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New bios: 0612 for Z370-E and more - 09. March

Carbonicdk
Level 8
Bios version 0612 has just arrived for Z370-E (and will soon probably be out for at least Z370-F as well as that motherboard is almost identical).

The changes are as undescriptive as always:
1. Improve system stability

Generating a report in CPU-Z does confirm that the update contains the updated 0x84 microcode from Intel to hopefully fix the BSOD's after SPECTRE. Intel's microcode update guidance can be found here: https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/03/microcode-update-guidance.pdf

72176

Post your experiences and feedback here.
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theWanderer521
Level 7
Following this thread.

Thanks for the info.

I'll wait it out for a while before updating, would love to see what you guys have to say.

Tavo_Ventura
Level 7
after flahed to his bios version in a z370e strix causes bsod

Tavo_Ventura wrote:
after flahed to his bios version in a z370e strix causes bsod


Did you touch any BIOS settings after updating the firmware? OC settings perhaps?

Carbonicdk
Level 8
I had BSOD's in the previous bios and had to disable Spectre protection in Windows to only get one every couple of days. After I've updated to this bios version and re-enabled the Windows 10 Spectre Windows 10 protection I've not had a BSOD yet and my 4.8 Ghz overclock is stable.

Carbonicdk wrote:
I had BSOD's in the previous bios and had to disable Spectre protection in Windows to only get one every couple of days. After I've updated to this bios version and re-enabled the Windows 10 Spectre Windows 10 protection I've not had a BSOD yet and my 4.8 Ghz overclock is stable.


How do i know if i have the sceptre protection in windows enabled?

Tavo_Ventura wrote:
How do i know if i have the sceptre protection in windows enabled?


This is probably the easiest way: InSpectre

NicMic
Level 7
Hope they will publish a bios with updated microcode for the X Hero soon...

Korth
Level 14
Carbonicdk wrote:
The changes are as undescriptive as always:
1. Improve system stability

Yeah ... "improved stability" and "improved performance" are useless descriptors. Might as well just say "improved version number".
Raja has commented before that ASUS is sometimes deliberately vague and cryptic about specific details because they don't want their investment in R&D to be ripped off and cloned by their competitors.

I've noted that past claims about "improved stability" usually emphasize the latest-and-greatest hardwares (which have intrinsically better performance) but sometimes make "old" (last week's) hardware actually run with a little less stability or a little less performance. In general, though, ASUS promises of "improved stability" hold consistently true. You can't go wrong with BIOS versions which explicitly address the specific hardware you're using.

While ASUS claims of "improved performance" are very rarely supported with actual before-vs-after benchmark comparisons. Some users report faster, some report slower, some report no difference, some report problems. I'm not a champion overclocker but I do okay, and I've learned after many firmware revisions on many ASUS products that newer is not always better - it's hard to ignore that "improved performance" bait but unless I see a lot of positive feedback to support it then I just won't fix what ain't broken.

The Spectre/Meltdown fixes seem to be code workarounds - that is, they impose extra instructions or boundaries onto implementations which were originally more optimized or streamlined - they impose an unavoidable performance hit. You can choose unobstructed (but unsecure) performance or you can choose suboptimal (but secure) performance, there is simply no way around it (counter to some peoples' expectations, hopes, and claims) until Intel manufactures new parts with these new "fixes" directly embedded within the silicon hardcode.
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[/Korth]