Data request: System boot times from cold to desktop!

[b1k3rdude]

As a result of some of my own testing and several replies in this thread I have started making a list of system specs with cold boot times. I ask because since going to Am4 from 1150 my cold boot time to desktop has tripled.

System/s I have tested -

• Msi Z97 krait, Intel 4790k (LGA1150), 2x8gb DDR4 1866, Samsung 960pro, normal fast boot, win8/10 - cold boot to desktop 10-11 seconds.
• Gigabyte 970a, Amd FX4300 (AM3), Samsung 850 sata - normal fast boot (not msi fb), win8/10 - cold boot to desktop30-40 seconds.
• Msi Z97 PcMate (LGA1150), Intel Corei5 4440, 2x4gb DDR4 1333, Samsung 960pro, normal fast boot, win11 - cold boot to desktop11-12 seconds.
• Msi H81 (LGA1150), Intel Corei5 4430, 2x4gb DDR4 1333, Samsung 850 sata, - normal fast boot (not msi fb), win11 - cold boot to desktop 11-12 seconds.
• Msi x570, 5900x, MSI RTX 4080 Gaming X-trio, Sabrent Rocket4plus, 4x 8gb DDR4 3733 Patriot steel, CL17), normal fast boot, win10 - cold boot to desktop 28-30 seconds.

The above is a very small sample size, and intel does appear to be quicker. From what I can see about AM5, it seems to be as slow as AM3 due the b$ with DDR5 memory training. And Boot times seem to vary between AM5 boards, where some boards have an option to save that train as a profile, so it doesn't have to do it on every boot etc. I have never tested a fresh AM5 or socket LGA1200/1700 and checking online, I can't find any proper comparisons comparing the various CPU sockets..

Other systems not mentioned on this thread -

• ASUS TUF A16 laptop, Ryzen 9 7940hs, AMD RX 7600s 8 GB, Crucial 2 x 16 GB DDR5-5600 (CL 46), Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB, win11, cold boot to desktop 15

Systems from this thread -

• Asrock B650E Taichi lite, 7800X3D, Trident Z Neo cl30-6000 (2x 32 gig), 23 to logo, another 12 to desktop, total 36s
• Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master, 7800X3D, Team T-Create Exporter DDR5 6000 (CL30-34-34-68, XMP), Gainware RTX 4080, Win10, cold boot to desktop 29s
• Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master, 7950X, Corsair Dominator Titanium DDR5-6000 64 GB CL30, NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, cold boot to desktop 120-180s
• Asus Rog Strix z690-A WiFi D4, 12700K, TEAM GROUP 32GB DDR4 4000C16 B die, MSI RTX 3080 Gaming Trio, cold boot to desktop 50s
• Gigabyte GA-B550M-DS3H, 5800X3D,Kingston Fury 2x16GB (XMP DDR4-3600 CL16 auto timings), Gigabyte 4060Ti 16GB , SX8200Pro Gen3, cold boot to desktop 11.5s
• Gigabyte GA-X570-UD3, 5800X3D, Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x16GB(manual DDR4-3866 CL16 timings), Sapphire 7800XT, SN850X Gen4, cold boot to desktop 14.2s
• Msi B550-A Pro, 5950X, 4x32GB Crucial DDR4-3200 (CL22 w/ JEDEC SPD auto timings), RTX 3060 12GB, SN570 Gen3, 20 secs to POST, another 12 secs to desktop, total 32s

 

[Chrispy_]

I like the idea but it's entirely down to the BIOS version you're running, the memory and GPU you're using.

Testing all motherboards with an identical hardware config would reveal some differences for sure, but beyond the initial memory training period it comes down to an individuals' choice of BIOS settings and hardware and those settings have a far greater impact on the boot speed than different boards.

Some vendors (MSI, I find to be on the more cautious side) do a lot more detect-all, wait for answers behaviour before POSTing, whilst others (Gigabyte) seem to whizz through on fast-detect and last-known-configs. Slow MSI boards can have settings changed that makes them boot fast, and fast Gigabyte boards have settings changed that can make them slow.

In my experience, boot times are dominated primarily by user preferences in BIOS settings, then to a lesser extent it's down to what hardware and how much hardware you have enabled and plugged in, finally the board/vendor and BIOS version can have an impact of a few seconds. Educating oneself in what things take time at POST is probably more useful than testing boot times, since once the initial cold-boot and memory training is out of the way it's mostly configurable settings that impact the POST time.

