EdgyBloke
The only 2 issues I can confirm and reproduce as of now is the ring lock and the 30mV extra supplied voltage. 2.04 has specific improvements for A-die. If you are on M-die there isn’t much point to upgrade.

Well, that is definitely not true for me. I was able to dramatically increase my memory overclock with M-die. On 2.03 I max out at 6800 stable, 7000-7200 benchable. On 2.04 I was able to run it 7800. MASSIVE improvement for M-die. Just the messed up ring clock for me and kind of flakey changes in behavior that I had to figure out. I look forward to using 2.04's replacement once EVGA sorts out some of the bugs.
 
This is my generic green M-die modules with no XMP profiles or heatsink, or RGB rubbish (all manual overclock).
 
https://hwbot.org/submission/5135405_
 
 
------------------
Also the spread spectrum thing needs to be fixed. When I set a multiplier, I expect my CPU to run at that speed, not a little bit less. That was an issue introduced with 2.04.
 

I’m not entirely sure what causes the weird standby power state that I observed a few days ago, but the fan thing was on me. I realised I hadn’t checked the input for the fan. I’m glad at least that I found the issue but I feel like an idiot now.

Unfortunately I’m not getting anything done on 2.04. My old 7400 settings no longer work and 7600-7800 error after maybe 10-20% in the best of cases and adjustments don’t seem to help stability. I really don’t know. Honestly feel like selling everything and quitting by this point. I just don’t understand how nothing runs.

EdgyBloke
That’s good to hear. As for spread spectrum I’ve never had access to and nor has it ever been enabled on any BIOS revisions. I have asked EVGA to include it in 2.05, so with luck they will.

They've never had it showing in the menu settings, but never needed it because it was set to 0% (disabled) behind the scenes.  I don't need it showing in a menu if they will set it correctly in menu options they have hidden. I have unlocked hidden menus for other things not related to overclocking in the past on EVGA BIOS, or for troubleshooting things they missed the mark on. (Enabled them to fix a couple of settings on Z490 Dark and Z590 Dark.) They are normally excellent at applying overclock-focused default settings on hidden menus. Good example is the maxed out power limits. No need to access those menus like you can on a competitor's motherboard because they've already maxed them out. The only reason I have ever accessed those settings on my ASUS and MSI boards is to max them out. I am kind of surprised that they missed the mark this much on this Z690 Dark BIOS update. I am normally very pleased with their firmware configuration.

Zero939
Ask for ring voltage as well please. Can't believe we don't have that lol.

I am surprised by that as well. I agree, we should ask for it. I do not like having it in sync with vCore. My chintzy Strix Z690-E has it, so there is no reason this superior product would not have it.

zippytek
Pretty sure cache voltage is available in the efficient cores submenu. Not sure why they put it there but that’s where it is if memory serves

That should be the voltage for the E-cores.

I realise now that over the last few days I’ve been expecting the world from EVGA. I want too much out of my 13700K and my cheap A-die on a platform that received support last-minute. I should’ve come to expect that I’d need to fine tune even the VDD2 rail now.

I guess I’ve just been so out of practice and I got really comfortable with the Dark and my old 12900K/M-die that just seemed to be up and running after no more than 4 hours.

I feel really bad tbh. I can’t believe I didn’t check my fan temp source, and then I made a big deal about it thinking it was the PWM control. I also probably should’ve jumped straight to VDD2 testing.

rulik006

Mr. Fox

EdgyBloke
The only 2 issues I can confirm and reproduce as of now is the ring lock and the 30mV extra supplied voltage. 2.04 has specific improvements for A-die. If you are on M-die there isn’t much point to upgrade.

Well, that is definitely not true for me. I was able to dramatically increase my memory overclock with M-die. On 2.03 I max out at 6800 stable, 7000-7200 benchable. On 2.04 I was able to run it 7800. MASSIVE improvement for M-die. Just the messed up ring clock for me and kind of flakey changes in behavior that I had to figure out. I look forward to using 2.04's replacement once EVGA sorts out some of the bugs.
 
This is my generic green M-die modules with no XMP profiles or heatsink, or RGB rubbish (all manual overclock).

M-die at 7800, impressive 
interesting how far Samsung B-die oct/nov batch will go

12900K cant run anywhere close on mdie.. 13th gen has massive memory ucode improvements by the looks of it.

