UEFI GOP Fast Boot update

[X-ROG]

Hi All,

We've just had a meeting today to get the latest info for you all. It's quite a complicated situation so please bare with me.

1) Not every motherboard UEFI BIOS is compatible. ASUS will only be qualifying it's own motherboards. Currently these are fully compatible with UEFI Fast Boot Mode:

- Intel 7 Series or later
- Intel X79 Series updated to Win8 BIOS (3xxx)
- Intel H61 Series R2.0 or later
- AMD R2.0 series or later

UEFI is not a uniform standard. There is Gen 1 and Gen 2. Only Gen 2 is compatible with Win8 Fast Boot and has to have the BIOS code re-written from the ground up, which is why even if your board has "UEFI" and is older than on the list it won't work with Win8's Fast Boot sorry. It must have a Win8 certified UEFI BIOS.

All our GPU UEFI BIOS' are dual mode (hybrid). We are currently testing our legacy and 1st Gen UEFI boards to see which are compatible and will fall back to booting from the legacy BIOS code until you update to a Win8/2nd Gen UEFI board. We cannot guarantee other manufacturer boards will fall back correctly, causing no POST or no display output.

GOOD NEWS!:
We have tested our Hybrid BIOS on a range of Intel and AMD motherboards ranging back 4-5 years and the Hybrid fall-back function works perfectly in all cases! That means even if you have older ASUS motherboards with no UEFI even, you can still install the Hybrid UEFI GPU BIOS and it will automatically fall-back to legacy mode!

EDIT: Updated this part 26th Feb
EDIT2: 2nd update 28th Feb.

3) As you may know we don't just make one GTX 680, for example, in fact there are 12 different versions, which all have different BIOS'. As you can imagine, if you flash the wrong BIOS your card will not work. Multiply this by several products and that's many, many BIOS'. The chance of getting it wrong is unacceptably high when as codes vary by small amounts.

However, despite Nvidia's suggestion and the large potential for incompatibility causing no POST, we are still going to introduce UEFI GPU BIOS' under condition of the clear warnings above. Starting first with the GTX 680 in the next few weeks we will be providing a very detailed guide on how to check your GPU version and how to upgrade the VBIOS. The on evaluation of success of that (and any modification of the guide) we will then add GTX 670, 660 Ti. This is exclusive to the high-end GPUs and ROG forums for now.

4) During April we will have a more public release of an automated tool for checking compatibility and updating the VBIOS if it detects all is OK. Should this tool not work for you, yet you are convinced your PC is compatible, you can use the guide we provided.

Hope this helps everyone understand the next month-to-6 weeks better 🙂

[Rodent]

Thanks Nodens for the sample VBIOS. It seems pretty much the same as the others out there. That is, NVGI data followed by legacy option ROM, UEFI option ROM (driver), VN section and lastly a couple of Nvidia certs.

Maybe a good example is with this Gigabyte VBIOS update from legacy to UEFI for GV-N670OC-2GD

The only changes to the legacy Option ROM are

• The date.
  
• The PCIR header indicator byte, changed from 0x80 to 0x00. Maybe a flag to indicate UEFI presence? This seems usual.
  
• The checksum byte.
  

Then the UEFI option ROM (driver) follows in F13.
One Nvidia certificate at the end is updated.
Other sections data remain unchanged.

I would have expected your sample image to work as legacy on a UEFI board with CSM enabled and selecting legacy Video, not sure what is going on there. Idk if there are compatibility problems with running it on a true legacy system BIOS.

Sorry for straying OT but thanks for the info, it's all useful.

[Nodens]

Rodent wrote:
Thanks Nodens for the sample VBIOS. It seems pretty much the same as the others out there. That is, NVGI data followed by legacy option ROM, UEFI option ROM (driver), VN section and lastly a couple of Nvidia certs.

Maybe a good example is with this Gigabyte VBIOS update from legacy to UEFI for GV-N670OC-2GD

The only changes to the legacy Option ROM are

• The date.
  
• The PCIR header indicator byte, changed from 0x80 to 0x00. Maybe a flag to indicate UEFI presence? This seems usual.
  
• The checksum byte.
  

Then the UEFI option ROM (driver) follows in F13.
One Nvidia certificate at the end is updated.
Other sections data remain unchanged.

I would have expected your sample image to work as legacy on a UEFI board with CSM enabled and selecting legacy Video, not sure what is going on there. Idk if there are compatibility problems with running it on a true legacy system BIOS.

Sorry for straying OT but thanks for the info, it's all useful.

No idea why it's not working. But I took a look into the image myself after your post. I can see a legacy video rom image starting at offset 400h then a Tiano compressed x64 UEFI driver at 10000h. I didn't bother to extract the driver or disassemble anything (not enough free time for that heh) but I did check the headers and they appear according to specification. Which PCIR header indicator byte are you referring to? Offset 10018h pointer to PCIR Data Structure looks correct (1Ch). Perhaps you're talking about external headers? I have no format for those headers so I have no idea what goes on in there :).

It is quite possible to be working as legacy on a UEFI board with CSM but I'm talking on loading on legacy BIOS boards that are not aware of UEFI specs. It doesn't load on those. Perhaps this hybrid format is tailored around CSM.

[TazManiak]

GTX690-4GD5 with Fatal1ty X79 Champion can't ULTRA FAST .. ^( can i update my vbios ?
p.s. 80.04.1E.00.17 current vbios version

[Rodent]

Nodens wrote:
Which PCIR header indicator byte are you referring to?

The one shown below. With just legacy it is set to 0x80 but when the UEFI driver is present it is set to 0x00 while the UEFI PCIR data is set to 0x80 IIRC

[Nodens]

We'll take it to PMs cause we're kinda derailing the thread:)

[X-ROG]

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?30670-GOP-UEFI-BIOS-Available-for-ASUS-GeForce-GTX-680-Seri...

[df1ech]

MarshallR@ASUS wrote:
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?30670-GOP-UEFI-BIOS-Available-for-ASUS-GeForce-GTX-680-Seri...

And now do this magic for the 660Ti please :--) (--:

[X-ROG]

What PSU? Is it overclocked?

[passthepurp]

Cooler Master 750W GX. I might have to open the case to find a more specific model number. Which i can do if it would help. Originally I thought oh sounds like a power supply issue.. So i replaced the already brand new PSU. Same problem. I had a local computer place test my mobo. They said it checked out. They said.. It's your RAM(also new) so I replaced that. Same problem. As for it being overclocked... The BIOS has 3 EZtune modes. I left it on the factory mode. I would like to overclock it but I am skeptical to do so.

[Myk_SilentShado]

Confusion leading to question: Why do you guys need to update graphics card BIOSes for Win8 Fast Boot capability? I thought all that was taken care of on Motherboard?