Phenom II X4 920 and Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 REV 2

Will a Phenom II X4 920 processor work with my Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 REV 2 motherboard. I have downloaded the latest motherboard BIOS (FHD). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, with the FHD bios this board will support the new Phenom II processors, however the hyper transport buss speed will be downgraded.

Which simply means you are not going to get the full memory bandwidth that you would on a AM2+ motherboard.

From the Gigabyte website under the product listing for this board.

"*Note: If you install AMD AM2+ CPU on AM2 motherbord, the system bus speed will downgrade from HT3.0(5200MHz) to HT1.0(2000 MT/s) spec; however, the frequency of AM2+ CPU will not be impacted. Please refer "CPU Support List" for more information. "

I have the same motherboard i did the bio's update drop in the 940 had some early issues any help or question please let me know

^ So you say the memory bandwidth is not affected, reputing what I just told the guy.
But in the very next sentence you state that there WILL be limited bandwidth if you are running a descrete video card.
Are you on drugs or something?

And there is quite a difference between Hypertransport 1 and 3.
If you browse the web, and use microsoft office, you won't ever notice the difference.
If you use applications that are memory intensive, like Photo Shop, Indesign, Gaming, or run a lot of multiple apps (which I would assume you do if you need a quad core processor in the first place) then you may wish to upgrade the motherboard as well. I would recommend it.

No i have tried to oc it yet messed with my memory timmings did not want to post unless they were auto settings?
for some other reason if i lock the heat sink down it wont post , have it locked down 3\4 with a pen cap and runs fine idles 30c with my frezzer pro temp from easy tune 5
My unreal and COD frame rates jumped from low 60's to mid 80's to 100s thats at 1900x1200 iam not a big mutli tasker
but i have played and ran antivirus and noticed no lag . I did feel my virus or spybot scans were a little faster and burning DVD's but there was no WOW factor I got my 940 on ebay for 209 free shipping but overall it was worth it i banged my head over getting a new motherboard and 1066 memory save the money and get the chip and a high end vid card or mid SLI cards. the 920 is still very good at 189.00 hell iam getting 50 buck for my BE 5000 on ebay and going to get a cool it water cooler for 60 bucks , another consideration with new motherboard you my need a clean install of your OS that was big on my list well please let me know how you make out sorry to ramble if i oc and or you do lets share BIO's setting thanks wayne

please keep me posted too thinking about upgrading from a x2 6000

Hiya, I'm recieving my 940 Black edition tommorow and have already updated to the FHd Bios. Ethernet adaptor working fine. I'll keep this thread updated

I'm working with a 90nm 6000+ the ga-m57sli-s4 an XFX GTX 260 XXX

I was hesitant about updating to the FHe as they've removed the 940 from the support list gonna be getting the chip this evening so I'll flash the bios over again and hope for the best. Gonna be doing some benchmarking before I do the switchover. Brought my 6000+ back down from 3.18 stock to 3 and ran the custom of benchmark and tonight I'm gonn run 3dmark 06 twice. Once with gfx at stock once with some serious overclockage. I'll post those results on here and retest with the 940 at 3.00 so you can see the architecture gain from Athlon 64 to Phenom 2
Gonna also try pushing up the voltage and seeing if I can get a tasty 3.6 out of it tonight. I know my board has a very interesting habit which could come in useful. If I set the CPU vcore in the bios to 1.55 it overvolts my 6000+ to 1.72v.
Scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it. I used to have a ga-m55s-s3 which don't do this but I killed it with a bad bios image flash. Won't do
That again. I'll keep updated with whatever oc I tweak out of the chip. Hoping 3.6 for 24/7 with 3.75 for benching. I'm cooling with a scythe infinity with two 120mm fans attached to it. Also got two psu controlled 80mm fans at the back and two at the front of the case also got my psu (bequiet dark power pro 650w) sucking air over it

I see, I'll pump the FHe in now and hope for the best when I make the change over.
Going to pick up the chip from the shop i work saturdays at (Rl supplies) at aboot half 5
I'm looking forward to it.

