How fast does your PC boot?

[Gat Pelsinger]

This is not a general survey. Recently, I've realized how fast the boot time is when you have a simpler firmware and hardware. Here by "boot time", I also mean the time taken to POST. I currently use a laptop which doesn't have gaming hardware so it is a very simple machine. It takes about 2 to at most 3 seconds to post, but boot time is a different thing. My SSD is currently bloated so for a full boot it now takes 3 circles of the Windows boot animation, but when the system was new, it took only 1.5 circles and with fast startup, literally didn't even give time for the circle to load up.

 

I compared this to an HP EliteBook who has a much more complex firmware, and POST takes significantly longer (I guess less than 10 seconds) and even Windows boot took longer (but it has a SATA SSD).

 

Heck, on my older Dell laptop, it literally takes like a little more than a second to POST and start loading the OS.

 

I've heard recently that DDR5 systems take way longer to POST. Is this true? And why? How does your POST and boot time look like, I want to know.

[filpo]

8 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

This is not a general survey. Recently, I've realized how fast the boot time is when you have a simpler firmware and hardware. Here by "boot time", I also mean the time taken to POST. I currently use a laptop which doesn't have gaming hardware so it is a very simple machine. It takes about 2 to at most 3 seconds to post, but boot time is a different thing. My SSD is currently bloated so for a full boot it now takes 3 circles of the Windows boot animation, but when the system was new, it took only 1.5 circles and with fast startup, literally didn't even give time for the circle to load up.

 

I compared this to an HP EliteBook who has a much more complex firmware, and POST takes significantly longer (I guess less than 10 seconds) and even Windows boot took longer (but it has a SATA SSD).

 

Heck, on my older Dell laptop, it literally takes like a little more than a second to POST and start loading the OS.

 

I've heard recently that DDR5 systems take way longer to POST. Is this true? And why? How does your POST and boot time look like, I want to know.

My 5700U HP laptop posts in about 2-3 seconds but boots in around 7. My desktop posts in about 5 and boots in 15. Not bad tbh

 

9 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

Is this true?

yes, at least what I've seen

 

9 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

And why?

It's due to newer systems (DDR5 being the newest) having more complicated memory training 

More info below

[GuiltySpark_]

5800x/B550i STRIX is button press to login screen in roughly 12 seconds. 

 

7800x3D/X670E Taichi is button press to login screen in roughly 33 seconds. 

[TatamiMatt]

21 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

This is not a general survey. Recently, I've realized how fast the boot time is when you have a simpler firmware and hardware. Here by "boot time", I also mean the time taken to POST. I currently use a laptop which doesn't have gaming hardware so it is a very simple machine. It takes about 2 to at most 3 seconds to post, but boot time is a different thing. My SSD is currently bloated so for a full boot it now takes 3 circles of the Windows boot animation, but when the system was new, it took only 1.5 circles and with fast startup, literally didn't even give time for the circle to load up.

 

I compared this to an HP EliteBook who has a much more complex firmware, and POST takes significantly longer (I guess less than 10 seconds) and even Windows boot took longer (but it has a SATA SSD).

 

Heck, on my older Dell laptop, it literally takes like a little more than a second to POST and start loading the OS.

 

I've heard recently that DDR5 systems take way longer to POST. Is this true? And why? How does your POST and boot time look like, I want to know.

 

10 minutes ago, filpo said:

My 5700U HP laptop posts in about 2-3 seconds but boots in around 7. My desktop posts in about 5 and boots in 15. Not bad tbh

 

yes, at least what I've seen

 

It's due to newer systems (DDR5 being the newest) having more complicated memory training 

More info below

My system usually take arond 40 second for bios time and around 1 full minute, sometimes more from when i press my power button til im on my desktop/lock screen. Though MSI boards have been tested to have the longest boot time on AM5 and DDR5 adds to that even more

[TatamiMatt]

Just now, GuiltySpark_ said:

5800x/B550i STRIX is button press to login screen in roughly 12 seconds. 

