Thursday, August 31st 2017
Latest Gigabyte X370 K7 Motherboard BIOS Broken Dynamic vCore, up to 1.7v
Update: It seems that the vCore voltage can go up to 1.7v, which has resulted in at least one claim of a fried Ryzen CPU on Gigabyte's forums. Multiple users are reporting this issue, and apparently the problem isn't limited to Gigabyte's K7 motherboard: users on the Gaming K5 motherboard are also reporting similar issues with the latest BIOS for their respective motherboard.
A warning to users of Gigabyte's X370 K7 motherboard: the most recent F5 BIOS version, which was posted as a stable release on the company's BIOS support page, has been originating reports from users as having increased the dynamic voltage applied towards stratospheric values (from a "healthy CPU vCore baseline.) The problem appears to be related to the usage of Gigabyte's Dynamic vCore functionality, where users that were seeing vCore values of around 1.2v started seeing those dynamic values, as set by the motherboard, being set to a crispy 1.55v instead, at the same clocks as before the BIOS update. If you have such a motherboard, and have recently updated your BIOS to revision F5 or planned on doing so, please do yourself a favor and set vCore manually to your value of choice, compensating with LLC (Load Line Calibration) so that your CPU isn't shocked to death with additional vCore.
There are some reports of Ryzen CPUs going the way of fries due to this issue, although at the time of writing, it wasn't possible to confirm this through multiple sources. Should any more information turn up on this issue, expect this space to be updated. Other than that, it seems that this is a good BIOS release for the K7 motherboard, shoring up some weaknesses that still resided on Gigabyte's BIOS. Apparently, VRM temperatures are down, and issues of soft bricks on PC shutdown cycles have been corrected.
Sources:
User Psyko12 @ TechPowerUp, Overclock.net, Gigabyte Forums, Gigabyte Forums Beta BIOS
A warning to users of Gigabyte's X370 K7 motherboard: the most recent F5 BIOS version, which was posted as a stable release on the company's BIOS support page, has been originating reports from users as having increased the dynamic voltage applied towards stratospheric values (from a "healthy CPU vCore baseline.) The problem appears to be related to the usage of Gigabyte's Dynamic vCore functionality, where users that were seeing vCore values of around 1.2v started seeing those dynamic values, as set by the motherboard, being set to a crispy 1.55v instead, at the same clocks as before the BIOS update. If you have such a motherboard, and have recently updated your BIOS to revision F5 or planned on doing so, please do yourself a favor and set vCore manually to your value of choice, compensating with LLC (Load Line Calibration) so that your CPU isn't shocked to death with additional vCore.
35 Comments on Latest Gigabyte X370 K7 Motherboard BIOS Broken Dynamic vCore, up to 1.7v
I thought that was funny. :)
The fries CPUs stood there for quite a bit of time, actually; I was trying to confirm that information through multiple sources. For now, I haven't been able to find other users reporting the same as having happened, so one isolated case does not a pattern make =) however, the vCore issue is real and was reported by multiple users, so, here's the heads-up.
Aside from the offset voltage issue. So far golden here. System seems more "reliable" hahaha
*sells tin foil :D
That said, I have noticed that bclk about 1mhz higher than I set it to, which isn't very comforting...
If the multiplier is set to any value over stock the cpu vid stays at 1.55v so its important to set voltage manually when o.c.
I have now moved to the f5 release and up to now very happy seems i can now get 3.95ghz on the same voltage that i reached 3.9.
Not a single word from Gigabyte nor have they removed the F5 BIOS from their website as of 1900 UTC.
And yes VID reports 1.55V in a number of circumstances but in this particular case the other sensors also report 1.55V+OFFSET. This is the K7 other boards may react differently and people that are not reporting issues may not be using Normal with an OFFSET. if they use Auto or type in a voltage the board seems to react as it always has.
I may have confused the K5 and Gaming 5 when I posted this to overclock.net. The posts are in the Gigabyte AM4 BIOS thread on their forum.
@R-T-B You should be good with F5, one thing to be careful of, If you want to test Dynamic Vcore and set an offset, when you go back to Auto or a specific voltage make sure you set the Offset back to Auto first or you could get unexpected results. I did not write down exactly what I got but I do recall it has much higher than the number I typed into CPU Vcore.
Still no word from Gigabyte?
No word still, but the Gaming 5 F7 links are all dead, and the F5 for the Gaming K7 has been completely removed.
This is one for the k7
www.gigabyte.eu/Motherboard/GA-AX370-Gaming-K7-rev-10#support-dl