Should I update my BIOS?

[Mr. Question Asker]

An update of BIOS is available for my motherboard, currently, my system is running fine, but I am confused, it says it will improve performance and change CPU microcodes!

 

Any advice for me?

 

(Screenshot)

 

 

[SolarNova]

"if it aint broke dont fix it"

[Mr. Question Asker]

Just now, SolarNova said:

"if it aint broke dont fix it"

Ok, Thanks for the reply!

 

By the way, I have an issue in my Computer, sometimes it freezes with the buzzing-freezing sound that is fucking annoying, that was not happening before, is it a Windows bug, I tried reinstalling Windows too!

 

Please help me bro!

[SolarNova]

Could be any number of things, best to make a new post asking for help so mroe peopel see it.

[Mr. Question Asker]

Just now, SolarNova said:

Could be any number of things, best to make a new post asking for help so mroe peopel see it.

Okay! and Thank you

[Mira Yurizaki]

12 minutes ago, Mr. Question Asker said:

An update of BIOS is available for my motherboard, currently, my system is running fine, but I am confused, it says it will improve performance and change CPU microcodes!

"Improved system performance and stability" is a horribly generic thing to say. For all we know, they may have fixed a bug that happened once in blue moon when a cosmic ray from Alpha Centauri hit just the right SRAM cell in cache.

 

CPU microcode updates are typically to fix issues that happen in the most extreme of edge cases, but this was likely some sort of Spectre/Meltdown patch.

[Cyberspirit]

I'm pretty sure that the Microcode update is for Spectre and Meltdown so, I'd update it.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Mr. Question Asker said:

Ok, Thanks for the reply!

 

By the way, I have an issue in my Computer, sometimes it freezes with the buzzing-freezing sound that is fucking annoying, that was not happening before, is it a Windows bug, I tried reinstalling Windows too!

 

Please help me bro!

Does the sound come from your PC or, from your audio devices? Is anything overclocked in your system?

[Mr. Question Asker]

1 minute ago, Cyberspirit said:

I'm pretty sure that the Microcode update is for Spectre and Meltdown so, I'd update it.

 

 

Does the sound come from your PC or, from your audio devices? Is anything overclocked in your system?

Suppose, If I am watching a video or playing a game it just freezes for 2-3 seconds and makes a very bad sound!

 

I have not overclocked anything and my CPU is locked (i5 8400) and the graphics card is at default setting!

[Cyberspirit]

9 minutes ago, Mr. Question Asker said:

Suppose, If I am watching a video or playing a game it just freezes for 2-3 seconds and makes a very bad sound!

 

I have not overclocked anything and my CPU is locked (i5 8400) and the graphics card is at default setting!

My best guess would be that the GPU is crapping out. Make a new thread about it in troubleshooting so more people can help ya.

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/46-troubleshooting/

[Mr. Question Asker]

9 minutes ago, Cyberspirit said:

My best guess would be that the GPU is crapping out. Make a new thread about it in troubleshooting so more people can help ya.

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/46-troubleshooting/

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me brother, appreciate it  (I will make a new post on Troubleshooting)

[Mister Woof]

depending your board, microcode updates might contain spectre/meltdown fixes.

 

In that case, you will lose some performance but you'll be protected.

 

whether or not you should update for that reason, is up to you.

[X_X]

6 hours ago, Plutosaurus said:

depending your board, microcode updates might contain spectre/meltdown fixes. In that case, you will lose some performance but you'll be protected.

Kind of conflicts with "2. Improved system performance and stability"

 

Would have thought Spectre fix would have been addressed earlier so maybe this is a better fix that mitigates some of that performance loss. With such an outright ambiguous description who knows.

 

OP, check your BIOS settings and make a copy you can refer to, make a backup of your current BIOS and if rolling back is supported I would suggest giving it a go. I guess your running Gigabyte with dual BIOS so should be okay, if your comfortable doing it.

[Mister Woof]

13 minutes ago, X_X said:

Kind of conflicts with "2. Improved system performance and stability"

 

Would have thought Spectre fix would have been addressed earlier so maybe this is a better fix that mitigates some of that performance loss. With such an outright ambiguous description who knows.

 

OP, check your BIOS settings and make a copy you can refer to, make a backup of your current BIOS and if rolling back is supported I would suggest giving it a go. I guess your running Gigabyte with dual BIOS so should be okay, if your comfortable doing it.

 

Later updates to that mitigation might minimize the mitigation impact that earlier versions applied.

 

I can tell you my Z370 board was manufactured before the fixes, and after finally recently updating my bios to the newest, I lost measurable CPU performance.

 

Example in SOTTR benchmarks:

 

Before Meltdown/Spectre:

 

After Latest Meltdown Microcode BIOS update:

 

Average FPS went up but frame time got worse.

 

CPU renders took a big hit.

[X_X]

??? Yes, I am aware of the performance losses which is why I said it conflicts with the BIOS description in the Op's first post.

[Mister Woof]

3 minutes ago, X_X said:

??? Yes, I am aware of the performance losses which is why I said it conflicts with the BIOS description in the Op's first post.

But it doesn't always.

 

If say F10 was the first meltdown fix, and it nerfed performance by say 10% and a later release say F12, only nerfed performance by 7%, then the statement "improved performance" is correct.

 

So if he had no fixes going to the newest might be worse

 

But if he had the first fix, going to the new one might help.

 

This hypothetical.

[X_X]

Okay 

[Mr. Question Asker]

6 hours ago, Plutosaurus said:

 

Later updates to that mitigation might minimize the mitigation impact that earlier versions applied.

 

I can tell you my Z370 board was manufactured before the fixes, and after finally recently updating my bios to the newest, I lost measurable CPU performance.

 

Example in SOTTR benchmarks:

 

Before Meltdown/Spectre:

 

After Latest Meltdown Microcode BIOS update:

 

Average FPS went up but frame time got worse.

 

CPU renders took a big hit.

Oh then I will not update!

[Mister Woof]

4 hours ago, Mr. Question Asker said:

Oh then I will not update!

You might not get protection, though.

[Mr. Question Asker]

Just now, Plutosaurus said:

You might not get protection, though.

Yeah, you are also right!

 

But can you tell me how much performance decrease will I get after updating and please tell me why it is nurfing the performance in-order to fix malware problem?

[Mister Woof]

3 minutes ago, Mr. Question Asker said:

Yeah, you are also right!

 

But can you tell me how much performance decrease will I get after updating and please tell me why it is nurfing the performance in-order to fix malware problem?

This is a year+ old, so new BIOS patches may have mitigated some of the........mitigation-related performance hits.

[Mr. Question Asker]

1 minute ago, Plutosaurus said:

 

Oh, Thanks buddy for the video link, I will watch it and sorry for my POTATO English! 

[Mr. Question Asker]

15 minutes ago, Mr. Question Asker said:

Oh, Thanks buddy for the video link, I will watch it and sorry for my POTATO English! 

Alright, so according to this video, BIOS update will not destroy the performance, its very tiny like 1 to 4% percent, so upgrading the BIOS is a better choice I guess NOW!