 

[b1k3rdude]

I like the idea but it's entirely down to the BIOS version you're running, the memory and GPU you're using.

In my experience, boot times are dominated primarily by user preferences in BIOS settings, then to a lesser extent it's down to what hardware and how much hardware you have enabled and plugged in, finally the board/vendor and BIOS version can have an impact of a few seconds. Educating oneself in what things take time at POST is probably more useful than testing boot times, since once the initial cold-boot and memory training is out of the way it's mostly configurable settings that impact the POST time.

To get a proper apple to apples, just have the same RAM (nothing higher than DDR5-6000 & 2x16GB), NVME and GPU used across the board.

A few seconds isnt really relevent, but for the sake of clarity lets round upto max 15 or 40 seconds for cold to desktop. But if we are going to be semi-serious about the test we could include -

So in my case

- cold to bios text/screen - 14s
- bios screen to desktop - 12s
- total cold boot time - 28s

 

[TheLostSwede]

On AM4, it come down a lot to memory training.
AM5 was even worse at one point, but it's quite fast now.
As already pointed out, this will depend on the UEFI version, the AGESA version, the specific RAM kit, the memory chips, the tweaks the board maker has done to the UEFI and any changes outside of the bog standard auto memory settings, XMP/EXPO etc.
There are thousands of variables, so it's not as easy as you think.

 

[b1k3rdude]

AM5 was even worse at one point, but it's quite fast now.

Got an links to examples..?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Not much point it's all either win-10-11 startup voodoo features or hibernation disabled who cares I'm happy if it boots at all hehe
Hell restart is the only really accurate way to judge here's one that I've used for years
And no I don't mind if I get 40 seconds lol

Restart Time

How to See What Your Windows Restart Time is

www.sevenforums.com

:: This script was created by Matthew Wai at TenForums.com/members/matthew-wai.html
::
::—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
:: Edited by johnlgalt to chenge file save path to %PUBLIC% to accommodate
:: moved \Users folders.
::—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
@echo off & mode con cols=54 lines=5 & For /F "skip=1 tokens=*" %%# in (
'"PowerShell Get-Date -DisplayHint DateTime"') DO (Set "ET=%%#")
Title Measure the restart time & color 17 & Set "[U]=($ET-$ST).TotalSeconds"
Set "[N]=Measure_the_restart_time_via_a_batch_script_provided_by_TenForums"
Set "[F]=%PUBLIC%" & Set "[C]=[DateTime]::parse" & color 17
Set "[K]=HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft"&Set "[I]= seconds to completely restart Windows."
Set "[S]=%[F]%\%[N]%.log" & Set "[L]=  It took " & Set "[P]=PowerShell.exe -Command "
If exist "%[S]%" (Echo.& Goto [Post_restart]) else (Echo.
Echo     Please firstly close all running applications.
Echo     Then press a key to restart Windows. & Pause>Nul & MD "%[F]%" 2>Nul
REG Add "%[K]%\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /V "%[N]%" /T REG_SZ /D """"%~f0"""" /F>Nul
%[P]%Get-Date -DisplayHint DateTime>"%[S]%" && Shutdown -r -f -t 00 & Exit)
:[Post_restart]
For /f "delims=" %%# in ('"Type "%[S]%""') Do (set "ST=%%#")
%[P]%"&{$ST=%[C]%('%ST%');$ET=%[C]%('%ET%');echo (-join('%[L]%',%[U]%,'%[I]%'));}"
Del "%[S]%" & REG Delete "%[K]%\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /V "%[N]%" /F>Nul
Echo   You may press a key to close this window. & Pause>Nul & Exit
::—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

 

[KedsDead]

On AM4, it come down a lot to memory training.
AM5 was even worse at one point, but it's quite fast now.
As already pointed out, this will depend on the UEFI version, the AGESA version, the specific RAM kit, the memory chips, the tweaks the board maker has done to the UEFI and any changes outside of the bog standard auto memory settings, XMP/EXPO etc.
There are thousands of variables, so it's not as easy as you think.

I agreee with the memory training. When I upgraded from 16GB to 32GB, it added like a second to my boot time. Its not 30 seconds like the OP, its more like 10-15 seconds.

