BIOS Walkthrough

The BIOS on the G1.Sniper M3 is very similar to what is offered on the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H I reviewed a few weeks ago. As with the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H, the G1.Sniper M3 features Gigabyte's new 3D BIOS interface, which provides a relatively easy to use graphical user interface with the majority of popular options, and at the same time provides some handy monitoring info relevant to the settings you are changing.


If that interface is not your thing, a more traditional interface is provided as well, one that does offer a bit more tweaking options too. If you like both, you can switch between the two interfaces very quickly by pressing "F1". The first page you are greeted with here in the more traditional format gets right to business, with all clock- and voltage-tweaking options out in front, nicely organized into well laid out menus.


CPU-specific options, memory clocks and controller options, and memory timing options each get their own page, all of them offering pretty much every setting needed to get the most out of your system.


Voltage options are laid out in the same type of order, with first controller options, then specific settings for each area. I'm a bit disappointed to see a lack of PCH voltage control here, but as I have seen this board attain decent extreme clocking results in the past, clearly this option isn't as relevant as it has been with previous platforms.


The memory voltage section has a fair bit of options, but most aren't needed for day-to-day use. The monitoring page is also here, and contains SmartFan adjustments as well, although you can only set options for the CPU_FAN header on its own, while all other fan headers are grouped together under the same user-adjustable control scheme. The last page here shows PCIe options, allowing the type of link to be manually set if needed for compatibility reasons.


The "System" and "BIOS Features" tabs are pretty straight forward, containing options for time, date and drive options under "System", well, "BIOS Features" is pretty obvious, containing boot and other BIOS-level options.


The last three tabs are just as elegantly laid out, with "Peripherals" containing options for onboard devices, "Power Management" with Wake and Stand-By options, and "Save and Exit" contains saving and exiting options, boot override, and BIOS profile-saving features.

When it comes down to making things simple and easy to understand, Gigabyte has come a long way in optimizing their BIOS in such a way that makes what is really hundreds of options seem like very few. This to me is quite simply amazing and impressive, since Gigabyte has not been offering products with AMI UEFI BIOSes for even a year so far, as Gigabyte's first AMI UEFI implemention appeared in Intel X79 Express products which launched this past November, just eight months ago. Even though this BIOS implemention is still in its infancy, it sure doesn't feel like it, and quickly explains why it took Gigabyte so long to jump on the AMI UEFI bandwagon when nearly every other board maker on the market had already done so.
I really have to commend them for this, as although there was a slight hiccup with the Gigabyte Intel X79 Express product launch, this BIOS offered in the Intel Z77 Express products seems leaps and bounds ahead of its older X79 Express counterparts. The only thing that they could improve here is to perhaps offer a bit more explanation as to what each setting does, and why it's important to the end user, as we have seen some other manufacturers provide. When it comes to ease of use, and compatibility, and responsiveness, the G1.Sniper M3's BIOS is ready for battle whether in the hands of a seasoned veteran clocker, or just the regular every-day user.