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That EVGA X299 Dark BIOS BIOS Update With Stress Tests is Now Available
A new BIOS Update is available now for the EVGA X299 DARK Motherboard which features several brand new exclusive features. This new update is further proof of EVGA’s commitment to the enthusiast community, and these new features will also be standard on all future EVGA enthusiast motherboards.
The new stress test allows you to test and stress from the bios to see if an overclock is stable or not. That saves you the time to boot into windows and test there, crash and start over again. You can likely expect the feature to end up in the high-end SKUs motherboards. The test itself would be close to Prime95-like CPU stress loads, the BIOS will display frequency, voltage, and temperature of the CPU.
Key Features of the New EVGA GUI BIOS:
- Built-in CPU Stress Test – Test your CPU overclock with the click of a button from directly in the BIOS! No reboot needed.
- EVGA OC Robot – Automatically test and find a stable overclock for your system.
- Gamer Mode – Set a conservative overclock in seconds.
Clever, it likely won't be long before other manufacturers will do a similar thing in their BIOS. But props where props are due, this is very handy for any CPU tweaker.
cryohellinc
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#5565602 Posted on: 07/17/2018 08:27 AM
Great feature indeed, I hope more modern mobo manufacturers implement it.
Great feature indeed, I hope more modern mobo manufacturers implement it.
fantaskarsef
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#5565606 Posted on: 07/17/2018 08:42 AM
This can only be good. Nobody has to use it, but it helps overclockers a lot.
This can only be good. Nobody has to use it, but it helps overclockers a lot.
RavenMaster
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#5565629 Posted on: 07/17/2018 12:35 PM
Love my EVGA motherboards but i'm skipping the X299 chipset altogether because it doesn't do what i need it to do so there would be no point in upgrading from X99. What i'm hoping the X399 (or whatever name they give the next intel HEDT chipset name), is for bootable RAID0 over PCI-E to be an option via hardware without the need for VROC. And for 4K UHD blu ray playback to be made possible on PC without needing intel SGX and an iGPU.
Love my EVGA motherboards but i'm skipping the X299 chipset altogether because it doesn't do what i need it to do so there would be no point in upgrading from X99. What i'm hoping the X399 (or whatever name they give the next intel HEDT chipset name), is for bootable RAID0 over PCI-E to be an option via hardware without the need for VROC. And for 4K UHD blu ray playback to be made possible on PC without needing intel SGX and an iGPU.
entr0cks
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#5565660 Posted on: 07/17/2018 02:43 PM
Might as well if the space is there - old tech probably gets more expensive then newer (sizes). Otherwise a bootable thumb stick does the trick.
Might as well if the space is there - old tech probably gets more expensive then newer (sizes). Otherwise a bootable thumb stick does the trick.
Pictus
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#5565681 Posted on: 07/17/2018 03:33 PM
EVGA motherboards are very well built and made with quality components,
but strangely no current EVGA motherboard have Thunderbolt header... o_O
EVGA motherboards are very well built and made with quality components,
but strangely no current EVGA motherboard have Thunderbolt header... o_O
cowie
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#5565696 Posted on: 07/17/2018 04:14 PM
this was probably the best mb they had in 10 years
pretty cool idea
this was probably the best mb they had in 10 years
pretty cool idea
Aekold
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Posts: 31
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#5565836 Posted on: 07/18/2018 01:07 AM
Cool, now only if this was available for motherboards that were better made. EVGA has a poor track recorded when it comes to motherboards and long term reliably.
there AMD board were so bad most people don't ever recall them, the caps alone killed more then there far share of systems. The 780i and some of the x58 boards would die all out of no where. the SR-2 was know to have some problem with dieing out of nowhere too if I recall.
Your doing good if your EVGA board is over 5 year old and still works.
I had a similar experience with a 750i FTW mobo, but the 680i I got was rock solid for years (even with a 50% overclock on my E6600 CPU). Regardless, they always seem to do a good job in the BIOS department.
I was sad when they got into that spat with Intel and weren't able to make mobos for a while.
Cool, now only if this was available for motherboards that were better made. EVGA has a poor track recorded when it comes to motherboards and long term reliably.
there AMD board were so bad most people don't ever recall them, the caps alone killed more then there far share of systems. The 780i and some of the x58 boards would die all out of no where. the SR-2 was know to have some problem with dieing out of nowhere too if I recall.
