Page 4 - BIOS and Test System
Once I fired up my PC, I mashed "Delete" on my keyboard until I entered the BIOS. You can also hit F2 if you want, as both enter the BIOS menu. This will always enter EZ Mode, as seen in the above screenshot. Here, you will find quick hardware monitoring data such as motherboard information, temperatures, CPU voltage, and fan speeds. You can change the boot order on the side. You cannot adjust voltage and fan speed here. This is for users who wish to enter Advanced Mode only, which is a standard GUI version of the American Megatrends BIOS. We will go over that in just a moment.
Before we begin, I updated the BIOS using ASUS' EZ Flash 3. EZ Flash 3 is an integrated feature for the user to flash their BIOS safely and easily. You can update using an image from any USB flash drive. With the ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi, you can also flash the BIOS without needing a CPU installed, which is handy. This method uses the Flashback button on the back of the motherboard. The sample we received came with the launch version BIOS, and I have updated it to the 1001 BIOS without any issues.
It should be no surprise the ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi's BIOS looks remarkably like previous ProArt motherboards, including the ProArt Z690-Creator WiFi I reviewed a few years back. However, you will notice there is even more tweaking than you can do with the BIOS here, as we can overclock both the CPU and memory. If you have used ASUS products in the past, you will be quite familiar with the Ai Tweaker, as shown in our series of screenshots above. You can change anything by inputting the values directly from your keyboard, so you will not need to scroll through a lengthy list of numbers to find what you need. Alternatively, you can also hit the "+" or "-" keys on your keyboard to increase or decrease the selected value, respectively. At the bottom of the screen, the allowed voltage range and increments are here as you highlight the option you want to modify, which I find helpful.
The following voltage ranges and increments are allowed:
CPU Core Voltage 0.625V to 1.550V @ 0.005V increments
CPU SOC Voltage 0.625V to 1.300V @ 0.005V increments
CPU VDDIO/MC Voltage 0.800V to 2.000V @ 0.010V increments
Misc Voltage 0.630V to 1.700V @ 0.010V increments
VDDP Voltage 0.700V to 1.800V @ 0.001V increments
DRAM VDD Voltage 0.800V to 2.070V @ 0.005V increments
DRAM VDDQ Voltage 0.800V to 2.070V @ 0.005V increments
VDDG CCD Voltage 0.650V to 1.650V @ 0.010V increments
VDDG IOD Voltage 0.650V to 1.650V @ 0.010V increments
I have included more screenshots from sections under Ai Tweaker, which is DIGI+ VRM and Tweaker's Paradise. From Tweaker's Paradise, the following voltage ranges and increments are allowed:
1.8V PLL Voltage 1.500V to 2.500V @ 0.010V increments
1.8V Standby Voltage 1.500V to 2.500V @ 0.010V increments
Misc_ALW 0.600V to 1.500V @ 0.010V increments
Chipset0 VDD Voltage 0.800V to 1.400V @ 0.005V increments
Chipset1 VDD Voltage 0.800V to 1.400V @ 0.005V increments
CPU 3.3V 2.800V to 4.000V @ 0.020V increments
Other overclocking specific submenus are under Ai Tweaker, including CPU Core Ratio (Per CCX), DRAM Timing Control, Precision Boost Overdrive, Core Flex, and AI Features. Overall, the usage experience of ASUS' UEFI BIOS is sufficient. One thing I did find strange is that there is another set of pages for overclocking that is under the Advanced tab. It is not entirely clear which one you should be using, but from my research, both are usable, with the Ai Tweaker being more for within warranty changes, and therefore are less extreme. Even so, the control interface is smooth, and screen transitions are flawless. I am quite happy with the amount of voltage control the ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi provides.
One new addition to ASUS' UEFI BIOS is the added Q-Dashboard. This shows all the different hardware that the motherboard recognizes at boot time. You can hover over different headers, back I/O, and slots, and the specific hardware will show up on the right side. I was also impressed that it recognized my different peripherals connected. I really like this addition, because it makes for easy diagnosis when various things are not recognized, helping you quickly pinpoint any problems in the future. It also means you will find problems earlier without needing to install your operating system. All in all, this is an excellent addition that is present with all new ASUS motherboards.
ASUS offers extra software utilities that can be useful. The first one is a real-time IT monitoring and management tool called Control Center Express. This allows system administrators to handle one or more systems remotely. Control Center Express allows for hardware and software monitoring. It can execute tasks like remote power cycling, blacklisting software, scheduling tasks, restricting registry changes, preventing unknown USB connections, and more. The Control Center Express is exclusive to ASUS' ProArt, CSM, and Pro motherboards. Another utility is called AI Advisor. In the same way users might use ChatGPT to ask questions, AI Advisor provides answers for your specific system. It is based off of ChatGPT and ASUS ROG large language model and users can ask natural language inquiries about their system to get results that are tailored for their motherboard's features and specifications. It also hooks into the UEFI BIOS to make direct configuration changes for the user.
Our test configuration using the ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi is as follows:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
CPU Cooling: be quiet! Dark Rock Elite
RAM: Lexar ARES RGB DDR5-6000 2x16GB
Graphics: EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING
Chassis: Endorfy Arx 700 ARGB
Storage: Lexar Professional NM800 PRO 2TB, Kingston NV3 2TB
Power: be quiet! Straight Power 12 1200W
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (24H2)
I did not include any other motherboards for results comparison, because any minor motherboard performance differences are usually due to manufacturers giving slight overclocks to the CPU at default settings. Instead, I have included the results of all benchmarks, including testing of various subsystems, to verify the ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi is within the expected performance range.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Bundle and Chipset
3. Physical Look - Hardware, Board Layout
4. BIOS and Test System
5. Benchmark: AIDA64
6. Benchmark: Cinebench 2024
7. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 11
8. Benchmark: PCMark 10
9. Benchmark: 3DMark
10. Onboard Sound Frequency Analysis
11. Thermal Measurements and Overclocking
12. Conclusion