 

[ir_cow]

Got an links to examples..?

There is a few threads on TPU if you search for them. It has gotten a lot better. Going from 2-3 minutes at launch to under 30 seconds. But it also depends on the MB BIOS, dual or single rank memory and the speed as well.

For example with the newest BIOS on the MSI X670 Pro. DDR5-5600 64GB (2x32) still takes 3:33 minutes to boot from off to BIOS. Single rank is under a minute.

 

[natr0n]

You have to disable stuff in bios to help boot times usually.

I have to disable fast booting and certain things on mine. boots so fast cant even get into bios on a reboot if not adjusted.
I have many os drives.
Also windows versions and updates can make things slower.

 

[Bagerklestyne]

I stop watched my B650E Taichi lite (7800X3D) with Trident Z Neo cl30-6000 (2x 32 gig) and it was 38 seconds from memory (no pun intended) a while ago.

I'm considering a bios update to see if it improves. But only considering since it's stable works, and it's not really slow.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I stop watched my B650E Taichi lite (7800X3D) with Trident Z Neo cl30-6000 (2x 32 gig) and it was 38 seconds from memory (no pun intended) a while ago.

I'm considering a bios update to see if it improves. But only considering since it's stable works, and it's not really slow.

If it's not broken don't fix it.

Depends on the gpu I use for boot times. A GTX 460 is horrible in CSM. Wait for the gpu to respond and finally after 20 seconds or so begins boot from disk. A little faster with a RX or RTX card in UEFI, but I have memory training on at 2266.7mhz ddr4. So closer to 20 seconds from button to desktop.

Usually from when the green boot LED, passing memory training and VGA post acknowledgement, it's gotta be no more than a few seconds and I have use of everything immediately.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Got an links to examples..?

You could've tried searching the forums...

Slow boot times on your AM5 build?

Hi, I'm looking to buy a new build soon and I've run into comments/videos online pointing out slow boot times with AM5. I don't mind the minutes it takes to boot the first time to train the memory sticks, but once that's done, how long does it take normally for your system to boot? I'd be...

www.techpowerup.com

MSI Releases UEFI Update for its X670 and B650 Motherboards That Cuts Boot Times in Half

It seems like the long boot times that have plagued MSI's X670 and B650 motherboards might soon be nothing but a bad memory, as the company has issued UEFI updates for its motherboards that are said to cut the boot times in half. The company has added what it calls "Memory Context Restore" in...

www.techpowerup.com

There is a few threads on TPU if you search for them. It has gotten a lot better. Going from 2-3 minutes at launch to under 30 seconds. But it also depends on the MB BIOS, dual or single rank memory and the speed as well.

For example with the newest BIOS on the MSI X670 Pro. DDR5-5600 64GB (2x32) still takes 3:33 minutes to boot from off to BIOS. Single rank is under a minute.

That's truly awful.
It seems like MSI still has a lot of work to do.

I stop watched my B650E Taichi lite (7800X3D) with Trident Z Neo cl30-6000 (2x 32 gig) and it was 38 seconds from memory (no pun intended) a while ago.

I'm considering a bios update to see if it improves. But only considering since it's stable works, and it's not really slow.

Did the same just now, took 29 seconds to cold boot the system. No fast boot or anything like that enabled.
20 seconds of that is pre-post.

 

[b1k3rdude]

I have to disable fast booting and certain things on mine. boots so fast cant even get into bios on a reboot if not adjusted.

Thats because there are 2 types of fastboot on most motherboards, for example on my MSI board there is 'MSI fastboot' and just 'Fastboot'. The former will cause the same behavour you have described.

On AM4, it come down a lot to memory training.

As already pointed out, this will depend on the UEFI version, the AGESA version, the specific RAM kit, the memory chips, the tweaks the board maker has done to the UEFI and any changes outside of the bog standard auto memory settings, XMP/EXPO etc.

My MSI Meg X570 Ace does occasionaly do a slow boot to train ram, but only if I have changed the ram or touched the memory settings in bios. Once it has trained once, it goes back to the 27-30s boot times.

There is a few threads on TPU if you search for them. It has gotten a lot better. Going from 2-3 minutes at launch to under 30 seconds. But it also depends on the MB BIOS, dual or single rank memory and the speed as well.

