990FXA-UD3 Firmware
Gigabyte’s Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker menu opens to display vital component statistics, while several submenus allow actual adjustment.
The Advanced Frequency Settings submenu provides base clock and multiplier controls, including core multiplier, northbridge multiplier, DRAM multiplier, and HT Link frequency. Unfortunately, we found that the board does not block out invalid CPU northbridge ratios, such as those below the DRAM data rate. Additionally, with northbridge ratios spaced exclusively at 200 MHz intervals and DRAM ratios spaced at 266.6 MHz, few of the ratios are identical.
Furthermore, the board lacks any DDR3-2400 ratio. If, for example, you want to set DDR3-2400 by increasing base clock at the DDR3-2133 ratio, you’ll need to start out with a northbridge ratio for 2,200 MHz, a reference clock of 225 MHz, and hope that the resulting 2,475 MHz CPU northbridge frequency doesn’t crash the processor. In our case, it does.
The Advanced Memory Settings submenu provides a redundant memory multiplier control that, like the one in Advanced Frequency Settings, is selectable to match Intel XMP settings. Below that, setting DRAM Timing Selectable to Quick provides linked timing adjustments, while setting it to Expert mode allows per-channel timing manipulation.
Primary and secondary timings are individually adjustable or left in automatic mode, which is tied to the chosen DRAM configuration (XMP or SPD).
A simplified voltage menu gives users access to CPU core, CPU NB core, DRAM, HT Link, PCIe, PLL, and 990FX voltage levels. We found that Regular Vcore Loadline Calibration kept our CPU voltage consistent through shifting load levels, and that a DRAM voltage of 1.615 V corresponded to a meter reading of 1.650 V.
