ASUS AMD Beta BIOS Releases

[NEOAethyr]

I got a M4N82 Deluxe to the side I got from a buddy last summer for building him a new am3 system.

He gave it to me because his computer fell over, from a table to the floor and his drive bay wasn't attached to anything, it ripped 2 of the sata ports out of the board, leaving the pins.
He still had the plastic cover for it.
I did some reasearch the next day, seemed like a decent board.
I called him up, asked if I could come over and get that cover, thinking I'll carefully slide it back on, he told me he tossed it :\.
Not sure if I should pull the pins or rma the board.

Board is working though, I know it posts fine and the other sata ports work.

I'm looking at asus'es site right now, newest bios: 2010/12/16 ^^.
Actually it looks like this board is updated alot....
Surprised me when I noticed it supports the 6 core cpu's (might come in handy if my mem comes back and my setup is still not stable...).

I think if you can get your point across, they will fix the probs you have with the bios.
It appears to me that they are still supporting some of these older boards.

And when I say old boards, I mean am2.
Try looking for good ddr2 mem on newegg, 99% of it is gone.
I sure as heck wouldn't want to go looking for some decent ddr2 right now...
That's why I say, these am2's are old.
It's hard to get good mem for them now.

Right now ddr3 is in it's prime, lots of good stuff.
The 1 gig sticks are getting to hard to find, but 2gig sticks are half the price that they were last summer.
And they aren't your 1333mhz 8 timing bs either, you can can get some decent stuff for reasonable price.

I don't see bingo around this thread much anymore though.
I kinda wish that the engineers would appear in the thread as well to help out.

Now if they can continuesly update a nvidia board, which is is a very very old chipset regardless of what it's labled.
Then there is no reason why a 790fx shouldn't be supported...

But after a year and a half, these board's, the supports goes downhill.
That's the way it is with all brands.
You might get a small update that supports a new cpu, but the usability of that update well, ^^...

One more year and the ch4's will be in the same boat.
Might even be quicker if the am3+ boards come out and the cpu's.
Then we can all say bye bye to good bios updates for these...
I doubt they will support the am3+ cpu's if there ends up being a 192 or 256bit mem controller.
I knew that though, I just wanted a good board to go with a decent 6 core cpu.

Bah, now I'm rambling...

[bingo13]

Sorry about the delay, about half of us came down with the flu after CES, not a good time last week. I spoke with the lead engineer on the C4F this morning and he will have the BIOS change log and technical descriptions for the new voltage options tomorrow. We also expect additional BIOS releases this week on the AMD side.

[hokiealumnus]

Hey bingo, thanks for the update. Curious to know: Does the new C4F beta allow booting from PCIe?

[-Px-]

bingo13
Some news on M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 on ATI+NVIDIA cards working together, please

[FlanK3r]

good news Bingo.

[Praz]

Hey bingo, thanks for the update. Curious to know: Does the new C4F beta allow booting from PCIe?

The C4F already has this capability. There are issues depending on what is being used but there are also workarounds.

[bingo13]

Quick Overview of Critical 1304 BIOS Settings -
PWM Phase Control:
- This option allows user to choose whether or not the CPU VRM power phases should change dynamically with respect to the change of CPU load. This option along with CPU and CPU/NB LLC will allow the user to fine tune the PWM and CPU voltages for improved overclocking or limiting voltage overshoots during overclocking.

CPU Voltage OCP:
- This option allows the user to disable the “Over Current Protection” of the CPU. Enabling this option may allow the CPU to consume more current than the safety range defined by AMD, but might assist in high overclocks, especially under extreme cooling. Please treat this option with extreme care to prevent permanent damage to the CPU.

CPU PWM Frequency:
- This option allows user to override the switching frequency of the CPU PWM controller. Raising this option may assist in ensuring power delivery is more stable under overclocking conditions but with the cost of higher operating temperatures of the CPU PWM controller.

CPU Load-Line Calibration:
- This option allows user to decide whether or not the motherboard should lower the CPU Vcore as the current consumption of the CPU voltage raises to meet the CPU load-line spec defined by AMD. Users can now choose other levels of Load-Line Calibration in the 1304 BIOS to lower the amount of voltage the Vcore is raised up to or over normal load line voltages as CPU loading increases. Most air/water overclocks should use 50~75% levels for maximum clocks along with tuning of the VRM options. Due to the design of the AMD Phenom series, realize that certain voltage overshoots will be present in Core 0.

CPU/NB Load-Line Calibration:
- This option allows user to decide whether or not the motherboard should lower the CPU/NB voltage as the current consumption of the CPU/NB voltage raises to meet the CPU load-line spec defined by AMD. Users can now choose other levels of Load-Line Calibration in the 1304 BIOS to lower the amount of voltage that CPU/NB is raised up to or over normal load line voltages as the CPU/NB loading increases.

CPU/NB Voltage OCP:
- This option allows user to disable the “Over Current Protection” of the CPU/NB (i.e. the memory controller). Enabling this option may allow the CPU/NB to consume more current than the safety range defined by AMD. Please treat this option with extreme care to prevent permanent damage to the CPU.