 

rulik006

Mr. Fox

EdgyBloke
The only 2 issues I can confirm and reproduce as of now is the ring lock and the 30mV extra supplied voltage. 2.04 has specific improvements for A-die. If you are on M-die there isn’t much point to upgrade.

Well, that is definitely not true for me. I was able to dramatically increase my memory overclock with M-die. On 2.03 I max out at 6800 stable, 7000-7200 benchable. On 2.04 I was able to run it 7800. MASSIVE improvement for M-die. Just the messed up ring clock for me and kind of flakey changes in behavior that I had to figure out. I look forward to using 2.04's replacement once EVGA sorts out some of the bugs.
 
This is my generic green M-die modules with no XMP profiles or heatsink, or RGB rubbish (all manual overclock).

M-die at 7800, impressive 
interesting how far Samsung B-die oct/nov batch will go

babayega

rulik006

EdgyBloke
The only 2 issues I can confirm and reproduce as of now is the ring lock and the 30mV extra supplied voltage. 2.04 has specific improvements for A-die. If you are on M-die there isn’t much point to upgrade.

M-die at 7800, impressive 
interesting how far Samsung B-die oct/nov batch will go

12900K cant run anywhere close on mdie.. 13th gen has massive memory ucode improvements by the looks of it.

6800 is the max on my 12900KS in the ASUS mobo. It's benchable at that speed, but needs to be dropped to 6400 to avoid errors, but that is partially memory silicon quality. The generic M-die sticks on my Dark mobo will run 6800 stable on the ASUS board. The silicon lottery sucks, and it is brutal. We should stop putting up with it. I've started returning items as "defective" whenever I encounter inferior silicon. I've done it with memory and CPUs. I'm not going to settle for garbage if I pay retail.

Jomama22

Zero939
Ask for ring voltage as well please. Can't believe we don't have that lol.

There is no such thing as 'ring voltage' or 'ecore voltage'. The ring voltage and ecore voltage is vcore, pure and simple. This is the way the chip is designed.

Cache voltage is 'L2 cache' voltage for the cache hanging off the ecore clusters.

That is it.

Whatever we want to call it, and whatever purpose it serves, the setting is missing in the EVGA firmware and should be added.

 

EdgyBloke
The only 2 issues I can confirm and reproduce as of now is the ring lock and the 30mV extra supplied voltage. 2.04 has specific improvements for A-die. 

I've just noticed that my 13900K E-cores are being capped at 46x on the Dark mobo. BIOS is set to 47x but the value is ignored and only 46x is applied. Unacceptable. Needs to be corrected. Tried using Per Core and Ratio Limit options. Same either way.
 
  
  
Is this how we keep Dark mobo owners from competing with Vince, Luumi and CENS? I find it hard to believe this firmware got released with such debilitating issues, and doubt it would get their stamp of approval all buggered up like this.
 

Zero939

Zero939
That's wrong. There is such a setting. While they do share the same core voltage setting by default... It's an option in Intel XTU and has been in throttlestop forever. I've used it with every chip. Comet lake, tiger lake. Alder and raptor lake.

I can use throttlestop to offset core voltage and I know it works because I stop crashing. Cache is very sensitive and can easily cause data corruption. This setting needs to be added.

Same here. It is very beneficial. ASUS BIOS has it. No reason EVGA can't make it available.

Mr. Fox
 

rulik006

Mr. Fox

EdgyBloke
The only 2 issues I can confirm and reproduce as of now is the ring lock and the 30mV extra supplied voltage. 2.04 has specific improvements for A-die. If you are on M-die there isn’t much point to upgrade.

Well, that is definitely not true for me. I was able to dramatically increase my memory overclock with M-die. On 2.03 I max out at 6800 stable, 7000-7200 benchable. On 2.04 I was able to run it 7800. MASSIVE improvement for M-die. Just the messed up ring clock for me and kind of flakey changes in behavior that I had to figure out. I look forward to using 2.04's replacement once EVGA sorts out some of the bugs.
 
This is my generic green M-die modules with no XMP profiles or heatsink, or RGB rubbish (all manual overclock).

M-die at 7800, impressive 
interesting how far Samsung B-die oct/nov batch will go

babayega

rulik006

EdgyBloke
The only 2 issues I can confirm and reproduce as of now is the ring lock and the 30mV extra supplied voltage. 2.04 has specific improvements for A-die. If you are on M-die there isn’t much point to upgrade.

