Gigabyte AM5 Motherboards Also Pull More Than 1.3V On The SoC Even With New BIOS

Following ASUS's controversial BIOS firmware handling for its AMD AM5 motherboards, it looks like Gigabyte might be in the same boat.

Despite releasing two BIOS Firmware for its AM5 motherboards, ASUS was called out for not actually having fixed the issue by GamersNexus. The company's overall handling of the situation wasn't necessarily great and led to many problems. ASUS even had a disclaimer on the firmware page that using a BETA BIOS will result in the warranty being void which the company removed after facing major backlash.

“Warning” has been removed. https://t.co/N2nPRWZdyO pic.twitter.com/Et8hoKcrOT

— HXL (@9550pro) May 13, 2023

All of this started when ASUS rushed out to roll two BETA BIOS updates following the AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU and motherboard burnout issues. While AMD had root caused the issue and asked the motherboard vendors to release a preliminary BIOS update to limit the SoC voltage to 1.3V, most new BIOS failed to hit that limit.

The limit was exceeded when running EXPO memory which meant for 100% burn-free operations, users either had to make sure that the new BIOS worked as intended or not use EXPO at all.

Not just that, there were some other restrictions and thermal updates coming in a new AM5 BIOS firmware however it was noticed internally that these BIOS's had various bugs ranging from EXPO to memory compatibility issues (just to name a few). ASUS had two BIOS which had the same issue. There were also reports of CPUs and motherboards very recently despite the new BIOS being out.

Now, a new report has emerged based on testing by Hardware Busters who have found out that ASUS isn't the only one who has misled customers. In testing done by the tech outlet using the Gigabyte AORUS Master X670E motherboard, it was seen that with EXPO enabled, the board sipped more than 1.3V. Following is what Gigabyte states on its support page:

Using the older F7 BIOS without EXPO, a voltage of  1.04V was reported but as soon as EXPO was enabled, the same board sipped 1.416V when running Prime95. The new BIOS claims to have fixed and limited the SoC voltage but even with the F10D Firmware installed, the voltage still exceeded 1.3V to 1.361V.

Gigabyte AORUS Master X670E Motherboard (F7 & F10D) SoC Voltages With EXPO Enabled (Credits: Hardware Busters):

As you can see above, the SoC voltages definitely aren't being limited to 1.3V which means that ASUS & Gigabyte are definitely misleading their customers to think that they are safe and then proceeding to not offer any warranty support after the install the new BIOS since they are BETA. EXPO is a major marketing feature for the AM5 platform and it's also part of AMD's fault to allow users to buy expensive DDR5 memory sticks only for them to cause permanent damage to the PCs when enabled. A good explanation of this is done by Der8auer in the following video:

Once again, it is worth waiting for the newer BIOS which is now expected to roll out later this month but we can't say for sure whether that will be the end of all the issues that customers and loyal fans face on AMD's AM5 platform.