Working on a tuning guide with a retail 1100T now.

[hokiealumnus]

Thanks for the detailed notes bingo!

The C4F already has this capability. There are issues depending on what is being used but there are also workarounds.

Thank you for that; indeed it did boot fine.

[NEOAethyr]

I'm a bit confused about what you said bingo.

OCP, when this is enabled does it mean that "Over Current Protection" is enabled?
Because they way you wrote it, it makes me think it's the oppiset.

Other ?.
Load-Line Calibration.
So if we disable this, it means we get more stable voltage if the amp draw increases?
I thaught enabling it did that....

I'm not trying to confuse everyone.
I just want some clear answers lol.

I got one more.
Note my board is offline for the moment, waiting for mem.
If I jack the pwm freq all the way up, as long as I'm actively cooling the pwm it will be ok right?
(edit: does pwm freq effect more then cpu vcore pwm speed?, like cpu-nb pwm...)

;;;;;;;

This ? goes to anyone with the know how...

Has anyone messed up one of these x6's by up'ing there cpu-nb voltages to high?

[pershoot]

thx bingo for that.

i can only assume then that OCP enable means just that, leave the protection enabled (default settings)?

can i assume also that motherboard/system temp is the PWM temp? i haven't seen this raise much by setting 500KHZ (maybe 1-2c during load). i do have a low rpm fan blowing from top, but it isnt doing too much due to the way my case is layed out, but it is getting some airflow (i have a fan blowing straight on the nb area).

so far testing on the bios seems good. LLC set to full calibration. i was able to lower voltages a small bit. seems not to waiver as much as the previous. ref. clock sways as it did with the previous.

clock: 4g, NB: 3g, HT: 2g.

[FlanK3r]

thx bingo!

[chew*]

I'm a bit confused about what you said bingo.

OCP, when this is enabled does it mean that "Over Current Protection" is enabled?
Because they way you wrote it, it makes me think it's the oppiset.

Other ?.
Load-Line Calibration.
So if we disable this, it means we get more stable voltage if the amp draw increases?
I thaught enabling it did that....

I'm not trying to confuse everyone.
I just want some clear answers lol.

I got one more.
Note my board is offline for the moment, waiting for mem.
If I jack the pwm freq all the way up, as long as I'm actively cooling the pwm it will be ok right?
(edit: does pwm freq effect more then cpu vcore pwm speed?, like cpu-nb pwm...)

;;;;;;;

This ? goes to anyone with the know how...

Has anyone messed up one of these x6's by up'ing there cpu-nb voltages to high?

OCP DISABLED disables Overcurrent protection.

Most common place that you would run into OCP is on ln2 running say wprime 1024m.

Symptoms of OCP is a complete powerdown where board will not fire back up without the PSU being cycled on and off.

If you think OCP is kicking in on air/water/phase/DI you are surely mistaken, it takes over 6 gig all cores loaded to trigger OCP in my experience.

I highly suggest if you do not experience these symptoms that you do not disable OCP.......OCP protects your hardware.

Commonly people hard mod boards and or video cards for this, in fact I originally requested a mod only after speaking with some reviewers who tested on ln2 however ASUS chose to do it via bios.

In most cases overclockers will not notice OCP on air/water/phase/DI.

Yes it is very easy to mess up an X6 with excessive cpu_nb volts.

I reccomend for safety no more than 1.35 on air......

LLC enabled is out of SPEC for AMD cpu's, intel for that matter to. Use it with caution, its always better to have a little droop than none at all.

I have experimented with the PWM frequency on cold and normal temps, I really saw no major gains and reccomend auto for most users.

My personal reccomendations for 24/7 users is 50% core only LLC and leave the rest auto only on thuban, its not needed for deneb.

My personal reccomendation for ln2 users is 100% llc cpu, 50% llc CPU_NB and OCP disabled for NB and CPU, if you must for whatever reason feel the need for PWM run 500K while on ln2...............

[BeepBeep2]

LLC enabled is out of SPEC for AMD cpu's, intel for that matter to. Use it with caution, its always better to have a little droop than none at all.

I'm guessing the DMM had shown volt spikes? I'd rather be able to run a lower voltage at idle and a slightly higher voltage when my CPU needs it but if LLC is dangerous in any way I'll disable it...(which will really hurt my OC)

[jeremyshaw]

LLC just bumps the voltage up (effect, I don't really know how does it calculate how much), so if you are going balls to the wall to begin with...

[mav2000]

Thanks Chew for the quick guide there..will try these soon.

[chew*]

I'm guessing the DMM had shown volt spikes? I'd rather be able to run a lower voltage at idle and a slightly higher voltage when my CPU needs it but if LLC is dangerous in any way I'll disable it...(which will really hurt my OC)

Its out of spec but in this particular boards case it's kind of a necessity with thuban, the voltage regulation just dips to much.

