circle, instead of the lock screen I am getting a black screen, no response from the computer. happens randomly and does not appear to be hardware related, so I am in the process of nailing down what piece of software is causing it on start up.

heres my setup:

crosshair v formula z
fx8350
asus dc2 7970
asus xonar stx
hauppage 2250 tv tuner
4x4gb Samsung wonder ram
seasonic platinum 760
sandisk extreme 240gb ssd formatted gpt, on the amd ahci controller with amd drivers
windows 8 pro x64

for fastboot to work, csm set to disabled in bios. I am also not 100 percent up to date on secure boot, but I have verified it is enabled with the powershell command "confirm-securebooteuefi"
it will kick back "true" if working.
Click to expand...

How are you cold boot times? I'm stuck with a 10 second black screen until POST begins.
 
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