Gigabyte's 8-Series Haswell Motherboard Tour [video]

[Sponsored Post]

Check out the video here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7004/gigabytes-haswell-motherboard-lineup-video

 

[Kougar]

I was seriously considering ASUS when upgrading my X58A-UD5 board, but this video showcasing the improvements in the UEFI interface as well as the use of IR3550 mosfets is what sold me on Gigabyte. That said my experience has not been as smooth or positive as I hoped, so I have a few comments to make for those considering buying in to Gigabyte with Z87.

• The High-Res UEFI interface shown in the video does not work on a 30" 2560x1600 display, just says not supported.
• About 2/3rds of the time when loading the UEFI the mouse cursor is extremely hyper-sensitive. When this happens the smallest movement of the mouse sends the cursor 2-3 inches across the screen making it extremely hard to click the small dropdown arrows to adjust any settings. Yet other times it works normally.
• Some UEFI settings are displayed in Classic mode, but are not displayed in Windowe Mode. Not all UEFI setting screens have a windowed mode either, some revert back to the classic UEFI interface
• EasyTune crashes when launched from the required App Center program. It hasn't worked once despite a clean uninstall / reinstall
• Fan control settings do not offer a complete range of RPM options, and without Easytune working there is zero way to set sepecific fan speeds.
• Q-flash still didn't detect a USB key regardless of port used when attempting to flash UEFI, had to resort to using @Bios.
• AppCenter window cannot be moved, about 50% of the time will start in the middle of the desktop and not docked at the lower-side corner.
• The new LED Post codes are more useless than those used on X58 boards. There is no postcode to show if motherboard has loaded the UEFI/BIOS, and is no code to show if it has successfully booted Windows. There is no code to show if it has completed all checks, period. (It instead displays A2 or A6 for the former, and A0 for the latter, all of which are listed relating to IDE/SCSI device init.)

For the post codes, let me elaborate. When I first powered on the system I had no monitor signal but I heard the POST beep. During this process the postcodes were always stopped on A0, A2, or A6. I spent over 30 minutes removing devices one at time, checking connections and cables, etc etc. I also changed the DVI connector from the GPU to the IGP, no change. I disconnected the HDMI connector from the GPU, and suddenly had a picture on my monitor. I then moved the DVI connector back to the GPU and again, I had a picture on my monitor.

I have no idea why the system would output an image only to a HDTV that is turned off instead of a monitor that is turned on, but whatever. My point is, the post codes mislead me to believe there was a initialization fault in the system, when the entire time the system had been booting into Windows, and after I reset the UEFI it was booting into the UEFI instead. On X58 the post code always changes to FF after it has completed all its checks and booted correctly, so this is a clear regression.

The video is proof Gigabyte is working on improving their products and has done so considerably since their X58 boards, but my continued experience with them would indicate that there is still a fair amount of polishing left to do before most things can be counted on to work as ideally as depicted in the video.

 

[CakeMonster]

• The High-Res UEFI interface shown in the video does not work on a 30" 2560x1600 display, just says not supported.
• About 2/3rds of the time when loading the UEFI the mouse cursor is extremely hyper-sensitive. When this happens the smallest movement of the mouse sends the cursor 2-3 inches across the screen making it extremely hard to click the small dropdown arrows to adjust any settings. Yet other times it works normally.

I'm quite happy with my Z87-D3HP so far, I've not yet oc'ed much, but I thought I'd comment on these two points. The high resolution UEFI did work for me on the Dell U3011, but not after I plugged in my 2nd monitor (U2711), then it defaulted to the lower resolution UEFI. My main monitor is on DLDVI, and the 2nd monitor is on DP, on a 7970. I can confirm the slow/lagging mouse pointer too.

 

[Kougar]

Cake, thanks for your feedback! I'm quite perplexed now, but given it works for you it must be some other issue than simply the resolution. It makes no sense to me why it would work on your Dell U3011 but not mine. I am also using the same monitor via a DLDVI connection, and currently it is the ONLY display plugged into my GTX 480.

 

[sin0822]

Interesting, I know it is hard to get used to a new platform, but do you mind if I try to shed some light on some of the issues you are having? maybe it will help.

I know that HD Mode does care about the type of input, like for instance a D-SUB connection between a GTX580 and a 1080P monitor wont work, but if you change it to HDMI it will work. I think maybe it needs to detect the resolution of the display, they are working on this as of now, but the thing is this UEFI is pretty big, even on a 24inch monitor b/c of its size the font is smaller than with non HD mode, so I actually like the non HD mode since the fonts are a bit bigger. Your GPU must also be supported, but they keep updating the list for older cards I am told. If you want to check if your GPU is not supported or if its your monitor, you can always use the iGPU outputs on the motherboard instead of your GPU, so unplug your GPU and then try to use one of those outputs.

With easytune crashing two things, make sure Intel ME Driver is installed(this is the management engine driver), also make sure that apart from you VGA driver and Chipset driver you also make sure no other hardware monitoring app is running. I have seen two users who said it wouldn't launch, one was fixed by installing the ME the other fixed it by closing hwmonitor.

The LED Post codes are part of the new AMI UEFI, everyone uses basically the same post codes, with A0 meaning that you are in windows and Ab means you are in the UEFI. I can help you with some others in case you want to know them, usually a hang on 15 or 51 means memory, 9A means BCLK wont go further. When you set a BCLK or a divider the system should go to 95 and then restart, when it restarts it should boot up fine. FF isn't around anymore as before GBT and others might have used AWARD BIOS, but now its only AMI as that is who Intel picked for their UEFI codes and they are much different than before. Also before you see video you should see the code 62 for GPU initialization, then you should see the BIOS screen. When in windows if you sleep or hibernate you will see either 03 or 04 after you recover from sleep or hibernation, this is normal.

QFlash requires FAT32 or FAT16 USB drives.

Classic mode will be around until they transfer all the things over the Windows mode such as BBS priorities, they are moving at a decent pace in making the Windows mode better.

The mouse sensitivity thing is being looked at, it actually differs BIOS to BIOS, I think it might be a good idea for them to put a setting in the UEFI for users to chose the sensitivity.

 

[Kougar]

Yes, but the only difference is the actual GPU... we have the same monitor using the same connector. A GTX 480 isn't exactly old yet, is I'd hate to imagine how many other cards are not supported if it is a question of GPU support...

The Intel Management Engine driver is the chipset driver, that's installed. I can turn off all monitoring tools and it still crashes.

A0 specifically says "IDE initialization has started" in the back of the manual, but I guess it's nice they're adhering to a standard now... seems odd to have that code at all since there's not a IDE controller left on the board.

 

[sin0822]

I am with you on the GPU thing.

Intel ME is not the chipset driver, it is one of the chipset drivers. There are two INF Update and Intel ME.

Yea A0 in the manual should say in OS or something similar lol