For example with the newest BIOS on the MSI X670 Pro. DDR5-5600 64GB (2x32) still takes 3:33 minutes to boot from off to BIOS. Single rank is under a minute.

Will try and look for these, but like most forums its not as simple as a thread title. And of the links your provide almost all of the time the make/mode of the mobo along with the system spoecs is not mentioned. But on a positive note, some one mentioned of disabling Legeacy USB support. I tried this and it appeared to shave of 5s of my boot time, but this is at the exspence of not being able to boot CSM USB sticks.

And this is what I was after, examples just like this. If I bought this board and had boot times like that, it would be an instant return & refund.

Did the same just now, took 29 seconds to cold boot the system. No fast boot or anything like that enabled.
20 seconds of that is pre-post.

You could've tried searching the forums...

So this is on your Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master, with 2x 16? of Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz

I am looking for boot times for Intel and AMD motherboards. And on the AMD side not just B650. That said while not the info I was after, there is some interesting data in those threads.

And lastly HWUB has done some of the testing I am after, but only of some chipsets and only on AM5.

 

[ir_cow]

So this is on your Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master, with 2x 16? of Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz

25~ seconds. Update to the newest BIOS and enable Fast Boot if you are really trying to shave off time.

I use the X670E Master for all of the memory reviews. Originally was because it was the only one that could run 128GB @ 4800, but overall it is still good even though AGEAS updates have fixed a lot of the launch boot problems for every vendor. Still the GB Master suffers the same problem as the MSI MB I mentioned. But instead of 5600 its 6200-6400. Running 6200/2066 1:1 took a few minutes to boot every time in the
Corsair Dominator Titanium DDR5-6000 64 GB CL30 Review overclocking section.

 

[Chrispy_]

That's truly awful.
It seems like MSI still has a lot of work to do.

That's my general experience with, uh - I dunno - maybe 5-6 different MSI AM4 boards. They do more detection than Asus/Asrock/Gigabyte on each boot. I spent some time fiddling with the B550-A Pro and managed to get it down to about 8 seconds from power button to completing POST, mostly by setting as much RAM, CPU and PCIe stuff as I was comfortable with to manual rather than auto settings. Clearly MSI tests more various options with Auto than other manufacurers in that particular instance, so perhaps it's no surprise that MSI are lauded as a brand that has good RAM compatibility.

I've only used Gigabyte and Asus AM5 boards so far and I thought they were slow but that just seems to be an AM5 thing for now...

 

[TheLostSwede]

That's my general experience with, uh - I dunno - maybe 5-6 different MSI AM4 boards. They do more detection than Asus/Asrock/Gigabyte on each boot. I spent some time fiddling with the B550-A Pro and managed to get it down to about 8 seconds from power button to completing POST, mostly by setting as much RAM, CPU and PCIe stuff as I was comfortable with to manual rather than auto settings. Clearly MSI tests more various options with Auto than other manufacurers in that particular instance, so perhaps it's no surprise that MSI are lauded as a brand that has good RAM compatibility.

I've only used Gigabyte and Asus AM5 boards so far and I thought they were slow but that just seems to be an AM5 thing for now...

I've had zero issues with my Gigabyte board and I don't even have RAM that's on the QVL (which is still pointless imho) and it's XMP, not EXPO compatible. That said, I don't use XMP, as I've tuned some of the memory timings manually.

I have admittedly not tested any other boards and there might be better options out there.

 

[Chrispy_]

I've had zero issues with my Gigabyte board and I don't even have RAM that's on the QVL (which is still pointless imho) and it's XMP, not EXPO compatible. That said, I don't use XMP, as I've tuned some of the memory timings manually.

I have admittedly not tested any other boards and there might be better options out there.

I wouldn't call myself a Gigabyte fanboy - I buy lots of Asus/Asrock/MSI boards too - but for most of their models Gigabyte just seem to get the basics right in the least dramatic way. They'd be my last choice for an overclocking competition and my first choice for something I just want to set-and-forget.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I wouldn't call myself a Gigabyte fanboy - I buy lots of Asus/Asrock/MSI boards too - but for most of their models Gigabyte just seem to get the basics right in the least dramatic way. They'd be my last choice for an overclocking competition and my first choice for something I just want to set-and-forget.

