How Well Is Gigabyte's Motherboard Support History? Is My Z490 Board Likely To Get Any More BIOS Upgrades?

Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma

Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
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I have a Gigabyte Z490 AORUS PRO AX motherboard, and the BIOS hasn't been updated in a while. Thing is, the latest BIOS updates added better support for Windows 11.... and fixed some "major vulnerabilities" that they highly recommend you update.

My issue is... that update also claims it changes the way the BIOS itself is written and once I update to it, I can no longer downgrade to any previous version.

That specific part is what worries me, since both the 10th gen and 11th gen Intel CPUs were rather lackluster, and now that 12th gen has been released and is doing well, I worry that Z590 and especially Z490 boards are just going to be ignored from now on, and mine ended up with the most recent BIOS both being a recommended onw for Windows 11 support and to fix security issues.... while also being one I can't downgrade from in case it gives me issues.

If Gigabyte continues to update this board I wouldn't be as worried, but my main concern is due to it being a 10th gen chipset and 12th gen being out now and how lackluster 10th and 11th gen were, that these boards will be ignored now and not get further upgrades. Anyone have any experience with how well or poorly Gigabyte tends to support older motherboards?
 
Generally, updates really fall off after a year or so of being on the market. GIGABYTE will update it if necessary going forward, but honestly I wouldn't expect to see much of anything on a board that old. I also think you are overvaluing the need to go back to older versions. Again, Z490 is pretty mature and its unlikely you would need to revert to an older BIOS after flashing to the latest one.
 
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Cyber Akuma said:
I have a Gigabyte Z490 AORUS PRO AX motherboard, and the BIOS hasn't been updated in a while. Thing is, the latest BIOS updates added better support for Windows 11.... and fixed some "major vulnerabilities" that they highly recommend you update.

My issue is... that update also claims it changes the way the BIOS itself is written and once I update to it, I can no longer downgrade to any previous version.

That specific part is what worries me, since both the 10th gen and 11th gen Intel CPUs were rather lackluster, and now that 12th gen has been released and is doing well, I worry that Z590 and especially Z490 boards are just going to be ignored from now on, and mine ended up with the most recent BIOS both being a recommended onw for Windows 11 support and to fix security issues.... while also being one I can't downgrade from in case it gives me issues.

If Gigabyte continues to update this board I wouldn't be as worried, but my main concern is due to it being a 10th gen chipset and 12th gen being out now and how lackluster 10th and 11th gen were, that these boards will be ignored now and not get further upgrades. Anyone have any experience with how well or poorly Gigabyte tends to support older motherboards?
Click to expand...
Gigabyte supports boards rather well historically. I’d expect another year or two of updates. BIOS isn’t generally updated often once it is stable. So the lack of updates isnt exactly a bad thing.

I’d suggest you wait a few weeks or months before updating, to wait to see if it has any major issues. If it does, Gigabyte will address it, but you’d hear about first on the interwebs.

Then I’d update.
 
You're right in that Intel doesn't release many firmware updates to old platforms once the new ones come out. Thing is with BIOS updates is unless you're having issues there's not much reason to update (and usually recommended not to do so) unless like you said there is a security problem.
 
From my understanding. It's important to update to this bios.

I need to update my x570 master

This is from my x570 master

• Major vulnerabilities updates, customers are strongly encouraged to update to this release at the earliest.
Credits to "Assaf Carlsbad and Itai Liba from SentinelOne"
• Introduce capsule BIOS support starting this version.

from z490

  1. Major vulnerabilities updates, customers are strongly encouraged to update to this release at the earliest.
    Credits to "Assaf Carlsbad and Itai Liba from SentinelOne"
  2. Introduce capsule BIOS support starting this version.
    Customers will NOT be able to reverse to previous BIOS version due to major vulnerabilities concerns.
z390 ultra

  1. Major vulnerabilities updates, customers are strongly encouraged to update to this release at the earliest.
    Credits to "Assaf Carlsbad and Itai Liba from SentinelOne"
  2. Introduce capsule BIOS support starting this version.
    Customers will NOT be able to reverse to previous BIOS version due to major vulnerabilities concerns.
 
What's the biggie here? I'll tell you how I handle BIOS. maybe something of this can help you.
First, I use flashrom to save my current BIOS into a file. Then I can use flashrom any time to put it back if I want to.
Second, my mobo has removable chip, meaning even if I screw up big time I do not need a soldering iron to get it fixed, just a USB programmer from eBay (cost a few bucks).
Third, the only security update in BIOS is the microcode for CPU, but I have latest microcode from Intel always built into my kernel for early loading, therefore I do not rely on BIOS security updates.
Code: 
 # dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xea, date = 2021-01-05
[    0.563658] microcode: sig=0x906e9, pf=0x2, revision=0xea
[    0.564261] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.
See, this is the latest microcode for my Intel i7-7700K. I suggest you use a modern operating system which can load microcode during boot.
 
