GA-990FXA-UD5 Living Review

[bw]

Just as an info. There is no problem with memory on this board. I mean running in any config 1,2,3,4x 2GB and 4GB sticks. Fast test on 4x4GB G.Skill 1600 that is working now on 1.5V

[absic]

Yes, I noticed that memory compatability has been improved with the F5 BIOS.

I'm running 16 Gig of Corsair Vengeance LP Black 1600MHz 1.5V. With earlier BIOS version the PC wouldn't BOOT if I tried to run the RAM at it's rated speed but, with the F5, it runs OK.

[bw]

I'm still on F5c.

[bw]

there is new bios F6D on official site:
 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3891#bios

Update AGESA 1.1.0.0 code

Date is 2011/09/28 but I haven't seen it week ago.
I didn't even check official F5 and probably will test some more when I get BD.

Just wanted to let you know in case if anyone missed this update

[bw]

there is new bios F6D on official site:
 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3891#bios

Update AGESA 1.1.0.0 code

Date is 2011/09/28 but I haven't seen it week ago.
I didn't even check official F5 and probably will test some more when I get BD.

Just wanted to let you know in case if anyone missed this update

It's weird to quote myself but can't find edit button so I wish only add that I tested F6D and it's fixing some SATA3 problems. For me it's +200MB/s in RAID0 on 2x M4 64GB

 

[Dark Mantis]

there is new bios F6D on official site:
 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3891#bios

Update AGESA 1.1.0.0 code

Date is 2011/09/28 but I haven't seen it week ago.
I didn't even check official F5 and probably will test some more when I get BD.

Just wanted to let you know in case if anyone missed this update

It's weird to quote myself but can't find edit button so I wish only add that I tested F6D and it's fixing some SATA3 problems. For me it's +200MB/s in RAID0 on 2x M4 64GB

 

You can't edit your post after 4 hours. So once written you have four hours to edit and do what you want to your post after which it becomes set in stone!

[bw]

@Dark Mantis
thanks for info

Yesterday I got FX-8120 cpu and I have no big problems to boot @5GHz but under load I have so big vdrop that I can't even make stable 4.5GHz ( and I won't set voltage ~1.65V at idle ). Vdrop is from about 0.1 to 0.2V. Even when I set something lower but cpu power exceedes 125W then throttling is turning on and clocks are dropping to about 2.8GHz. I haven't seen cpu temps above 59*C so it's not cooling for sure.
I know there is beta bios for UD7 board with LLC options ( that is almost the same as UD5 ) and there is some way to turn off throttling ( I saw somewhere soft fix but don't remember where  ).
If anyone have beta bios fixing some from above issues please post or pm me.

[absic]

Have you tried the latest F6 BIOS from the download page? http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3891&dl=1#bios

[bw]

I checked F6d and F6. I see no difference between these 2.
I found tip about throttling somewhere here -> http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/zardon/amd-fx-8150-black-edition-8-core-review-with-gigabyte-990fxa-ud7/24/
" ... Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 has no bios setting to disable APM (Application Power Management). Without this disabled, the motherboard will maintain the TDP limit when overclocking or overvolting above the limits. As a result APM will throttle some of the cores back to lower Pstates during heavy, multithreaded workloads reducing performance.
...
To get around this, we have to use AMD OverDrive software. We enable TurboCore, apply, then disable TurboCore … this in effect also disables Application Power Management."  I have to check that when I back home.

We will have to wait for new bios with LLC options. I sent mail to gigabyte today about beta with LLC...

[derobert]

that looks good i think... i used 3x Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ in RAID 0 and Windows drivers which, as u said, are better than drivers from AMD ;-)

Hi its me again! I was boring and launched same crystalmark that i launched after fresh install of W7 on my raid.

Now its this:


Its almost 2 times slower! What on the earth happened? Can i diagnose it in some way? Will RAIDExpert help? I have still the same Windows AHCI Drivers (I think). It is cause of that disk have more files on it so it is getting slower? Plz help, it makes me sad One thing i changed is bios, i have newest F6.

And why the graph in HDTach is so much "up-down-up-down" (dont know how to say it in english). Does the drives have some sort  of problem maintaining more steady speed?

[bw]

Try latest AMD drivers. It looks like you have IDE mode and AHCI isn't working.
Go to BIOS , enable RAID5 and Install latest drivers from AMD site: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx

Today I got F7a beta bios from Gigabyte. Will check how it's working when I back from work.

[absic]

Hi Derobert,

Overtime, as the RAID array fills with data, it will slow down but I wouldn't expect it to drop off by as much as nearly 50%. My first guess would be that it is due to the F6 BIOS and it might be worth going back to the F5 to see if that improves things again.

Also check your RAID settings haven't been altered when you flashed the BIOS, they shouldn't have done so but double check to make sure, especially with the stripe size that you are using as this may have defaulted to a lower setting.

[derobert]

Hi guys, i just checked whats going on, so lets see:

When i enable "SATA RAID5 Support" and set "SATA Port 4/5 Type" on "As SATA Type", disk on SATA4 port won't be detected, SATA5 port is detected, then Windows crashes on loading and computer reboot. Something is clearly wrong... To boot to windows i must set sata4/5 on IDE and disable RAID5 support.

Update: i changed bios to F5 and now windows won't boot only when RAID5 is enabled. Disks are "as sata type" and Windows boots. I also confirm that Write/Read speeds changed to 340/399 on F5! There is definietly something wrong with F6 bios.

[bw]

When you enable RAID5 in bios then system is using other driver ( or at least it's looking for new devices that probably need a bit other driver ). When it won't find any good then probably wont boot. I just used the same profile that I had on F5,  moved it to F6d and later moved it to F6 ( even that there is info that bios is different and it can fail etc ). All is working also on F7a beta but really I see no difference between F6 series and F7a so I don't know what they changed.
For me best is 2x SSD in raid0 on ports 2/3 , optical drive in IDE mode on 4/5.

[derobert]

For me best is 2x SSD in raid0 on ports 2/3 , optical drive in IDE mode on 4/5.

So you use SSD's? I have regular SATA2 drives, maybe there is the difference... Anyway absic told me that he had problems with F6 too so i am not the only one Lets hope it will be fixed in F7. Can you send me this F7 bios? I will test it. Thanks.