BIOS 2703 Feedback

[JohnAb]

What experiences do people have with the new BIOS release? I haven't tried it yet myself. The support page says that ME firmware will be updated to 16.1.27.2176.

I'm already on a later version (16.1.30.2255) with BIOS 2602. Does anybody know if this could cause a problem? Just makes me a little nervous in terms of what could happen. I'm assuming that if on a later version then the ME update will not happen, but would like to know if anybody else has updated to 2703 with a more recent ME version.

Also, does anybody know if it's possible to go back from this latest version if any problems? Thanks. 

[JohnAb]

Hard to say, but overall the feedback seems good, including the feedback over at overclock.net and one or two people have reported better RAM stability. Then again, Khilendel, below, seems to have had some issues. If it will help with 128GB RAM, who knows. One person has reported higher PCH, one person lower. I've had no issues whatsoever, everything still stable for me. 

If you do want to try this one, then you can still go back to 2602 or 2403 or 2305, but not prior. You still get a choice of 4 BIOSs though, so only my opinion, but this is probably a good time to upgrade. Don't forget MEI drivers and ME firmware before flashing the BIOS and turn XMP off first, especially if you don't have solid stability (especially for the firmware and BIOS). Otherwise you risk a failure and the outcome might not be good!

I can only say make you own decision, always a gamble overall.  

[makattack]

Having updated, I noticed that there aren't any new or removed configuration options with the default config, as exported from the BIOS profile export tool. In setting my 2703 values exactly as I had with 2602 and running TimeSpy Extreme, I get similar numbers within a small margin of error. Stability good with XMP1, AI OC, iGPU enabled, virtualization stuff disabled.

[Nate152]

Hello,

I just installed bios 2703 on the ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi, enabled X.M.P. and it booted right up.

Good to hear there isn't much if any performance impact with the security update,  all is good here.

[JayDeeZee]

2703 upgrade has been painless, so far. Biggest change is a much quicker boot cycle. Seems like boot time has been halved, tbh. The faster boot does not seem to have caused any issues with memory training either. PCH idle temps do seem to be 5-7 degrees hotter, but one day isn't enough time to say that for sure.

[DigitalDreams]

After the first reboot my PC locked up !. Case lights, fans all on but no motherboard leds. Had to hold down the power button. Next reboot I got the 'dont switch off or reset' message then all was fine other than having to put my changes back in the bios settings. All seems fine, PCH temps still hover around 67c tho...

[Roy10266]

If your BIOS is recent I guess you have slightly hampered multicore (at least in CPU-Z). I have for several BIOS.

But 2703 has no difference from newer ones. Maybe even a little better single core in CPU-Z and no change in Cinebench R23 (running on TUF Z690 D4). EDIT* had to redo MEUpdate after the BIOS update. Don't know why, but I was getting game crashes until doing so.

[d5aqoep]

2703 Bios is not installing on my Z690 Pro Creator saying the bios is not a valid file. Tried downloading again with same error.

[JohnAb]

Strange - you could try downloading it from another country. Look at the support page link in your browser and try changing the country in the address. For example https://www.asus.com/uk/motherboards-components/moth....

Maybe change uk to us etc. Maybe that will help?

I normally use EZ Flash in the BIOS, with the file on a USB stick formatted to FAT32

[RyanBlakeIT]

What BIOS do you currently have installed?  If it doesn't have the last update, you might want to try updating to a previous version then installing the latest.  Also, here are the hashes for the file ProArt-Z690-CREATOR-WIFI-ASUS-2703.CAP located in the .zip file.

MD5: 8d27131acb3cc3ebdf40fd447dd2a9fe
SHA1: 1c561c5eb7bdd7070b37856086d4cba85e981dc6
SHA256: da9833f626ac75c371a187739f041de8005405ad650ad15991f677d3dec30950
SHA512: ec2638f8e49efda9633116496737317abfbb9c26519ba32090bbcbb33cf6dc854cad55d54d5a70e4920784dacd2c5568590b28de02d3223b9edf06532cc8f850

Do those match yours?  You can use a tool like fHash to check.

[d5aqoep]

So having the bios file on NTFS formatted drives gives invalid file issue. I copied the bios .cap file to a fat32 formatted USB drive and bios update went ahead smoothly. This wasn't the issue in previous bios versions.