Segfault said:
What's the biggie here? I'll tell you how I handle BIOS. maybe something of this can help you.
First, I use flashrom to save my current BIOS into a file. Then I can use flashrom any time to put it back if I want to.
Second, my mobo has removable chip, meaning even if I screw up big time I do not need a soldering iron to get it fixed, just a USB programmer from eBay (cost a few bucks).
Third, the only security update in BIOS is the microcode for CPU, but I have latest microcode from Intel always built into my kernel for early loading, therefore I do not rely on BIOS security updates.
Code: 
 # dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xea, date = 2021-01-05
[    0.563658] microcode: sig=0x906e9, pf=0x2, revision=0xea
[    0.564261] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.
See, this is the latest microcode for my Intel i7-7700K. I suggest you use a modern operating system which can load microcode during boot.
Click to expand...
The BIOS microcode way is less intrusive on the speed hit you will take. That is why it is recommended to update your BIOS in stead of relying on your OS in these cases.
 
This, dear Koldur, is b/s. The way how you load microcode is irrelevant. However, if microcode is loaded too late as it can happen with misconfigured OS then you can expect trouble. This is why I build it into kernel instead of loading later from userspace. It is paramount to load microcode before the system libraries are initialized.
 
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Segfault said:
This, dear Koldur, is b/s. The way how you load microcode is irrelevant. However, if microcode is loaded too late as it can happen with misconfigured OS then you can expect trouble. This is why I build it into kernel instead of loading later from userspace. It is paramount to load microcode before the system libraries are initialized.
Click to expand...
Ahhh, I missed the part about the kernel in stead of userspace. I know, back when the whole spectre/meltdown bug bomb exploded, it was said that fixes in the BIOS would result in higher performance. Seems that was about userspace updates.

Do you know if Windows has these microcode updates working from the kernel or the userspace? If the latter, then it still would be wise for most people to update the BIOS. And seeing your comment about misconfiguring it, it still might be the best way to update the BIOS. Which almost cannot go wrong on modern hardware, except when the power goes down during the update.
 
Koldur,

I was an IT manager and sysadmin for 8+ years when the computerization made its first steps into enterprises. In 2003 I quit because I could no longer stand MS. I promised to myself I will never install Windows again and I have kept this promise. Therefore I don't have a slightest clue what Windows does or does not. In Linux I can turn off all performance reducing mitigations when I need performance, I do video work which needs every bit of computing power and I take this calculated risk. See below.
Code: 
Architecture:            x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:         39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                  8
  On-line CPU(s) list:   0-7
Vendor ID:               GenuineIntel
  Model name:            Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz
    CPU family:          6
    Model:               158
    Thread(s) per core:  2
    Core(s) per socket:  4
    Socket(s):           1
    Stepping:            9
    CPU max MHz:         4500.0000
    CPU min MHz:         800.0000
    BogoMIPS:            8400.00
    Flags:               fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse s
                         se2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtop
                         ology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16
                         xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm a
                         bm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb invpcid_single ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept v
                         pid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx clflushopt intel_pt xsav
                         eopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp md_clear flush
                         _l1d
Virtualization features:
  Virtualization:        VT-x
Caches (sum of all):    
  L1d:                   128 KiB (4 instances)
  L1i:                   128 KiB (4 instances)
  L2:                    1 MiB (4 instances)
  L3:                    8 MiB (1 instance)
Vulnerabilities:        
  Itlb multihit:         Processor vulnerable
  L1tf:                  Mitigation; PTE Inversion
  Mds:                   Vulnerable; SMT vulnerable
  Meltdown:              Vulnerable
  Spec store bypass:     Vulnerable
  Spectre v1:            Vulnerable: __user pointer sanitization and usercopy barriers only; no swapgs barriers
  Spectre v2:            Vulnerable, IBPB: disabled, STIBP: disabled
  Srbds:                 Vulnerable
  Tsx async abort:       Mitigation; TSX disabled
 
Segfault Then I think it is better for the majority of people that use a computer to update the BIOS.

I know there are (or at least were for a long time) some updates that concern microcode updates that are ran in the userspace.

There was an article way back on this (where my "knowledge" comes from on this topic). But looking around on the almighty internet I cannot find any such article.
At least on the performance part, so it might have been an article that wasn't thorough on its information.
 
I would not worry about Gigabyte bios support, it has been pretty good. I have a Z370 board and they released the update so I could use resizable bar. Board was 3+ years old at that point I believe.
 
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