VIII Dark Hero and drivers question

[louiscar]

Hi all,

I just want to understand a few things as I have no experience with Windows 10 and AMD. I had started a build with an Intel board and Win 10 but decided as this was a couple of gens ago, it bought the Dark Hero and 5900x.
Beauty of not having got to load drivers in I was able to transfer my Windows boot drive over without any problems.

So notably Windows 10 is quite happy with finding drivers for this board but the advice I want is are these found from an Asus source and more importantly what do I gain by installing the specific drivers.

What do people recommend to install for this board as a minimum or as a recommended set and if you can tell me why. Eg. motherboard / sound / network etc? ... Also anything to do with Asus' own utils, OC - (not looking for ground breaking oc but reasonable)

[Nate152]

Hi louiscar

Windows 10 installs all the necessary drivers.

Depending on your headset, you'll want to install either the Realtek audio driver or Armoury Crate.

Then update the graphics driver and that's pretty much it.

Get all motherboard drivers from the ASUS Support Center.

https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-crosshair-viii-dark-hero-model/helpdesk_download

You can check Device Manager for any missing drivers.

[louiscar]

Nate152 wrote:
Hi louiscar

Windows 10 installs all the necessary drivers.

Hi Nate52
So unlike previous Windows where it would install basic drivers there is no disadvantage to the ones that Windows installs?

Nate152 wrote:

Depending on your headset, you'll want to install either the Realtek audio driver or Armoury Crate.

So this confuses me a bit "depending on headset". I thought the Realtek drivers were also put in by Win 10 as I think the sound works (haven't checked)
But I was unsure what Armoury Crate actually did. Does this also give me control of the fans and any rgb on the motherboard ?

For audio I may install a Soundblaster as my experience with onboard Audio has been somewhat tainted in the past but for now if it works I may not have to do that.

Nate152 wrote:

Get all motherboard drivers from the ASUS Support Center.

https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-crosshair-viii-dark-hero-model/helpdesk_download

Thanks I already have these but do I need to install the motherboard drivers ?

So am I right in thinking that with Windows 10 and above it gets the actual Asus drivers from a repository supplied by Asus rather than as with previous Windows where it'd just install generic chipset drivers which would lack in performance and other features?


You can check Device Manager for any missing drivers.

[RedSector73]

louiscar wrote:
So am I right in thinking that with Windows 10 and above it gets the actual Asus drivers from a repository supplied by Asus rather than as with previous Windows where it'd just install generic chipset drivers which would lack in performance and other features?


You can check Device Manager for any missing drivers.

Windows Qualification is done via the companies putting their drivers into MS. Asus qualifies the driver's themselves with the board. These processes are not specifically linked, but sure there is some crossover.

For AMD chipset drivers, the best ones will be available on AMD website. There is lag for ASUS to qualify, and likewise for MS.
Just like, the latest drivers for graphics card will be on that manufacturers' website.

The best optimised drivers are typically the latest ones, but you can fallback to MS or Asus one if you had a specific issue (you most likely won't).

[louiscar]

RedSector73 wrote:
Windows Qualification is done via the companies putting their drivers into MS. Asus qualifies the driver's themselves with the board. These processes are not specifically linked, but sure there is some crossover.

For AMD chipset drivers, the best ones will be available on AMD website. There is lag for ASUS to qualify, and likewise for MS.
Just like, the latest drivers for graphics card will be on that manufacturers' website.

The best optimised drivers are typically the latest ones, but you can fallback to MS or Asus one if you had a specific issue (you most likely won't).

Thanks for this, it's somewhat confusing situation. Amd drivers I'm not aware of as of yet, I'll have a look but I note that AGIS problems exist after firmware 3801 according to Gollum13 who posted here recently?

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?128344-Crosshair-VIII-Hero-(WiFi)-what-s-going-on-with-new...

So I didn't update the firmware to the latest keeping at 3801 as I'm a little nervous of getting instability issues when I finally try to OC.

Again confusing as I thought the AMD drivers were contained in the BIOS.

[MoKiChU]

Hi,

You need these drivers for your ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard :

[DRIVERS] AMD Chipset/SATA (3xx/4xx/5xx/6xx/TRX40)

- AMD Chipset Drivers

[DRIVERS] Intel Ethernet/WiFi/Bluetooth

- Intel Ethernet Drivers (Drivers Only) :

Drivers - I210/I211

- Intel WiFi Drivers (Drivers Only) :

Drivers - 9xxx/AXxxx

- Intel Bluetooth Drivers (Drivers Only) :

Drivers - 8xxx/9xxx/AXxxx

[DRIVERS] Realtek Ethernet/WiFi/Bluetooth

- Realtek Ethernet Drivers (Drivers Only)

[DRIVERS] Realtek Audio (MB | Intel 2xx/3xx/4xx/5xx/6xx/7xx & AMD 3xx/4xx/5xx/6xx)

You have an ASUS ROG SS3|DTS Sound Unbound motherboard, so :

You need Realtek Audio Drivers (UAD - ASUS ROG SS3-DTS MB) from the first post of the thread.

Follow scrupulously your CLEANUP process then your INSTALL process, for the next drivers packages that I would release, you will can directly follow your UPDATE process.

[RedSector73]

BIOS is Basic Input Output System, is software stored on a small memory chip on the motherboard. It's BIOS that's responsible for the POST and therefore makes it the very first software to run when a computer is started. You may have heard of AMD AGESA which is part of the BIOS, and it matters especially when it comes to updates to the microcode of AMD processors.

AMD Drivers Chipset drivers are separate to this and UNO you are best off running the latest ones from AMD.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/x570

When you see a couple of 100 reports of problems in the BIOS, worry or be cautious, till then, best off running the latest and can always fall back to earlier one. Not really following your concern there. Be like saying I'm not driving a car because I heard next door had an accident.

[louiscar]

RedSector73 wrote:


When you see a couple of 100 reports of problems in the BIOS, worry or be cautious, till then, best off running the latest and can always fall back to earlier one. Not really following your concern there. Be like saying I'm not driving a car because I heard next door had an accident.

My concern was one of caution . As I haven't build an AMD system since the old Athlon days I am not familiar with Overclocking and running memory D.O.C.P. and the article I point to showed instability on Ryzen 3000 and possibily 5000 series after Bios 3801.

I figured that as I haven't begun to experiment on OC yet I'd leave 3801 in place knowing it's stable and then once I've got a stable OC I will flash later firmware. If it goes unstable I'll know the reason.

[RedSector73]

I've built a heap of them from 1800x to 5950x, they're robust and easy now. You can flash forward and backwards with the BIOS, but understand your initial caution. It is best to have a baseline and stable platform on which to move forward with.