Edit, just booted on fhd and got limited or no connectivity, then went to gigabyte page and it said latest bios was fhd managed to find it through google in the end so just successfully flashed to it, just booted and network adaptor is working fine

Hiya. Never did pump down the changes in perfromance etc on this board.

I have the Phenom II 940 BE in this board. Upgraded from a Windsor 90nm 6000+ 3.0Ghz
So to start some benchmarks.



--------------------------
X3 - Terran Conflict
--------------------------

Video Settings During Benchmark:
Screen Resolution: 1680 x 1050 * [32], fullscreen
Using Shader Profile: 3.0
Antialias Mode: 4x
Anisotropic Mode: 8x

6000+ @ 3.0GHz
Scene "Trade" 25.9 average fps 8.0 minimum fps 55.0 maximum fps
Scene "Fight" 54.5 average fps 20.0 minimum fps 121.0 maximum fps
Scene "Build" 77.0 average fps 44.0 minimum fps 147.0 maximum fps
Scene "Think" 37.0 average fps 19.0 minimum fps 68.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 48.6 fps

940 @ 3.0GHz
Scene "Trade" 32.6 average fps 9.0 minimum fps 75.0 maximum fps
Scene "Fight" 71.2 average fps 25.0 minimum fps 170.0 maximum fps
Scene "Build" 97.4 average fps 56.0 minimum fps 148.0 maximum fps
Scene "Think" 43.1 average fps 24.0 minimum fps 72.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 61.1 fps

940 @ 3.6GHz
Scene "Trade" 38.7 average fps 12.0 minimum fps 89.0 maximum fps
Scene "Fight" 83.6 average fps 29.0 minimum fps 204.0 maximum fps
Scene "Build" 105.8 average fps 66.0 minimum fps 145.0 maximum fps
Scene "Think" 48.5 average fps 28.0 minimum fps 80.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 69.2 fps

Thats an Average 25.7% better performance at the same Clock Speed!

--------------------------
Far Cry 2
--------------------------

6000+ @ 3.0GHz
Average Framerate: 21.69
Max. Framerate: 27.41
Min. Framerate: 18.20

940 @ 3.0GHz
Average Framerate: 25.87
Max. Framerate: 32.47
Min. Framerate: 22.31

Again here we see another 19% Gain in performance, although here the test game is multithreaded so its possible this boost is due to greater utilisation of multiple cores.


I currently have it running at 3.6ghz @ 1.5v with 240*15 set in the bios (benched at 3.75 (link at end))
Im currently on Beta Bios. FHe and when i have more time i'll update to FHE and see if that fixes any of the following problem.I have (so far) not seen Cool&Quiet function on this board. IT sits at full speed (according to CPU-Z)
I have also been unable to use the unlocked multiplier, so have resorted to htt oc'ing. adjusting the multiplier (or even setting it away from auto) causes windows to display a black screen upon boot with just one white box (that you can move with your mouse)
The more concerning thing is the voltage CPU-Z & HWMonitor report the chip as recieving 1.71v when the BIOS is set to 1.5v. However A) the reported temperatues are not consistant with this voltage and B) im not sure those values are accurate anyway. (in BIOS reports other temps idle.) The temps its reporting in HWMonitor are 45 idle, 63 Load. But in the bios it says 31 idle. so the jury is out on that one. Really wanna try out the FHE bios (although Gigabyte are now adamant that the board does not support the chip) I emailed them and had a string of discussions about whether my chip was usable. They gave me a blank NO. odd since i was typing this message using the chip but oh well.
When overcloking i found that any voltage under 1.5v was unstable under prime. I also found that increasing htt anymore became prime unstable. However i have 3dmark06'd the machine @3.75 w 1.525v and got 18564 points XD

[url=http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=10369738][/url]

In summary yes it works and yes its very good. theres some OC'ing issues that need to be ironed out but appart from that fire away.
I'll update once flashed to FHE bios to let you know if any of the above issues are resolved.

