Question for Z790 users - new BIOS

I recently upgraded the BIOS in my Gigabyte Z790 UD AC motherboard because it had new microcode updates for Intel damage mitigation on 13th and 14th generation CPUs. It worked great, but now the PC is as slow as treacle in January. The solution to the micro-code issue seems to be to have all of the cores parked all the time. Boot and shutdown times have lengthened considerably since the upgrade as well.

Has anyone else noticed this? Or is this unique to my Gigabyte mobo? I don't really want to revert to the previous BIOS if the new one has more fixes that will lengthen the life of my CPU. This PC has really been messing up lately and I am not really sure why...

No, not on my Asus z790 board.

Hi.

Sorry for the trouble you are experiencing. Have you done a BIOS reset after the update ? Some of the BIOS settings may have changed. Do you have a BIOS settings backup ?

There is a fix in Intel web site for Asus M/B. It may not be related to your BIOS update problem but I thought it might give you a clue:


Hope this helps.

My recommendation is that you review all the BIOS options and check if there are any new or changed values from the previous version. But of course, for that you should have taken a note or captured in pictures how you had the previous BIOS, something I always recommend to do.

I have read the case of a user with an MSI motherboard who described a situation similar to yours. It turns out that the new BIOS had changed some values and introduced new options that must be revised and optimized.

Another recommendation is to completely reset the BIOS, preferably by using the physical BIOS reset button or by clear CMOS. After an upgrade, there may be options with values that are not suitable for the new BIOS.

I poked around in my BIOS and changed a few things that i thought should be changed and it speeded things up a little on boot and shut down. My cores are still all parked, meaning I get a lag opening programs or selecting things, but I will see if I can figure that out next. I don't think that is BIOS related.

DISM, SFC and anti-virus have turned up nothing unusual, and I did a repair install a week ago. Things were fine until the BIOS upgrade. I may have to go back a version if I can't solve this. Maybe I will wait for the next version. We will see.

Catnip said:

I poked around in my BIOS and changed a few things that i thought should be changed and it speeded things up a little on boot and shut down. My cores are still all parked, meaning I get a lag opening programs or selecting things, but I will see if I can figure that out next. I don't think that is BIOS related.

DISM, SFC and anti-virus have turned up nothing unusual, and I did a repair install a week ago. Things were fine until the BIOS upgrade. I may have to go back a version if I can't solve this. Maybe I will wait for the next version. We will see.

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Your experience with cores reminds me of something that happens to me.

When I bought my i7 13700K in November 2023, after installing Windows 11 (22H2) the cores frequency went up and down depending on the usage (this is normal). To keep the core frequency always at maximum, I chose the "high performance" power profile. This way, I always made sure that the cores were always working at maximum (of course, that CPU usage was variable depending on the task).

I don't remember at what point it was, possibly after some Windows 11 23H2 update, the frequency of the cores stopped staying at maximum despite having the High Performance profile enabled. Although the frequency tended to stay at maximum, in periods of low usage or idle, there were frequency peaks that would drop (not in the same way as when choosing a Balanced profile). Those downward spikes disappeared as soon as I ran tasks with more load.

I suspect that this behavior, and possibly what is happening to you, may be due to some modification Microsoft has made to the energy profiles. Moreover, considering that you use Windows 11 24H2, it is possible that these power modifications are greater (I can not confirm).

I haven't tried it, but try choosing the “Maximum performance” profile and see what you see (of course, keep an eye on temperatures and voltages).