Gigabyte X99-UD4 Firmware
Gigabyte’s M.I.T. menu continues as a launch point for multiple submenus, where actual adjustments can be made.
Our processor is cable of approximately 4444 MHz at 1.30 V, fully loaded, with an actual result of 4451 MHz on the X99-UD4 thanks to its slight rounding error of our selected 101 MHz BCLK.
Because Haswell-E’s top DRAM practical data rate multiple is 26.66 times base clock, the X99-UD4 attempted to reach our memory’s rated DDR4-3000 at 125 MHz x 24. Following a boot failure, we tried reducing the BCLK in 1 MHz steps, eventually giving up on the 1.25x BCLK strap.
Somewhere in the middle of all that is where X99-UD4 overclocking falls apart. Every boot failure resulting from too-high of a BCLK triggered the motherboard’s “Corrupt BIOS” detection, causing it to automatically reflash the main firmware ROM from an old firmware image on the backup ROM. There is no workaround for this, as the board doesn’t have a way to disable the feature (for manual CLR_CMOS) or even a simple jumper to select between ROMs. Over an hour of re-updating firmware with the correct image finally got us to the point where we could define a DRAM limit of DDR4-2832 at the board’s highest-stable "1.00x strap" base clock (106 MHz) and a memory data rate ratio of 26.66x.
CPU-Z showed that the 1.30 V firmware setting produced the expected voltage, and RealTemp confirmed similar overclocking temperatures compared to the two competing products.