I'm having a completely different problem. I upgraded to the FHE (I have rev 2.0) and suddenly I have insufficient power from my PSU. Using the 920 and 4890 gpu. I threw my old 8800GT back in and it boots fine. I downgraded the BIOS back to FF and now it boots fine using the 4890 again, it just doesn't recognize the cpu now.

My PSU is a Coolmax 600w w/ 32A on the 12v rail which should be enough (so I'm told). I would upgrade to a new PSU but I don't know if that will fix it, nor do I know if a new motherboard and my current PSU will fix it.

Gigabyte is telling me this cpu is not supported even though it is in the list of supported processors.

I could probably tell you why, the GA-M57SLI-S4 massively overvolts phenom II's with the newer BIOS versions, so draws massively more 12v current. Not good for the life of the board, or the Chip. I would advise changing the motherboard really. I have also contacted GIGABYTE and they tell me they have no intention of fixing the above issues

BTW if anyone reads this. FHH breaks the network adapter again
You now cant get FHE off the gigabyte website, if anyone needs it feel free to PM me

This thread seems to keep on going slowly, but it is!

Thought I'd give an update to fellow owners of the GA-M57SLI-S4 Rev. 2.0. It seems like, for some reason, Gigabyte decided to drop support for Phenom II 920 and 940 with this board. They probably want people to buy new motherboards (after all this mobo was released way back in 2006). I'm still a little pissed about this because I only bought my Phenom II 940 because, at the time, they listed it as being compatible. Today, if you inquire them about it they limit themselves to say it is not compatible. Pretty disappointing. Despite that, I've been using this board with the Phenom II 940, and since BIOS FHe, I haven't have any major issues with this board. Overclocking is still not optimal because of the overvolting problem, as it was described by madness 3d, so if you wish to overclock the 940 I'd suggest getting a different mobo.

If you don't intend to overclock, or at least do only a very modest overclock, this board is just fine for the Phenom II 920 and 940.

Gigabyte has put an AM3 logo on their page for this board, indicating that it supports some AM3 processors, but according to the compatibility list, the fastest AM3 processor it will support is the 925. I haven't heard from anyone trying to run the 945 or the 955 with this board, but my guess is that they should work, since they have the same TDP as the 940.

I tried the latest BIOS version FHj and it seems to have once again fixed the ethernet adapter issue re-introduced by FHH. Apart from that, I haven't noticed anything different about FHj.

So if you have this board and want to upgrade to a 920 or a 940, it will work just fine, just don't expect phenomenal overclocking results. If overclocking is a major point for you, go ahead and get a different mobo. Again, as far as higher end AM3 processors go (Phenom II 945, 955), I can't say for sure they're compatible, but my guess is that they are. This is just a guess though. If you want to try this theory yourself you'll be doing it at your own risk!

i'm getting the same boot problem. sits and re-reads the cd drive. i was worried it was a bad upgrade at first

Thank's for update Benjamin, i always wondered if 955 would work. but it doesn't matter 940 works just fine and the only difference is 200MHz which you can easily achieve overclocking 940. This motherboard rocks, of course it's not high end MB but for me as casual gamer more than enough, I'm very happy with it.

Well I don't have quad but if you read above you will see FHE is best version. I'm using it also cause it's fastest and most stable version from all other. My X2 5600+ works like a charm just like from my other two friends, we bought same MB at the same time in a same store back in 2007 and since than no one had any problems at all. Only problem is that board is too weak for higher overclock from 3.3GHz and above, 3+1 power phase just can't bring enough juice to cpu.
FG version is pretty old so of course quad won't work well and FHK is same thing just in even worst shape than FG. Trust me I tested every bios version thourally and only FHE rocks.

