BIOS 3204 for Crosshair VIII Hero

[cowboy44mag]

I have just upgraded my build with the Dark Hero and Ryzen 9 5900X. I only completed the build yesterday and am still running bios version 2601 that came preloaded on the board. I have done some overclocking and have thus far been really happy with my early results and was wondering if there is any advantage to updating to bios 3204. I haven't had much time to fine tune my overclocks but right now I am running 32GB of RAM at 3600Mhz CL14, and have utilized CPU Core Ratio (per ccx) option to do a manual all core overclock of 4.65Ghz with the option to switch to normal PBO for single core boost under 45amps. I have verified in Cinebench that I am running the multi core test at 4.65Ghz all core and single core test is boosting to ~5Ghz as it should. In Cinebench R20 my single core score is ~640 and my multicore score is ~9230 (either one can be slightly higher or lower depending on the run but those are good averages).

Does anyone know if there is a benefit to flashing the new bios 3204 or is it better to stay on bios 2601? I know that technically if there were any issues I could revert back to 2601 but I have also had issues in the past with trying to revert back to an older bios after flashing a newer one.

[TomDD]

Does anyone know if there is a benefit to flashing the new bios 3204 or is it better to stay on bios 2601? I know that technically if there were any issues I could revert back to 2601 but I have also had issues in the past with trying to revert back to an older bios after flashing a newer one.

Probably just ReSize BAR / AMD SAM support. Also the newer AGESA are supposed to work better with the 5 series chips but unsure if that makes a big difference or not.

[mdzcpa]

I have just upgraded my build with the Dark Hero and Ryzen 9 5900X. I only completed the build yesterday and am still running bios version 2601 that came preloaded on the board. I have done some overclocking and have thus far been really happy with my early results and was wondering if there is any advantage to updating to bios 3204. I haven't had much time to fine tune my overclocks but right now I am running 32GB of RAM at 3600Mhz CL14, and have utilized CPU Core Ratio (per ccx) option to do a manual all core overclock of 4.65Ghz with the option to switch to normal PBO for single core boost under 45amps. I have verified in Cinebench that I am running the multi core test at 4.65Ghz all core and single core test is boosting to ~5Ghz as it should. In Cinebench R20 my single core score is ~640 and my multicore score is ~9230 (either one can be slightly higher or lower depending on the run but those are good averages).

Does anyone know if there is a benefit to flashing the new bios 3204 or is it better to stay on bios 2601? I know that technically if there were any issues I could revert back to 2601 but I have also had issues in the past with trying to revert back to an older bios after flashing a newer one.

My motto, if ain't broke don't fix it.

It seems you have a well running system with some nice custom clocks. I'd stay put until these later BIOS versions prove to be more stable. You're not missing anything useful.

Please check your PMs. I sent something to you.

[cowboy44mag]

I just thought I would share this video for anyone wondering about CPU Core Ratio (per ccx) overclocking. Please keep in mind that no two systems will require the same voltages (I myself am running a + offset of 0.0500) and if you are tweaking RAM I have also found that Ryzen 5000 seems to be much more sensitive to SOC voltages than even the 3000 series was. I was actually totally unstable (random restarts) until I discovered it was the SOC voltage, I require 1.125V to be stable. Other than that this is a great guide from probably the foremost overclocker in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CEF...ature=youtu.be

By the way the Asus Dark Hero is the only motherboard that supports CPU Core Ratio Per CCX overclocking.

[cowboy44mag]

My motto, if ain't broke don't fix it.

It seems you have a well running system with some nice customer clocks. I'd stay put until these later BIOS versions prove to be more stable. You're not missing anything useful.

Please check your PMs. I sent something to you.

That is what I've been thinking too... That whole "if it isn't broke don't fix it" is something my father drummed into my head, and is a very good rule of thumb to follow. Of course there is my OCD to get the most performance possible from my overclock, and was wondering if anyone knew of any advantages with the 3204 bios for voltages. I have found that there can be big differences in needed voltage between bios "generations" and of course the lower the needed voltage the lower the heat and higher the potential overclock... I think for now I'll just see how far I can optimize with the current bios, I just started tweaking the voltages and testing the CCXs...

[cowboy44mag]

Just thought I would post a general followup with my personal results as it pertains to upgrading to Bios version 3204. Out of the box my Dark Hero was running bios 2601 and I was unsure if I should bother updating to bios 3204 because I was getting good performance / overclocks with bios 2601 and if it isn't broke... Well I found some very interesting behavior with bios 2601. My system was rock solid when performing any productivity based application or benchmark, ie multi-core performance RAM stability was 100% solid. However when I started to run and benchmark more single core heavy applications / benchmarks I was getting random restarts. Took me a couple hours to track it down to being RAM instability as I had just installed an RTX 3080 and was unsure if my instability was an issue with the GPU or something else. After tinkering with voltages and clocks for more time than I should have wasted on it I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to bios 3204. With the new bios version I just loaded up my original overclock settings across the board and now its rock stable in multi-core and single core loads.

Just thought I would share the update if anyone else is experiencing random reboot issues they can't trace but only under certain conditions (ie multi-core vs single core loads). Updating the bios to version 3204 fixed my issues and thus far overclocking on the new bios version has been as good or better than version 2601.

[[OJR]]

3204 is rubbish for me. 3202 I was able to get higher boost clocks using PBO, it's like with 3204 it's stuck at 5025 whereas with 3020 I was seeing boost clocks of up to 5100 using PBO.

[cowboy44mag]

3204 is rubbish for me. 3202 I was able to get higher boost clocks using PBO, it's like with 3204 it's stuck at 5025 whereas with 3020 I was seeing boost clocks of up to 5100 using PBO.

I've been working on my overclock most of the day and think at this point I can confirm loss of single core boost with bios 3204. My multi-core overclock actually improved with 3204 as I was able to lower core voltage and am able to hit 4.7Ghz all core, however single core boost has fallen. I use to get ~640pts in Cinebench R20 and am now ~636pts. Boost frequency was above 5Ghz and in Cinebench R20 is now topping at 4924Mhz. I have tweaked everything I can think of and the only difference was updating the bios. In my case I really didn't have much of a choice as my old bios (version 2601) was having ram issues in gaming loads. Tried to find bios 3202 to see if it would fix the loss of single core boost but the only bios versions I could find on Asus website were 2601, 3003, and 3204. Hopefully the next bios release will correct the single core boosting.

[Pectacq]

Hi

I have a Dark Hero MB with R7 5800X and it has the bios 0210 on it. Is it possible to update the bios to the latest one with the latest file or do I need to install the previous update's first?

P.S. I have also a weird bug with ethernet. When I boot my PC sometimes it doesn't enable connect to internet or something like that. I can see that I have local network but no internet via ethernet and also the same with WIFI. I have to reboot my pc and then it works. Maybe its a driver issue but in reinstalled them and it still doesn't connect to the internet sometimes

[grok23]

Hi

I have a Dark Hero MB with R7 5800X and it has the bios 0210 on it. Is it possible to update the bios to the latest one with the latest file or do I need to install the previous update's first?

P.S. I have also a weird bug with ethernet. When I boot my PC sometimes it doesn't enable connect to internet or something like that. I can see that I have local network but no internet via ethernet and also the same with WIFI. I have to reboot my pc and then it works. Maybe its a driver issue but in reinstalled them and it still doesn't connect to the internet sometimes

You can just update to the latest BIOS, you don't need to install earlier ones first.

Maybe try uninstalling and then reinstalling the latest network drivers.