Your doing good if your EVGA board is over 5 year old and still works.
I had a similar experience with a 750i FTW mobo, but the 680i I got was rock solid for years (even with a 50% overclock on my E6600 CPU). Regardless, they always seem to do a good job in the BIOS department.
I was sad when they got into that spat with Intel and weren't able to make mobos for a while.
robintson
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#5566004 Posted on: 07/18/2018 04:01 PM
The policy of "some" motherboard manufacturers like (E..., M..,etc) is to make low level products with cheap low level parts, maximize the profit by advertising and selling them as durable and of high build quality. Absolutely no care at all if a motherboard would last only a year or two, till it is under warranty they will fix it, after the warranty the costumers are on their own and better buy newer model as soon as possible. For them it doesn't matter at all if one have paid premium price for a product to last just for couple of years. Thankfully,there are exceptions, IMO like Gb i.e.
The policy of "some" motherboard manufacturers like (E..., M..,etc) is to make low level products with cheap low level parts, maximize the profit by advertising and selling them as durable and of high build quality. Absolutely no care at all if a motherboard would last only a year or two, till it is under warranty they will fix it, after the warranty the costumers are on their own and better buy newer model as soon as possible. For them it doesn't matter at all if one have paid premium price for a product to last just for couple of years. Thankfully,there are exceptions, IMO like Gb i.e.
Aekold
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#5566081 Posted on: 07/18/2018 07:14 PM
As far as I know, they never did give proper support for the 45nm chips on any 6XX boards. Only the 700 series got it. A way to "encourage" upgrades, I guess.
yeah the 680i were ok, but didn't they never patch the bios to fix 45mn quad support on that board?
As far as I know, they never did give proper support for the 45nm chips on any 6XX boards. Only the 700 series got it. A way to "encourage" upgrades, I guess.
schmidtbag
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#5566125 Posted on: 07/18/2018 09:57 PM
You can't boot off a discrete RAID controller?
With enough brute force from an i9, why does it matter if you have hardware acceleration?
...is for bootable RAID0 over PCI-E to be an option via hardware without the need for VROC.
You can't boot off a discrete RAID controller?
And for 4K UHD blu ray playback to be made possible on PC without needing intel SGX and an iGPU.
With enough brute force from an i9, why does it matter if you have hardware acceleration?
RavenMaster
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#5566345 Posted on: 07/19/2018 03:19 PM
You can't boot off a discrete RAID controller?
Discrete RAID controllers are not as simple to use as you may think. They require Intel VROC to be able to pair the M.2 SSD's in RAID0 otherwise the 4 drives just show up separately and cannot be paired. You can't just put the discrete controller card in any motherboard either. Not even a fairly recent X99 motherboard. Only X299 chipsets support VROC on the Intel side of the pond. However, AMD threadripper chipsets do seem to offer a better solution for M.2 PCI-E RAID (albeit awkward to get working).
Check out this useful video:
You can't boot off a discrete RAID controller?
Discrete RAID controllers are not as simple to use as you may think. They require Intel VROC to be able to pair the M.2 SSD's in RAID0 otherwise the 4 drives just show up separately and cannot be paired. You can't just put the discrete controller card in any motherboard either. Not even a fairly recent X99 motherboard. Only X299 chipsets support VROC on the Intel side of the pond. However, AMD threadripper chipsets do seem to offer a better solution for M.2 PCI-E RAID (albeit awkward to get working).
Check out this useful video:
schmidtbag
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#5566370 Posted on: 07/19/2018 04:59 PM
When it comes to RAID'ing M.2, yeah, I can see how that might be a problem. But honestly, what's the point? RAID for SATA SSDs would be worth the effort, but I find it is counter-intuitive to RAID M.2 drives, for the following reasons:
* Most M.2 drives have sequential read/write speeds faster than what most applications can take advantage of. The only performance benefit you'll get is increasing this already faster-than-necessary sequential speeds.
* In real-world environments, the most noticeable improvement of M.2 over SATA is the IOPs and latency. When you use RAID, you tarnish those benefits.
* M.2 drives tend to be more limited by capacity, or at least their prices get VERY high (relative to SATA SSDs) beyond a certain point.