Anyone needs the FHE bios, this seems to be the guy right here

http://rapidshare.com/files/266341 [...] 2_SLIC.FHE

Yes but it's SLIC version, means it has been tampered for Vista/Win7 activation, work's fine but I prefer original

To give this thread a little bump, wanted to put out an update. So far the bios update FHE seems to be working for me as well. I'm using the official version provided on the above link by siky132. So far so good, computer seems nice and stable. CPUz is reporting 1.344 volts on the core of my Athlon x2 5200+ Windsor. Temps are mid 30's on the chip at near idle according to speedfan, note, due to any concerns about cool n quiet that we've heard about with these bios updates, this is with cool n quiet disabled as well, at stock speed on stock cooling.

Also as mentioned previously, I actually have an add in NIC card, so I'm using that as opposed to the onboard ethernet, I cannot confirm that the onboard ethernet works or does not work in this bios version as I'm not using it at this point.

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you guys know I've got a M57SLI-S4 Rev 2 and have recently upgraded from a Athlon x2 4000+ to Phenom II x3 720 BE. System is running well, no major issues, before I did the update I also installed Bios version FHK. I agree with the previous poster regarding the long delay for the computer to post at start-up with this new Bios but this is more an annoyance than a problem, no other issues encountered (touch wood). I have found the upgrade quite worth while, my system is definitely Video Card limited now.

I've added my system specs and some 3dMark06 CPU results below. The 4000+ overclock was quite a achievement, I had to battle the voltage creeping problem with these boards the whole way. I have not yet tried overclocking the new CPU, not much to be gained without a video card upgrade first. I'm happy to provide further details if anyone is interested.

System Specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte M57SLI-S4
CPU: AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE
RAM: 4gb GSKILL DDR2 800
VIDEO: Nvidia 8800GTS

3d Mark 06: CPU Score
4000+@stock: 1504
4000+@2.8ghz: 2013
720BE@stock: 3123

Thanks to all the posters, I found this thread very useful and it helped me make the decision to try the new CPU before running out to purchase a new motherboard. Thanks for you help!

Cheers,
Shaz_au

And one more thing I forgot to say now I have SLI on this mobo. Second 8600GT card was damn cheap (20$) and I always was curious how SLI would perform and results are just great. I know it's old card but I don't play games like I used to, maybe now and than so this card is fine for me. In 3dmark06 with single card score is 5500 at resolution 1280*800 and now with second it's 9500 so it's jump by more than 80%.
LINK
For example in NFS Shift I get 25-30 frames at 1280*800, AA-4x, everything at max except shadows are on medium.

according to this: http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Giga [...] _2.0).html

says that the borad does not support neither the PII 940 and 920 cpu

i have the same borad and i also planing to upgrade..

pd. i also wrote to the gigabyte´s support and they reply back saying that not support the PII 940 in particular

I wonder if it would work with the new Athlon x4. I am seriously debating that, haven't jumped to the 720 I wanted yet, but now thinking I might be happier with a Athlon 2 x4, maybe a little overclocking.

Just so you all know i've tried this board with an Athlon II 250 and it worked fine.
Only tested it very briefly though, i know it posts etc. but didnt have time to overclock it
Had to sneak my board into work and borrow a 250 for 5 minutes ^___^

Anyway i'm now running my 940 in an Asus Crosshair II Formula and its running perfectly
Now cooled by a Corsair Hydro H50-1
I'm running at 3.7Ghz as well which is nice ^__^ machine makes next to no noise at idle either (~400rpm fan speeds)

My GA-M57SLI-S4 is in my Brothers machine back with my old 6000+ although he's buying my 940 off me to go into the board (despite its minor incompatibilities) and I'm paying the difference for a C3 stepping 965

Interesting to see that at the moment all the 125w AM3 & AM2+ chips are all N/A, Even with the latest FHL Bios!
Although we all know that probably doesnt mean all that much

Here you go

http://www.mediafire.com/?hmzjgaw0jlz