sehlat
I've got one more question for anyone who who knows anything about older Asus motherboards. My Asus Rampage III GENE is currently still using BIOS revision 0501. It came that way from the builder. The Asus website currently lists several BIOS revisions above that, mostly for newer CPU's and memory. I'd like to know if I need to update the BIOS in order to run a GTX 1070, or even a GTX 980ti, or can I leave it alone? I'm really hesitant to flash the BIOS and potentially brick my motherboard or spend hours resetting everything back in the BIOS just to upgrade my video card. I had no trouble upgrading from the noisy GTX 480 that originally came with the system in 2011 to the current GTX 680 that I'm using now.

You'd be better off posting this question on an Asus-centric site. Good luck.

I posted this question on the ASUS ROG forum board. Haven't gotten a response yet. I guess my motherboard is so old that no one has an answer.

Get the card you want (I'd go with a FTW 1070 or 1070 SC in your case) and just try it in your rig.  If your system fails to POST or if the card seems to be underperforming, then you'll probably be looking at updating your mobo's BIOS.  Before I did that though, I would follow the advice of visiting ASUS forums and asking for advice/help.  Updating the BIOS on any board is nothing to be taken lightly.  Although it may be trouble free and easy on your board, there is always the chance of a bad flash and a creating new motherboard shaped paperweight.

hapkiman
Get the card you want (I'd go with a FTW 1070 or 1070 SC in your case) and just try it in your rig.  If your system fails to POST or if the card seems to be underperforming, then you'll probably be looking at updating your mobo's BIOS.  Before I did that though, I would follow the advice of visiting ASUS forums and asking for advice/help.  Updating the BIOS on any board is nothing to be taken lightly.  Although it may be trouble free and easy on your board, there is always the chance of a bad flash and a creating new motherboard shaped paperweight.

Well, I did get a reply over at the ASUS forums. There's no problem with installing a new 1070 and there's no having to update the BIOS to do it thankfully. Only with either memory changes or CPU changes. I certainly don't want a motherboard-shaped paperweight either, at least until I can afford a new system. I'm still looking at an HSF version EVGA card, like the 1070 Founder's Edition or Hybrid version. My case is pretty small and I might have trouble with a card dumping it's heat into the case instead of out back, like the ACX versions do.

I hang out at the ASUS forum enough as I've been using their MB's for years. Get the GPU that you want and be ready to update the bios on your Asus Rampage III GENE. You might or might not have to but it will be in your best interest flash the bios to the newest version anyway!

Then maybe you can answer a question for me Heini2 since you've used ASUS MB's. In the ASUS instructions for updating the BIOS, it says to check "default settings" before you leave the EZ Flash program. What I'd like to know is, how does a user keep track of the original settings the BIOS had before doing the update? There are A LOT of settings in the BIOS and I have nothing written down to keep track if things are changed. That's my only worry is having to set everything back to the way it was, page by page, after doing the flash. That also means that I need some way to write down all the original settings, page by page, beforehand.

selhat,  I don't overclock except for XMP so my changes are minimal. When I say be prepared to flash the bios it is a 'just in case' situation, just have the newest bios on a thumb drive in case. I know of no way to save bios settings to an external source (not that it can't be done) so I would go page by page and write things down as I found them. Sorry I can't be of better help.

Smart phone or camera..................take pictures of the screen page by page....................

Thanks everyone. I'll just take pictures with my Android pad, page by page, as a record of the settings if I have to flash the BIOS. The only issues I might run into is that I swapped out the old OS spinner drive for a Samsung EVO SSD a few years back and I had to change things, like disable that hobbled Marvel controller in order to switch to the Intel controller. In this case, I want to make sure to keep my changed settings.
 
By the way Heini2, the new BIOS file comes as a .ROM format. Will that work for with my older MB's BIOS or do I have to convert the file? I think I read that somewhere in my searching.