Asus ROG Strix B650E-E BIOS bug

[forteller]

Hello everyone,
I just upgraded / downgraded my PC (depends on how you look at it 🙂 ) from following config:
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Some competing company mid-tier B550 motherboard
2x16GB DDR4 B-Die memory

To following setup:
AMD Ryzen 7 7700
Asus B650E-E
Corsair memory kit CMK64GX5M2B6000Z30 (2x32GB 6000 CL30)

In the process I also changed the graphics card from RTX 3080 10G to RTX 3050 6G as I strive to improve this computer power efficiency and sacrifice to gaming performance doesn't matter (don't have time to play games anymore 😞 ), but I am performing the testing in 1:1 comparison (the only changed components are CPU+MoBo+RAM when taking the power measurements).

Well, turns out this platform is much less energy efficient than previous one. When I put load to the CPU difference narrows, and during all-core load new platform consumes less power (which is obvious as comparison is between single CCD 65W CPU (set to 105W profile) to dual CCD CPU set to 195W) but when idle, previous setup could go down to 54W, whereas with new components it never goes below 70W.
There is one setting in the BIOS called "Max Power Saving” located in “Advanced\APM Configuration”. At first glance, it just changes few settings in the UEFI configuration, but it seems to do something more. When I replicate configuration changed by “Max Power Saving” manually (ASPM, LED and few others) but leave “Max Power Saving” disabled, there is almost no change to power consumption, but when I actually enable “Max Power Saving”, the energy consumption is reduced by more than 10W narrowing the gap to my previous AM4 platform quite substantially.

All seems good and I would love to keep this option enabled, but for some reason, when “Max Power Saving” is enabled, integrated Intel i225V ethernet controller disappears from the system. Changing the setting back and forth confirms the behaviour:
Max Power Saving disabled / NIC enabled -> NIC works

Max Power Saving disabled / NIC disabled -> NIC doesn’t work (expected)

Max Power Saving enabled / NIC disabled -> NIC doesn’t work (expected)

Max Power Saving enabled / NIC enabled -> NIC doesn’t work (not expected)

When NIC is in not working state, it doesn’t appear on list of devices in neither Linux nor Windows as well as it disappears from UEFI Advanced page (I have Network Stack and PXE enabled as I have PXE configured in my home network).

To me it looks like a bug. I only tested using latest BIOS (2613) as BIOS upgrade to latest version was the first thing I did after launching this PC.

There doesn’t seem to exist any process of reporting BIOS bugs for Asus boards, hence this blog post. May I ask to get it addressed? Thank you.

[FredFlint]

The Intel NIC is bugged, ASUS knows about it, but they just keep using them. If you set Windows Power to “Power Saver” it does the same thing. If you want lower power, only thing to do is disable the Intel NIC and use an adding card or USB NIC.

[dwhyte]

Intel Nic’s aren’t inherently buggy. 
Thats why they are used in enterprise systems. 
it must be a motherboard/bios issue. 

[forteller]

Well, "V" in i225-V means NIC that is specifically targeted for consumer market without vPRO support. Enterprise is using completely different line of network controllers (X500 and X700 lines). i225 and i226 NICs are inherently broken and you can find many many reports across the internet.

I flipped the coin and bought AQC113 based NIC and currently I am running 10Gbe connection using the same switch/cable which was problematic @ 2,5Gbe connection using onboard i225-V which proves that there is something wrong with this NIC itself.

Disabling the NIC when "Max power saving" option is enabled in BIOS is a separate problem though. I am not affected by this anymore since I am running Aquantia NIC.

[dwhyte]

Yeah ok, that’s true. 
The problem with disabling the Nic with Max power saving is very odd. 

[FredFlint]

I have only tried a 1Gb USB NIC, I found that some USB ports are slow or problematic. I moved the USB around until I found one that worked well and consistently. I am now back using the Intel NIC again as my router has a 2.5Gb port and internet is ~1.1Gb, its ok as long as I don’t use power saver mode.

[forteller]

Wow, my previous post has been apparently removed. Let me sum it up this way - I really do believe that "Max Power Saving" option should not disable integrated NIC, Asus.