Should I update bios before overclocking?

Armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillo

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So got a bit of noob question before I dive into starting to overclock my 5820k.

Basically, I had an issue months back on my Gigabyte x99-sli which needed a bios update to sort. The latest Bios at the time was F22E. Listed as beta and clearly was (version string on flash was ????, shows 1249 for version on post and cpu-z, rather than f22e, only shows f22e in bios). Unlike other beta versions which are still there, Gigabyte have since removed it for some reason and replaced it with the non-beta F22, which is 2 months newer. The bios hasn't caused me any issues though.

So my question is, before starting to overclock, is it worth going to the non-beta before working on the overclock? is it likely to make a difference? or just stick and only move on if needed?

Board has dual bios, so minimal risk in updating, so just really looking for opinions from those who have more experiance with overclocking on whether I should be on latest/non beta before or if it's unlikely to make a difference.

Thanks.
 
I myself have never thought it important for clocking but if the BIOS does anything in particular to help with stability or such, then do it, otherwise there is no need.
 
Unless you encounter issues, don't.

The general advice with BIOS updates (and most firmware upgrades) is that "if it aint broke, don't fix it." because they aren't zero risk updates. You can brick a device if a firmware/BIOS update goes wrong.
 
There have been bios' in the past which improve overclocking, such as custom bios, but more research is needed as to wether this bios does. There are some people who test overclocking with each bios to find as differences, and this is where u get custom bios' from.
 
Ok, thanks for the advice.

After looking into it and seeing what it does/changes, I decided to update, it seems Gigabyte has overhauled the uefi completely (or brought it inline with other boards) and apparently added some more controls and more importantly, finally fixed their crap fan control.

Instead of pwm % per C, which is nearly useless for setting up the fans, now the smart fan is a proper gui section, that lets you set a curve on a graph etc. So worth it for that alone.
 
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On my Gigabyte gaming 7 X99 the bios that came with it was shocking and updating the bios for me regularly has made a difference so I defo recommend updating the bios.
 
Acme said:
Unless you encounter issues, don't.

The general advice with BIOS updates (and most firmware upgrades) is that "if it aint broke, don't fix it." because they aren't zero risk updates. You can brick a device if a firmware/BIOS update goes wrong.
Click to expand...

he is totally right, dont update the bios if you aint encountering problems as updating a healthy bios may get you serious issues.
 
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