Well, I got my board for free so...
I have honestly not used anything modern from ASRock, but not keen on most of their board layouts.
MSI has a horrible UEFI these days, I don't understand who figured that was a good UI/UX.
It's a couple of systems back since I had Asus, but they're charging too much for their decent boards now.
As for Gigabyte, they've had their fair share of issues like everyone else, but my last two boards have been really stable and they've managed to come up with a decent enough UEFI UI/UX, but once you save the settings the first time, it tends to be laggy and slow to move around for some reason.

Everyone seems to be suffering from shitty Windows apps though.

 

[Chrispy_]

MSI has a horrible UEFI these days, I don't understand who figured that was a good UI/UX.

QFT.
As much as like about the MSI boards, that clickBIOS UI is textbook on how not to make a UI. I use them so much that I take them for granted now but I'd kinda forgotten my initial impressions of "holy shit, WTF!!? Who even thought this was a good idea in the first place, let alone all the people in the chain who also signed off on it!"

 

[AusWolf]

I like the idea but it's entirely down to the BIOS version you're running, the memory and GPU you're using.

Testing all motherboards with an identical hardware config would reveal some differences for sure, but beyond the initial memory training period it comes down to an individuals' choice of BIOS settings and hardware and those settings have a far greater impact on the boot speed than different boards.

Some vendors (MSI, I find to be on the more cautious side) do a lot more detect-all, wait for answers behaviour before POSTing, whilst others (Gigabyte) seem to whizz through on fast-detect and last-known-configs. Slow MSI boards can have settings changed that makes them boot fast, and fast Gigabyte boards have settings changed that can make them slow.

In my experience, boot times are dominated primarily by user preferences in BIOS settings, then to a lesser extent it's down to what hardware and how much hardware you have enabled and plugged in, finally the board/vendor and BIOS version can have an impact of a few seconds. Educating oneself in what things take time at POST is probably more useful than testing boot times, since once the initial cold-boot and memory training is out of the way it's mostly configurable settings that impact the POST time.

This.

You cannot do an honest review of boot times when even two identical systems can have two vastly different boot times based on user settings. For example, if I only enable EXPO, my boot time increases considerably.

 

[Onasi]

As for Gigabyte, they've had their fair share of issues like everyone else, but my last two boards have been really stable and they've managed to come up with a decent enough UEFI UI/UX, but once you save the settings the first time, it tends to be laggy and slow to move around for some reason.

As a fellow Gigabyte UEFI sufferer, for some ungodly reason the UI is lagging any time you are not in CSM. Which, on a modern OS and with a modern ReBAR GPU - you aren’t. The one bandaid fix for it is forcing the UI resolution down (seriously) with either Alt+F6 or Ctrl+Alt+F6, depending on the board. Have to do it each time you go into the BIOS, but this way I could at least set my fan curves without them stuttering all over the place.

 

[Chrispy_]

I've noticed that. Not just Gigabyte, but definitely on more Gigabyte boards than others. It seems to be related to what input devices you have plugged in. Cheapo office mouse was fine, 1000Hz Roccat and Razer mice caused lag and hitching on my two current Gigabyte boards and my previous Asrock.

Those are just symptoms though, it's possible the act of unplugging and reconnecting the mouse is enough. I've never been bothered enough to investigate properly....

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Skt LGA1700/Z690-A/12700K

Shut down, timed from button press to login screen

I thought it would be quicker with a gen4x4 boot drive.

 

[b1k3rdude]

Skt LGA1700/Z690-A/12700K - 50s cold boot

Thank you, this is the kinda Im after.

Does this forum have the ability to colate via poll 'general info..?

 

[Chrispy_]

Thank you, this is the kinda Im after.

This is an AM4 household so not sure it's the info you're looking for but since it takes less time to test than to type out the system specs, it's easy enough to dump here.

GA-B550M-DS3H + 5800X + Kingston Fury 2x16GB Fury at XMP DDR4-3600 CL16 auto timings + Gigabyte 4060Ti 16GB + SX8200Pro Gen3 boot SSD
11.5 secs from cold button press to login

GA-X570-UD3 + 5800X3D + Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x16GB at manual DDR4-3866 CL16 timings + Sapphire 7800XT + SN850X Gen4 boot SSD
14.2 secs from cold button press to login