 

7800x3D/X670E Taichi is button press to login screen in roughly 33 seconds. 

What motherboard are you using for AM5?

[GuiltySpark_]

1 minute ago, TatamiMatt said:

What motherboard are you using for AM5?

I mentioned it above but X670E Taichi

[TatamiMatt]

2 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

I mentioned it above but X670E Taichi

 Im blind apparently 

 

Is that last bios time or did you time it yourself?

[filpo]

4 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

My system usually take arond 40 second for bios time and around 1 full minute

I couldn't believe that on my system

 

4 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

Though MSI boards have been tested to have the longest boot time on AM5 and DDR5 adds to that even more

Really? do you know why?

[TatamiMatt]

3 minutes ago, filpo said:

Really? do you know why?

I not sure but hardware unboxed tested it out

 

[GuiltySpark_]

1 minute ago, TatamiMatt said:

I not sure but hardware unboxed tested it out

 

The problem with that is things change over time with BIOS updates and settings. 

 

Personally, I have a completely anecdotal theory that in general X670 takes longer to boot than B650. 

[TatamiMatt]

1 minute ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

The problem with that is things change over time with BIOS updates and settings. 

 

Personally, I have a completely anecdotal theory that in general X670 takes longer to boot than B650. 

gimme 10 minutes and ill time my boot

[Average Nerd]

42 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

How does your POST and boot time look like, I want to know.

My laptop takes about 2 seconds to get to the splash screen, and 12 seconds to reach the login screen.

It's using DDR5-4800 RAM.

(And Win11 Home)

[goatedpenguin]

Using Vanilla Arch Linux with 12700KF + MSI Z690 Edge Wifi DDR4 boots up at around 10 seconds give or take. Very snappy, I could make it go faster if I disabled the grub timer but I don't deem that necessary.

[Gat Pelsinger]

35 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

 

My system usually take arond 40 second for bios time and around 1 full minute, sometimes more from when i press my power button til im on my desktop/lock screen. Though MSI boards have been tested to have the longest boot time on AM5 and DDR5 adds to that even more

 

Jesus my hard drive will boot faster than that.

[TatamiMatt]

4 minutes ago, Gat Pelsinger said:

 

Jesus my hard drive will boot faster than that.

52 seconds from button press to lock screen

 

which @GuiltySpark_s asrock board boot time and my MSI times line up with graph results pretty well

[GuiltySpark_]

1 minute ago, TatamiMatt said:

52 seconds from button press to lock screen

That was my X670E system around Zen4 launch back in October 2022. Many BIOS updates since then and its down quite a bit. 

 

Does your board have a POST code readout to verify for certain that memory training is or isn't happening at every boot? Memory Context Restore enabled? 

[TatamiMatt]

5 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

That was my X670E system around Zen4 launch back in October 2022. Many BIOS updates since then and its down quite a bit. 

 

Does your board have a POST code readout to verify for certain that memory training is or isn't happening at every boot? Memory Context Restore enabled? 

Memory training is happening, i dont mind the extra load time, but no, just LED debugs on my board, and im running a less than most recent BIOS as MSI had an issue where some BIOS's disabled their M.2_2 slot. I havent checked if there is a new BIOS with the M.2 working, i believe mine is from mid october 23 as thats the latest BIOS at the time with a working M.2_2

 

Also havent been arsed to go into BIOS to turn on memory context restore but youve motivated me now to actually go do it 

[GuiltySpark_]

2 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

Memory training is happening

Fixing that would help a bunch.

[TatamiMatt]

11 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

Fixing that would help a bunch.

As i said i wasnt really bothered by it so i saw no reason to turn it off, but ~24.5 seconds this time around

[TatamiMatt]

9 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

As i said i wasnt really bothered by it so i saw no reason to turn it off, but ~24.5 seconds this time around

 

21 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

Fixing that would help a bunch.

Nevermind, had to turn it back on, froze once and proceeded to BSOD twice after a restart