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Explain to me why BIOS upgrades are needed for new GPUs
- Thread starter Quartz
- Start date
Its to do with the motherboard bios software, they do actually code in all the graphics cards that are available at the time when developing the MB bios.
But as new cards are released they have to code into the bios the name and specs for the hardware for it to be recognized .
Its like an engine retune on a car, you have to update the software to allow the extra power out so to say.
That's crazy! Why do they need to do so?
If that's the case, do some boards just have a generic vga mode or something?
I ask as I've seen quite a few apparently running 970 & 290 cards on the rev 1 Sabertooth 990fx, which the last bios update was back in 2012 for FX support. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a "gpu black screen, update bios" post with an Asus board.
I ask as I've seen quite a few apparently running 970 & 290 cards on the rev 1 Sabertooth 990fx, which the last bios update was back in 2012 for FX support. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a "gpu black screen, update bios" post with an Asus board.
I had to flash my mobo to run a new Nvidia in, I assumed some newer card can push the spec of pcie to its limits so the original bosh that will work for everything even though it's not 100% gets to the point it's only ok for 95% of cards... I cannot imagine the bios needs to be coded for all cards like others suggested, just newer cards may push timing x y or Z much closer to the actual limit of the pcie spec that the original coders though was possible
Not every single card just a range of cards, it will be a hex code that says this is a 1080 or a fury for example, does not matter who made it. It will have a flag.
As new cards come out that flag so to say, may change in some but not all motherboards, depending how the bios was written.
Its complicated and I don't know half of it, but its down to trying to maintain compatibility.
Modern graphics cards (starts from GTX700 series for nvidia, and I think R9 200 series for AMD) require Intel ME8 on motherboard. Else will not work.
But that's for Intel based systems. Not sure how it works with AMD based systems.
But that's for Intel based systems. Not sure how it works with AMD based systems.
Its to do with the motherboard bios software, they do actually code in all the graphics cards that are available at the time when developing the MB bios.
But as new cards are released they have to code into the bios the name and specs for the hardware for it to be recognized .
Its like an engine retune on a car, you have to update the software to allow the extra power out so to say.
I dont quite agree with this.
My old 1366 rampage ii extreme picked up my 1070 fine and those bios's havent had a update for years where as some people have reported issues with new boards.
2011/11/07 was the last bios for those so no gtx 10 series info in there for sure
So while it must be something in bios that needs changed its not the name/specs of the hardware
I agree above with triss, what Itchy said is not correct. Its probably more to do with the PCIE slots possibly voltage although I`m just guessing. My previous Gigabyte Z97 was brought out before 980ti and GTX 1080 was yet still had no issues with either GPU. Could be something like the PCIE slots only allowing 250W but say a 1080 needs 275W so slight adjustment to the BIOS to allow 275W through the PCIE slots. (that might not be accurate but you get where I am going). Could also be something like memory addressing where the motherboard was brought out before 6gb VRAM was considered. Something more generic less GPU specific.
It depends on the manufacture, Asus motherboards dont seem to have problems with newer GPU's no matter how new the card is. They are also the first the release bios updates for futures CPU's even before Intel has announced support for them on a particular chipset.
It definitely isn't to add individual card models - it is as others have said generic, so to allow more memory addressing (e.g. for cards with more VRAM).
There was a large spate of BIOS updates related to the swap between BIOS/UEFI as the graphics card BIOS interface changed a bit at that time.
There was a large spate of BIOS updates related to the swap between BIOS/UEFI as the graphics card BIOS interface changed a bit at that time.
No I've had boards that were legacy BIOS which needed update for a GPU.