So basically, if you were to RAID0 6 or so SATA SSDs, your real-world performance shouldn't be a whole lot worse, while costing you a LOT less. And, you wouldn't have this tricky boot situation. Sure, it's not as brag-worthy, but bragging rights over RAID0 M.2 drives is like bragging about having a 700HP sportscar that you commute to work with (assuming you don't go on the Autobahn...). You're paying extra for performance you aren't going to use, and you're actually making noticeable sacrifices to have it. IMO, having the best for the sake of having the best is never worth it in the end.
In the unlikely event you actually would take advantage of this performance, why not use a RAM drive? Why not use a PCIe SSD? Or in another perspective - you're already paying an exorbitant amount of money to get as far as you have, why not just pay for Intel's VROC?
Discrete RAID controllers are not as simple to use as you may think. They require Intel VROC to be able to pair the M.2 SSD's in RAID0 otherwise the 4 drives just show up separately and cannot be paired. You can't just put the discrete controller card in any motherboard either. Not even a fairly recent X99 motherboard. Only X299 chipsets support VROC on the Intel side of the pond. However, AMD threadripper chipsets do seem to offer a better solution for M.2 PCI-E RAID (albeit awkward to get working).
When it comes to RAID'ing M.2, yeah, I can see how that might be a problem. But honestly, what's the point? RAID for SATA SSDs would be worth the effort, but I find it is counter-intuitive to RAID M.2 drives, for the following reasons:
* Most M.2 drives have sequential read/write speeds faster than what most applications can take advantage of. The only performance benefit you'll get is increasing this already faster-than-necessary sequential speeds.
* In real-world environments, the most noticeable improvement of M.2 over SATA is the IOPs and latency. When you use RAID, you tarnish those benefits.
* M.2 drives tend to be more limited by capacity, or at least their prices get VERY high (relative to SATA SSDs) beyond a certain point.
So basically, if you were to RAID0 6 or so SATA SSDs, your real-world performance shouldn't be a whole lot worse, while costing you a LOT less. And, you wouldn't have this tricky boot situation. Sure, it's not as brag-worthy, but bragging rights over RAID0 M.2 drives is like bragging about having a 700HP sportscar that you commute to work with (assuming you don't go on the Autobahn...). You're paying extra for performance you aren't going to use, and you're actually making noticeable sacrifices to have it. IMO, having the best for the sake of having the best is never worth it in the end.
In the unlikely event you actually would take advantage of this performance, why not use a RAM drive? Why not use a PCIe SSD? Or in another perspective - you're already paying an exorbitant amount of money to get as far as you have, why not just pay for Intel's VROC?
RavenMaster
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#5566390 Posted on: 07/19/2018 05:26 PM
Only X299 chipsets and CPU's use VROC. Only Z270 / Z370 chipsets have intel SGX which allow a DRM handshake so you can watch 4K HDR blu ray discs on PC. The trouble is, i'm looking for a CPU and motherboard which do both. Hopefully Intel will have the solution with its upcoming X399 chipset
you're already paying an exorbitant amount of money to get as far as you have, why not just pay for Intel's VROC?
Only X299 chipsets and CPU's use VROC. Only Z270 / Z370 chipsets have intel SGX which allow a DRM handshake so you can watch 4K HDR blu ray discs on PC. The trouble is, i'm looking for a CPU and motherboard which do both. Hopefully Intel will have the solution with its upcoming X399 chipset
schmidtbag
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#5566395 Posted on: 07/19/2018 05:39 PM
I still don't see what the problem is. Go with Z270/Z370 and ditch the effectively pointless M.2 RAID0 config. If you really want large+fast storage, M.2 RAID0 isn't the most logical option.
Only X299 chipsets and CPU's use VROC. Only Z270 / Z370 chipsets have intel SGX which allow a DRM handshake so you can watch 4K HDR blu ray discs on PC. The trouble is, i'm looking for a CPU and motherboard which do both. Hopefully Intel will have the solution with its upcoming X399 chipset
I still don't see what the problem is. Go with Z270/Z370 and ditch the effectively pointless M.2 RAID0 config. If you really want large+fast storage, M.2 RAID0 isn't the most logical option.
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About time i have always wondered why this is not been included took long enough, they say UEFI is like a mini Operating system and is much better testing in the BIOS rather than risking corrupting your Windows and boot partition image.