Improvements for X299 mainboard BIOSes

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   Dear ASRock Team,
I recently bought a Fatal1ty X299 Professional Gaming i9 XE mainly for its praised hardware and VRM solution. However, I quickly found out that the BIOS (current version 1.1) is very buggy and quite unfinished compared to e.g. ASUS' X299 mainboard BIOSes.

Bugs:
"Per Core" overclocking only provides a list of 7 cores although I have a twelve core 7920X. Also I can only set decreasing multipliers and increasing core numbers, while the favorite cores in my CPU are #5 and #10. This means I can set #5 and #10 to 4.6 GHz, but not #0 and #1 to e.g. 4.5 GHz because their core# is higher.
"Specific per Core" overclocking is *completely* broken and does not work at all. Even the BIOS itself shows the default CPU stock frequencies in the "OC Tweaker " overview screen despite the per core settings I made. 

Issues:
System Agent voltage apparently can be influenced in two different places (VCCSA in Voltage Configuration menu, and System Agent Voltage Offset in FIVR Config menu). This is confusing since the first setting makes the impression that it will be the effective value, whereas it could still be affected by the offset setting that is hidden in another menu in the BIOS).
Some default settings seem somewhat unreasonable (Intel Speed Shift disabled - Why? Intel Turbo Boost 3.0 disabled - Why?). I would expect that the BIOS runs the CPU as intended by Intel when using UEFI default settings.
Optimized CPU OC Setting sets rather high VCCIO and VCCSA values.
"Flex Ratio" has no help text/description

Missing features:
Adjust fan speeds is only possible depending on CPU or mainboard temps. Other (ASUS) BIOSes allow many additional temperature sensors (like VRM, or PCH) to control fan speeds.
Hardware Monitor (related to previous item): Can it show VRM and PCH temps somehow?
ASUS BIOS shows summary of changes made before "Save Changes and Exit"
ASUS mainboards indicate the "favored cores" (typically two of the cores) in the BIOS, so you know which cores can be overclocked best. MSI BIOS even shows the order for all cores (most to least favored). ASRock BIOS shows... nothing.

Sorry for my constant comparison with ASUS BIOSes, but I feel that a EUR450 ASRock mainboard (i9 Gaming XE) should provide a technically mature BIOS that is *at least* as reliable and feature-complete as an ASUS board for around EUR250.

I hope my list of complaints and suggestions will inspire your BIOS developer team to provide a fixed and more feature-complete v1.2 BIOS.

Thans and best,
Ben

Edited by haller1ch - 13 Feb 2018 at 4:07am

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haller1ch Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 13 Feb 2018 Status: Offline Points: 3	Post Options Post Reply Quote haller1ch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Improvements for X299 mainboard BIOSes Posted: 13 Feb 2018 at 3:53am
	Dear ASRock Team, I recently bought a Fatal1ty X299 Professional Gaming i9 XE mainly for its praised hardware and VRM solution. However, I quickly found out that the BIOS (current version 1.1) is very buggy and quite unfinished compared to e.g. ASUS' X299 mainboard BIOSes. Bugs: "Per Core" overclocking only provides a list of 7 cores although I have a twelve core 7920X. Also I can only set decreasing multipliers and increasing core numbers, while the favorite cores in my CPU are #5 and #10. This means I can set #5 and #10 to 4.6 GHz, but not #0 and #1 to e.g. 4.5 GHz because their core# is higher. "Specific per Core" overclocking is completely broken and does not work at all. Even the BIOS itself shows the default CPU stock frequencies in the "OC Tweaker " overview screen despite the per core settings I made. Issues: System Agent voltage apparently can be influenced in two different places (VCCSA in Voltage Configuration menu, and System Agent Voltage Offset in FIVR Config menu). This is confusing since the first setting makes the impression that it will be the effective value, whereas it could still be affected by the offset setting that is hidden in another menu in the BIOS). Some default settings seem somewhat unreasonable (Intel Speed Shift disabled - Why? Intel Turbo Boost 3.0 disabled - Why?). I would expect that the BIOS runs the CPU as intended by Intel when using UEFI default settings. Optimized CPU OC Setting sets rather high VCCIO and VCCSA values. "Flex Ratio" has no help text/description Missing features: Adjust fan speeds is only possible depending on CPU or mainboard temps. Other (ASUS) BIOSes allow many additional temperature sensors (like VRM, or PCH) to control fan speeds. Hardware Monitor (related to previous item): Can it show VRM and PCH temps somehow? ASUS BIOS shows summary of changes made before "Save Changes and Exit" ASUS mainboards indicate the "favored cores" (typically two of the cores) in the BIOS, so you know which cores can be overclocked best. MSI BIOS even shows the order for all cores (most to least favored). ASRock BIOS shows... nothing. Sorry for my constant comparison with ASUS BIOSes, but I feel that a EUR450 ASRock mainboard (i9 Gaming XE) should provide a technically mature BIOS that is at least as reliable and feature-complete as an ASUS board for around EUR250. I hope my list of complaints and suggestions will inspire your BIOS developer team to provide a fixed and more feature-complete v1.2 BIOS. Thans and best, Ben Edited by haller1ch - 13 Feb 2018 at 4:07am

chris719 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 17 Dec 2017 Status: Offline Points: 11	Post Options Post Reply Quote chris719 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13 Feb 2018 at 6:26am
	I agree, if I had known the BIOS of this board would be so poor I would have gone with an ASUS board.

chrisw Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04 Mar 2018 Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote chrisw Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 04 Mar 2018 at 3:00pm
	I have an x299 Taichi XE with a 7940x, and I'm having the same problems. I actually had Specific Per Core working in with the initial 1.0 BIOS release (although you did have to do some funky things to make it work). However, sometime between the intial 1.0 BIOS and today's 1.4 BIOS, they broke things. I'm no longer able to control which specific Cores overclock to what levels. I'm still trying to futz around with it to see if I can stumble on a mix of settings that will cause it to work properly.