Issue with ASUS Z690 HERO EVA EDITION - Unstable with Auto PCIEX16_1 Link Speed Enabled

[alex_bb23]

Greetings,

I recently assembled a gaming PC with Asus EVA components but am encountering a stability issue when the PCIEX16_1 Link Speed is set to auto (gen 4.0).

Here are the specifications of my PC:

Intel® Core™ i9-13900K Processor

ROG Strix GeForce RTX™ 3080 EVA Edition

Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 64GB 6200MHz C36 (x4 dimms)

Samsung 990 Pro 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD

[Additional components...]

When I use default BIOS settings, my PC is unstable, with symptoms including freezing during booting and screen display loss.

I've made sure to update to the latest official BIOS version (2305), but the issue persists. Interestingly, when I switch the PCIEX16_1 Link Speed from auto to Gen 3, the system stability improves significantly.

I'm seeking assistance in resolving this issue. Any guidance you can provide to ensure that my system can operate stably with the PCIEX16_1 Link Speed set to auto would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Best regards,

Alexandru Barbulescu

[Murph_9000]

Do you have your GPU on a PCIe riser cable?  The symptoms fit with using a PCIe 3.0 riser cable with a 4.0 GPU and motherboard.  A defective or poor quality 4.0 cable could also behave that way.  If you need a 4.0 riser cable, I recommend CableMod or LINKUP.  The ROG riser cable for the Helios case is, unfortunately, still only 3.0.

[alex_bb23]

Hi Murph,

No, is directly plugged into the PCIe slot 1.

[alex_bb23]

I've conducted some changes to maximize the stability and performance of my PC. Here's what I've done:

1. Reverted the PCIEX16_1 Link Speed to 'Auto'.
2. Adjusted the AI Overclock Tuner to XAMP II.

Initially, these modifications did not stabilize the system. So, I further altered the 'BCLK Frequency: DRAM Frequency Ratio' from 'Auto' to '100:133'. This adjustment seems to have successfully stabilized the system.

Although I believe the 'DRAM Frequency Ratio' was the key determinant in this stability, I still put it to the test. I played Doom Eternal for about an hour and allowed my PC to idle for several hours without any issue.

I will continue monitoring the system and keep you updated on any developments. Thanks for your ongoing assistance.

[alex_bb23]

Alright, the good news is that the system appears to be stable at this point. However, an issue remains - the memory is operating at a speed of 4800 MHz. I've attempted to enhance the speed to 6000/6200MHz, but these adjustments caused system instability. It seems that the highest stable limit is 5866MHz. Even augmenting the RAM voltage didn't yield any positive results.