Bad BIOS for 9800X3D CPU

Using X670 Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX mobo and installed latest BIOS FB3g. Installed 9800X3D CPU and rebooted. CPU started using 75% utilization on all threads just installing a game on Steam and temp went to 180F (Corsair H150i 360 LCD AIO cooler). Never had this on any of my AMD CPU builds before. Running new Indiana Jones game also shot temp up to steady 180F.

Used HWINFO64 to look at the CPU and noticed almost all options were RED X, including SVM which I use for VMWare. Checked the BIOS setup and SVM was not an option. Installed previous BIOS FB3f. Lo and behold, SVM was an option again. Configured the BIOS for EXPO, SVM, no integrated graphics, and rebooted.

This time HWINFO64 reported most CPU options were GREEN X, including SVM.

Still have high utilization on all threads during Steam game installation (only about 40% for EPIC game installation to same drive). Indiana Jones now runs about 145F, where it ran on my 7800X3D.

Conclusion, BIOS FB3g for my board is a BAD BIOS. Users beware.

What prompted you to update your BIOS? Were you trying to fix an issue?

'Update AMD AGESA 1.2.0.2b, add new option of "Zen5 Gaming Optimizations"'. Just wanted to make sure the board was ready for the 9800X3D.

Still wondering of the FB3f has something wrong because the CPU shouldn't utilize 70% on all threads installing a game from Steam onto a SSD.

Wondering if I should create a new post: What's the best AIO cooler for the 9800X3D?

rzn6jw said:

'Update AMD AGESA 1.2.0.2b, add new option of "Zen5 Gaming Optimizations"'. Just wanted to make sure the board was ready for the 9800X3D.

Still wondering of the FB3f has something wrong because the CPU shouldn't utilize 70% on all threads installing a game from Steam onto a SSD.

Wondering if I should create a new post: What's the best AIO cooler for the 9800X3D?

Click to expand...

Oh, I see. Are you saying that the new CPU will not work with the previous BIOS? Or is it just for optimization? Why don't you roll back and check the performance?

I could go back to September's FB3b. That's still after 2 BIOS builds that 'support' the 9000 series. Will give it a try and come back here is about 2 hours.

Well, by reverting to the FB3b BIOS, the one previous to FB3f, it pretty much bricked my motherboard. Would boot to the Aorus logo and sit there. Tried to Q-Flash but the board wouldn't boot back into the BIOS load screen. Finally had to use the USB Q-Flash method to get FB3f loaded into the BIOS and that worked.

I guess I'll just have to wing it until the Ryzen 9s come out later this month.

rzn6jw said:

I guess I'll just have to wing it until the Ryzen 9s come out later this month.

Click to expand...

180F is only 82C. That's only a bit high. It should be about 70-75C under 100% load.
The 9800X3D is 120W CPU, which means it will get a bit hot.

Thanks for your input. Glad to know that the CPU isn't that much out of line temp wise. I'm using a Corsair H150i LCD 360 AIO cooler. Is there a better cooler out there for the 9800X3D?

As an aside, I just started Horizon Forbidden West for the 1st time on this CPU. The game went to compiling shaders and the CPU temp shot up to 192F and stayed there until they were compiled. Then the game started and the temp went to 172-176F while running. Maybe I don't know something about the 9800X3D but these temp extremes seem way out of line.

Is this normal for the 9800X3D or is my AIO not working correctly?

rzn6jw said:

Well, by reverting to the FB3b BIOS, the one previous to FB3f, it pretty much bricked my motherboard. Would boot to the Aorus logo and sit there. Tried to Q-Flash but the board wouldn't boot back into the BIOS load screen. Finally had to use the USB Q-Flash method to get FB3f loaded into the BIOS and that worked.

I guess I'll just have to wing it until the Ryzen 9s come out later this month.

Click to expand...

BIOS flashing these days are fail safe. No need to boot up to BIOS just to get it going. It does everything by itself via dedicated bios flash port. Some mobos like my 10 year ASRock Z97 have BIOS A & B where you can use one as a backup if the other one is bricked by just pressing BIOS A or B physical buttons.

Thank goodness for QFlash. The only hard part I had was finding the QFlash button on my motherboard. I was used to it being on the board near the power headers but this board has it on the bezel in back near the external USB ports.