Updating Maximus VII Gene BIOS to support the 4790K CPU

[Anusha]

Hi guys,

I already have my 4790K CPU in a M6H board and it running fine at 4.6GHz/1.28V. I'm changing the board to a M7G as the one-before-the-last step in my PC shrinking project. (Need to sell my current case and get a SUGO SG10 as the final step, but that might take some time. I just found a buyer for my board so want to sell it ASAP.)

I'm ordering the board online, so I'm not sure if the board that I buy will come with a BIOS version that supports Devil's Canyon chips. It could come out of an old stock. I believe I can use BIOS flashback feature to update to the latest BIOS if that is the case? Can I do this with the CPU plugged in? Or do I have to remove the CPU before doing that? I have used BIOS flashback before with my "crappy" 4770K, and even when I got the 4790K, I already had updated to the latest BIOS so this is the first time I might be using this with an unsupported CPU.

Do you see any problems that I might encounter in this "switch"? I hope the M7G will be at least on par with the M6H when it comes to overclocking. I really wanna see my 4.6GHz retained, and if possible, be able to reach 4.7GHz.

Cheers, and have a good day.

[erix_jansen]

Yes, but there is no Bios (UEFI) update published yet....

[Anusha]

What do you mean? The latest firmware version is 1002 and the board has supported Devil's Canyon chips since version 609.

Weird thing though. The board came with version 506 but it still detected the CPU just fine. I updated to the latest firmware nevertheless.

[Shadow7904]

Anusha wrote:
What do you mean? The latest firmware version is 1002 and the board has supported Devil's Canyon chips since version 609.

Weird thing though. The board came with version 506 but it still detected the CPU just fine. I updated to the latest firmware nevertheless.

Yeah same here. I also have the 4970K CPU but with the VII Hero board. My BIOS version was supposedly before the CPU was supported but it picked it up fine. I just updated my BIOS too on the recommendation from Asus Support.

[Praz]

Hello

All 7 series boards should ship with the latest ME firmware which will allow booting with DC CPUs.

[Anusha]

Praz wrote:
Hello

All 7 series boards should ship with the latest ME firmware which will allow booting with DC CPUs.

It is the ME firmware that matters?
What is the difference between using a firmware that supports the CPU and not using one? Some of the features of the CPU will not be usable? Like VT-x that's available on 4790K but not any of the K series CPUs, for example?

[Raja]

Anusha wrote:
It is the ME firmware that matters?
What is the difference between using a firmware that supports the CPU and not using one? Some of the features of the CPU will not be usable? Like VT-x that's available on 4790K but not any of the K series CPUs, for example?

The CPU may not POST for one thing and yes if it did certain features may not be available or work correctly.

[simi_id]

VT-x ... something like this ?

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?49523-Maximus-VII-Hero-and-4790K-Intel-Virtualization-Techn...

[Anusha]

simi_id wrote:
VT-x ... something like this ?

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?49523-Maximus-VII-Hero-and-4790K-Intel-Virtualization-Techn...

nope. that's just VT-d. VT-x was not available on K series CPUs and they finally brought it out for the Devil's Canyon.

[Praz]

Anusha wrote:
nope. that's just VT-d. VT-x was not available on K series CPUs and they finally brought it out for the Devil's Canyon.

Hello

This is backwards. VT-x is available on most all processors. VT-d was not enabled on the 4770K but is on the 4790K.