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F0x135 · ‎01-04-2018

Is it worth going to 0606 if i'm happy with 0605?

Has this got anything to do with the recent Meltdown & Spectre bugs?

All it says in the description is:

ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMING BIOS 0606
"1. Update CPU Microcode

2. Improve system compatibility and stability "

Any thoughts is appreciated!

flacer · ‎01-05-2018

I'm using 5605 Beta Version ...
Today, after I will finish my x265 encoding oI 36h ... I will download 0606 and will test with my OC configuration.

Thank you for the news ....

RAJA@ASUS , can you update the post of bios version ? thx

AntonioL · ‎01-05-2018

Hi,

The CPU micro-code update could be related to these vulnerabilities, and be complementary with the OS patches issued recently (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4056892/windows-10-update-kb4056892).

If someone is bold enough to try this new BIOS, and has a fast SSD installed on his PC, what would be interesting is to compare the read/write performance before, after KB patch, and eventually after KB+BIOS fixes, in particular with 4K random accesses, as these operations seem to be the most affected by the drop of performance.

I admit I lack courage (and time) to do it by myself !*

katlani · ‎01-05-2018

Seems like the UEFI EZ Flash utility doesn't recognize this BIOS update yet once trying to use the auto update feature.
Using a Prime Z370-A motherboard.

Carbonicdk · ‎01-05-2018

katlani wrote:
Seems like the UEFI EZ Flash utility doesn't recognize this BIOS update yet once trying to use the auto update feature.
Using a Prime Z370-A motherboard.

The auto update feature takes a long time to figure out there's a new bios. Always download it manually to your harddrive if you want to have the latest close to when it's released

As for the BIOS, I upgraded to the 0606 on my Z370-E and everything is as it was in 0605 - sadly including it's inability to use my 3600mhz XMP profile - still stuck around ~3000mhz on my F4-3600C16Q-32GTZR https://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-3600c16q-32gtzr

katlani · ‎01-05-2018

Carbonicdk wrote:
The auto update feature takes a long time to figure out there's a new bios. Always download it manually to your harddrive if you want to have the latest close to when it's released

As for the BIOS, I upgraded to the 0606 on my Z370-E and everything is as it was in 0605 - sadly including it's inability to use my 3600mhz XMP profile - still stuck around ~3000mhz on my F4-3600C16Q-32GTZR https://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-3600c16q-32gtzr

Thanks i might do that.
Can i simply leave the .cap file on my SSD and be able to navigate to it via the EZ Flash Utility, or should i burn a cd/use a flash drive?

Additionally, no CPU performance decrease as was anticipated?

AntonioL · ‎01-05-2018

So, the comparison was made by Guru3D: http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/windows-vulnerability-cpu-meltdown-patch-benchmarked,1.html.

The impact of performance of the Windows 10 patch only is very little (if not null as covered by monitoring imprecision), but the drop of IO speed, in particular for random 4K reads, is important when this fix is combined with the BIOS update.

Here are the results (I post them as the intermediary one have been removed from the page in the article, and been replaced with the one for the complete fix, OS+UEFI).

It does not seem to be a good idea to do this UEFI update as it lowers IO performance in order to solve an hypothetic threat that is highly unlikely to be exploited beyond its theoretical discovery. Windows 10 updates can hardly be avoided, but fortunately, Asus BIOS updates can, and thus, the conclusion about what to do seems clear for me.

F0x135 · ‎01-05-2018

AntonioL wrote:
So, the comparison was made by Guru3D: http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/windows-vulnerability-cpu-meltdown-patch-benchmarked,1.html.

The impact of performance of the Windows 10 patch only is very little (if not null as covered by monitoring imprecision), but the drop of IO speed, in particular for random 4K reads, is important when this fix is combined with the BIOS update.

Here are the results (I post them as the intermediary one have been removed from the page in the article, and been replaced with the one for the complete fix, OS+UEFI).

It does not seem to be a good idea to do this UEFI update as it lowers IO performance in order to solve an hypothetic threat that is highly unlikely to be exploited beyond its theoretical discovery. Windows 10 updates can hardly be avoided, but fortunately, Asus BIOS updates can, and thus, the conclusion about what to do seems clear for me.

Thank you for this mate, and the link to the re-benching.

Looking at the review all i could see are very minimal losses with the bios update (although its a different board.) Even in the IO retests, the reviewer does flag the 4K drop offs, but does state it will hardly effect home-end users and actuallly recommends the bios update.

But, it is still early days yet. Thanks again for the link.

s4nt0s · ‎01-05-2018

F0x135 wrote:
Thank you for this mate, and the link to the re-benching.

Looking at the review all i could see are very minimal losses with the bios update (although its a different board.) Even in the IO retests, the reviewer does flag the 4K drop offs, but does state it will hardly effect home-end users and actuallly recommends the bios update.

But, it is still early days yet. Thanks again for the link.

After upgrading to this BIOS version I'm having shocky/freezing moments when playing games... just in Windows it all seems fine. Is it possible to revert to previouse BIOS?
I

F0x135 · ‎01-05-2018

s4nt0s wrote:
After upgrading to this BIOS version I'm having shocky/freezing moments when playing games... just in Windows it all seems fine. Is it possible to revert to previouse BIOS?
I

Did you reset your CMOS after flashing?

Yes you can install an older BIOS.

z370-F - bios 0606 - worth updating?