Should I update VIOS?

metalmackey · 6 Apr 2022 at 15:24

Hi,

The BIOS on my Asus ROG x570 gaming F is old (Jan 2021). I have no issues running my system and Windows 11 installed fine after enabling TPM in BIOS. Should I just leave it or update for new features ect?

Ta

Tetras · 6 Apr 2022 at 15:28

metalmackey said:
Hi,

The BIOS on my Asus ROG x570 gaming F is old (Jan 2021). I have no issues running my system and Windows 11 installed fine after enabling TPM in BIOS. Should I just leave it or update for new features ect?

Ta

I think you answered your own question

ChocAndGray · 6 Apr 2022 at 16:05

I tend to update every time there's a new one. Especially with AMD releasing new agesa. We're still waiting for tpm fix that's due so I'll definitely be upgrading my bios again.

There's two trains of thoughts with motherboard bios. Some think you should only change if you have an issue, and others go as far as downloading beta bios.

pastymuncher · 7 Apr 2022 at 09:18

Personally I always keep my bios up to date and I think it's even more important to do so on AMD as they are still fine tuning and release updated Agesa's often. Since the bios you are running there have been 8 further releases, 6 of which include new Agesa's. There have also been several stability fixes and quite a few performance increases so why wouldn't anybody update? It's relatively risk free these days so either use the bios flashback on the rear I/O or go into the bios and use EZ-Flash. Do not use any Windows based software to update the bios. If you use the USB flashback method I believe you need to rename the bios file and there should be some instructions in the download and/or on the website.

metalmackey · 7 Apr 2022 at 13:34

Thanks guys,

This is a pre-built system as I am disabled so can't build my own. What are the main settings to take note of before the update? Nothing is overclocked.

Thanks

Glanza · 7 Apr 2022 at 13:54

When it comes to AMD I'll put the latest bios on, settings that will likely need to be reenabled are XMP / DOCP, secure boot and resizeable bar or SAM.

ChocAndGray · 7 Apr 2022 at 17:25

metalmackey said:
Thanks guys,

This is a pre-built system as I am disabled so can't build my own. What are the main settings to take note of before the update? Nothing is overclocked.

Thanks

It might be worth taking phone pictures of the main bios screens such as a.i tweaker and advanced, although generally as mentioned before from optimised defaults (which is what the bios would load after flashing), the only things you really need to do is enable D.O.C.P for the ram, set up custom fan profiles if you care about noise.

I'd also enable PBO2 personally. Do you know if that is off currently?

Everything else like fTPM will be enabled by default anyway.

Have you got CPU-Z installed? If so use that to check what speed your ram and infinity fabric are running at. HWInfo is another one you can use.

therealdippy · 8 Apr 2022 at 13:13

I recently did loads of BIOS and other firmware updates including on 10+ year old systems and all went flawlessly. I think the risks of doing bare metal updates (as opposed to using an application in the OS) tend to be exaggerated by manufacturers wanting to avoid support requests. But I wouldn't endorse doing an update for the sake of it - there ought to be a genuine reason to especially if (as should be expected) the update resets settings and you may not be clear/confident about restoring them.

On my X570 system Gigabyte did state that a recent BIOS update was to address a security vulnerability. Likely it was AMD related and so would apply to an ASUS mobo too. It's a shame that they never give details of what the vulnerability is, so a personal risk assessment is not possible, and that in itself is a good reason to update.

V F · 8 Apr 2022 at 19:53

therealdippy said:
I recently did loads of BIOS and other firmware updates including on 10+ year old systems and all went flawlessly. I think the risks of doing bare metal updates (as opposed to using an application in the OS) tend to be exaggerated by manufacturers wanting to avoid support requests. But I wouldn't endorse doing an update for the sake of it - there ought to be a genuine reason to especially if (as should be expected) the update resets settings and you may not be clear/confident about restoring them.

On my X570 system Gigabyte did state that a recent BIOS update was to address a security vulnerability. Likely it was AMD related and so would apply to an ASUS mobo too. It's a shame that they never give details of what the vulnerability is, so a personal risk assessment is not possible, and that in itself is a good reason to update.

That wasn't AMD related and apparently it was something that could be exploited locally.

"Major vulnerabilities updates, customers are strongly encouraged to update to this release at the earliest.
Credits to "Assaf Carlsbad and Itai Liba from SentinelOne"

I hadn't updated it yet due to this:

"Introduce capsule BIOS support starting this version.
Customers will NOT be able to reverse to previous BIOS version due to major vulnerabilities concerns."

It's a mechanism for updating UEFI firmware through the Windows Update process.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...bringup/windows-uefi-firmware-update-platform

It makes more sense for laptops & desktops with simpler BIOS configurations, I think. And *usually* it has to be enabled in the BIOS as well. But there are a lot of reasons why we would not want Windows to automatically update the BIOS, the main one being that we might not want to run the latest version for whatever reason

Orcvader · 11 Apr 2022 at 14:58

Depends if it introduces anything new (eg W11 support, resizable BAR, etc) or I'm facing weird issues that a BIOS update might fix.

Heads up the fTPM stutter issue is due to be fixed with AGESA 1.2.0.7 due around May. Might be worth updating to that if you're seeing stutter problems.

ltron · 12 Apr 2022 at 16:25

Orcvader said:
Depends if it introduces anything new (eg W11 support, resizable BAR, etc) or I'm facing weird issues that a BIOS update might fix.

Heads up the fTPM stutter issue is due to be fixed with AGESA 1.2.0.7 due around May. Might be worth updating to that if you're seeing stutter problems.

Good point, wait until then if you can but generally if you aren't having any problems and there are no major security fixes then it's pointless to update.