M-die at 7800, impressive 
interesting how far Samsung B-die oct/nov batch will go

12900K cant run anywhere close on mdie.. 13th gen has massive memory ucode improvements by the looks of it.

6800 is the max on my 12900KS in the ASUS mobo. It's benchable at that speed, but needs to be dropped to 6400 to avoid errors, but that is partially memory silicon quality. The generic M-die sticks on my Dark mobo will run 6800 stable on the ASUS board. The silicon lottery sucks, and it is brutal. We should stop putting up with it. I've started returning items as "defective" whenever I encounter inferior silicon. I've done it with memory and CPUs. I'm not going to settle for garbage if I pay retail.

Jomama22

Zero939
Ask for ring voltage as well please. Can't believe we don't have that lol.

There is no such thing as 'ring voltage' or 'ecore voltage'. The ring voltage and ecore voltage is vcore, pure and simple. This is the way the chip is designed.

Cache voltage is 'L2 cache' voltage for the cache hanging off the ecore clusters.

That is it.

Whatever we want to call it, and whatever purpose it serves, the setting is missing in the EVGA firmware and should be added.

 

EdgyBloke
The only 2 issues I can confirm and reproduce as of now is the ring lock and the 30mV extra supplied voltage. 2.04 has specific improvements for A-die. 

I've just noticed that my 13900K E-cores are being capped at 46x on the Dark mobo. BIOS is set to 47x but the value is ignored and only 46x is applied. Unacceptable. Needs to be corrected. Tried using Per Core and Ratio Limit options. Same either way.
 
  
  
Is this how we keep Dark mobo owners from competing with Vince, Luumi and CENS? I find it hard to believe this firmware got released with such debilitating issues, and doubt it would get their stamp of approval all buggered up like this.
 

yea evga bioses are questionable. evga is also way too slow. they just dont have the manpower and resources. we test for them pretty much tbh .. they dont do extensive testing whatsoever. i am pretty sure whoever approved to release 2.04 bios never turned the ecores on (ring glitch isnt present with ecores disabled). 

On classified and 12 gen nothing? i trying now all same
classi/m-die/12700k
6600 c30 max
 

zippytek

Mr. Fox 
Is this how we keep Dark mobo owners from competing with Vince, Luumi and CENS?  

they've been running z790 for months. what in the world are you carrying on for? open a ticket and go for a walk, jeez

So, what you are saying is the new BIOS OC profiles that have Vince and Luumi's names associated with them are not from them?

babayega

zippytek
 
we had multiple 2.xx cucked bioses. this is not acceptable. every time they fix something, something else breaks... its a never ending cycle.. my expectations from evga is an all time low now.. will be switching to the apex soon. 

I agree, but I have had so many issues with ASUS mobo failures, I probably won't be doing that. Maximus, Apex and Rampage boards have all failed on me and required RMA, and the last Apex I owned (Z490) killed an amazing 10900K sample when it died. The last Rampage board I owned caught on fire (literally) ASUS warranty support is absolutely horrible. They are a lousy company, and their software (Armory Crate) is utter trash. Oddly enough, I haven't had reliability issues with their less expensive Prime and Strix mobos. It is only their most expensive enthusiast products that have a long history of reliability problems for me. But, their warranty service is horrible for everything other than their server products for business customers. Consumers are treated like trash.

zippytek
i understand, but we both understand this has been an ongoing issue since z690 dark released. so with this knowledge, a reasonable person figures out which bios is the best for their needs and sticks with this until something better comes along, no? that's what i did and stuck with 1.09 until the 2.00 beta released. 2.02 is very solid and would be my choice until they fix the cache issue in 2.04. but i'm not coming to the forums and blasting hate to "evga" which is really made up of hardworking engineers and support staff that go to work every day like you and i. a little patience goes a long way.

and i agree with your stance, if you're unhappy with a product, the best way to voice it is with your wallet. asus has their own issues, but so far i've been lucky with my z790 apex. it did arrive with the widespread bending, but with the heat sinks removed both channels are strong and i was able to get a nice fullpot session with minimal effort. 2021 rev apex was a total nightmare, though. thing sat in my closet for better half of a year before i finally rma it for a working 2022 rev. hardware issues are much worse and way more frustrating to deal with than bios/software.