50% LLC kinda puts the board in a more normal droop state, I found 100% to overshoot more than my liking at least in air/water load situations.

LLC doesn't just bump the voltage in general, it tends to bump it up on demand aka Load, thus the name Load Line Calibration.

[Daveburt714]

If you think OCP is kicking in on air/water/phase/DI you are surely mistaken, it takes over 6 gig all cores loaded to trigger OCP in my experience.

I highly suggest if you do not experience these symptoms that you do not disable OCP.......OCP protects your hardware.........

Thanks for your insight chew*.

I don't claim to have alot of knowledge conserning electrical properties, but with my brief testing with 1304 it does seem to run more stable with OCP disabled on the CPU...

I'm not pushing crazy voltages (~1.45 core/1.265 IMC (OCP enabled on IMC)), and I only take the clocks to where they stop scaling.

Do you really think I'm risking damage to my chip just by disabling OCP without pushing crazy v's?

Like I said my knowledge of electronics is limited, but as long as I'm being sane with my OC/voltages, current shouldn't be a problem, should it?

I'm not questioning your skills, just asking for clarification....

[FlanK3r]

chew, think, do u mean 1.35V CPU/NB V for 24/7, right? Thx.

[-Px-]

bingo13
Don't know, if it already found/reported, but there is bug in 1606/1703 bioses for M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 motherboard: if 8 GB (4x2 GB) RAM installed and chipset SATA controller disabled, Windows 2008 R2 setup/boot stops with BSOD with such text

The bios in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact your system vendor for an updated bios.
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x000000A5 (0x00000000001000, 0x0000000000000000, 0x00000000FFFFFFFF, 0x0000000000000200).

With only one memory stick, or chipset controller enabled, bug doesn't appear

[Tonyb]

PWM on auto disabled CPU OCP

System rebooted almost immediately on 50% Load Line Calibration when running Prime95.

[Leeghoofd]

So ? you need to up the Vcore. Don't see the problem...

[Tonyb]

There is no problem, with LLC on full the system completed 27.5 hrs prime95 testing max temp 47c.

vcore is on 1.425v
CPU/NB on 1.17

I would rather keep the vcore low and let the LLC handle the voltage.

[chew*]

Thanks for your insight chew*.

I don't claim to have alot of knowledge conserning electrical properties, but with my brief testing with 1304 it does seem to run more stable with OCP disabled on the CPU...

I'm not pushing crazy voltages (~1.45 core/1.265 IMC (OCP enabled on IMC)), and I only take the clocks to where they stop scaling.

Do you really think I'm risking damage to my chip just by disabling OCP without pushing crazy v's?

Like I said my knowledge of electronics is limited, but as long as I'm being sane with my OC/voltages, current shouldn't be a problem, should it?

I'm not questioning your skills, just asking for clarification....

OCP disabled on air/water making things more stable honestly in my opinion is more placebo effect.

This is the way OCP works.......lets take a hypothetical number.

Lets say the current OCP kicks in at 150 amps draw.......that would be equivalent to about a 400 watt draw just from the socket which i doubt anyone is hitting even on DI.......

unless you exceed that draw and the board shuts off completely.........not a crash that allows you to reboot. A hard power down with no response from power or reset buttons........only then is OCP effecting you. At that point you would have to cycle PSU on and off just to get board to post again.

That is how OCP works, it doesn't make an overclock air/water OC more stable, what it allows is you to possibly damage CPU or board by drawing what would be deemed unsafe amount of current thus the reason there is an OCP limit to begin with.

The current OCP limit without it disabled kicks in about 6gig in wprime 1024 with a 600 watt draw from the socket which if my killawatt still worked I could give you an amperage draw number however i broke it.

As for LLC 100% versus 50%.......well obviously you will need to use a higher vcore with 50% llc but the droop is at least still in the safe zone where no droop can cause permanent damage.

[NEOAethyr]

What do you mean no droop can cause damage?

You disable llc for the cpu, like in the older bios even, and voltage level's are lower.
But there is less flutuation.
You mean to say this can damage the cpu in some way? (even at lower levels?)

I ran my board like that for 2 days.... :|
And that was RIGHT around the time my setup started to act up...
Pretty darn close, 48hrs within the time my setup was acting up "I think".
If not maybe 2 weeks absolute tops, but still close to the time my system became completely unstable.

I can understand the 50%.
With it you could keep a halfway low vcore level, and the droop would be less then 100%.

Am I making any sense lol?

What's wrong with say disabling llc completely, and just upping the vcore until it's stable again?, that will damage the cpu somehow?
I hope not...

From my experience it seems I needed more vcore with it disabled.
But it fluctuated less, some things acted a bit better but alot of stuff acted like my vcore was to low.
Since it was easier to get things running stable at lower voltages with it enabled I switched back.

[BeepBeep2]

If I were to disable LLC on my board since there is no 50% I'd be looking at 1.565v idle and 1.51v ish load for 4.3...that is 3D/game stable...LLC on I can set 1.481v and get 1.51v load...