and one more time, i'll risk beating this dead horse before i exit this thread until they release the cache fix in 2.05...there is simply no reason to run 2.xx bios version on this board if you're running alder lake. if you have a-die and want to push it to the limits, you're still kneecapped by alder lake imc, which scores in the 40s in the asus mc sp calculator. you may see some performance gains, but the folks in here whining about this or that not working...you don't have to update to the latest bios! there are plenty of stable bios versions. my choice is 1.09, but 1.15 is widely accepted as a strong bios for 12th gen.

good luck to everyone in their quest for stable and successful oc's

I agree that this is not the place for whining. Pointing out flaws so they can be corrected is not whining. As you can see from my signature, I am a huge advocate for EVGA, and will continue to be. In my opinion they stand head and shoulders above their competitors. But, I won't hesitate to let them know what they need to fix. My comment "Is this how we keep Dark mobo owners from competing with Vince, Luumi and CENS?" is humor and sarcasm.
 
A lot of Dark owners have been waiting for a firmware update that is optimized for A-die. We have it now with 2.04, and it does great things for M-die owners as well, but there are some bugs that would have been good to have worked out before releasing it. They weren't, and it is not complaining to point out what needs to be fixed that wasn't fixed before releasing it. If we want the bugs fixed, they need to be pointed out or it won't happen because they obviously didn't find them on their own.
 
Once they have fixed the things that are goofed up in 2.04, I will happily move up from 2.03 to 2.0X. If everyting works right, I iwll unlock the hidden menus and continue enjoying all of the benefits of being an EVGA customer.
 

TheAffxct
If this is A-die optimised then I dunno. On 2.03 I was having a very decent time running 7400. There were a few issues here and there, but it was solid. On 2.04 I can’t stabilise anything. Even XMP set with auto IMC voltages and the data rate adjusted to 7000 won’t run. That’s insane. I did that experiment just to see if it was me typing in stupid settings for the last 2 days, but no. The closest I’ve got to stable has been a similar batch of settings to my 7400 tune from 2.03, but I keep hitting these bunched errors. Either 32 or 64 at a time. 7200 is no easier to stabilise. By this point I’m seeing people rave about how good this BIOS is and I don’t even know what to think. Am I going crazy?

No, you're not going crazy. I think it is obvious that 2.04 isn't right. I've gone back to 2.03 because there are several thing broken in 2.04. It is not stable for me, and when I tweak things enough to make it stable, the cache and e-core limitation, and loose BCLK spread spectrum are still things that make it not worth using. But, EVGA is very good about taking care of things and I have every reason to believe they will based on my experience with them as a customer. They have always taken care of business, so no reason to think it will be different here.

Because ELEET X1 is hot garbage and doesn't do about 90% of what XTU does. 

Mr. Fox

TheAffxct
If this is A-die optimised then I dunno. On 2.03 I was having a very decent time running 7400. There were a few issues here and there, but it was solid. On 2.04 I can’t stabilise anything. Even XMP set with auto IMC voltages and the data rate adjusted to 7000 won’t run. That’s insane. I did that experiment just to see if it was me typing in stupid settings for the last 2 days, but no. The closest I’ve got to stable has been a similar batch of settings to my 7400 tune from 2.03, but I keep hitting these bunched errors. Either 32 or 64 at a time. 7200 is no easier to stabilise. By this point I’m seeing people rave about how good this BIOS is and I don’t even know what to think. Am I going crazy?

No, you're not going crazy. I think it is obvious that 2.04 isn't right. I've gone back to 2.03 because there are several thing broken in 2.04. It is not stable for me, and when I tweak things enough to make it stable, the cache and e-core limitation, and loose BCLK spread spectrum are still things that make it not worth using. But, EVGA is very good about taking care of things and I have every reason to believe they will based on my experience with them as a customer. They have always taken care of business, so no reason to think it will be different here.

Thank you for saying that because lost is not an adequate word to describe where I am. I literally don’t know what galaxy I’m in anymore. This config with this BIOS makes me question everything.

Guys sorry for going a bit of topic here, but I've moved my windows 11 drive from an asus z690 extreme to this z690 dark and just noticed that memtweakit, asrock timing calculator and Thaiphoon burner don't work.
Memtweakit with only the about tab, asrock timing gives an access violation error and Thaiphoon says it is being blocked by antivirus but they all used to work without problems.
Could this be a windows installation problem?
 
TheAffxct are you from South Africa? I'm from Angola, and lived in Cape Town from 97-98, did my Std 9 and Matric there.