Asus has added an XMP/EXPO warning discover to its newest motherboard BIOS updates. Historically, these sorts of notices have been added to alert customers to the risks of CPU overclocking. Nonetheless, within the wake of the AMD Ryzen burnout saga, Asus has determined to make it exceedingly clear that XMP and EXPO are reminiscence overclocking functionalities. Clearly, Asus, on this explicit case, and as noticed by Twitter’s HXL, desires to do its finest to make its clients conscious that overclocking is not coated by the guarantee.
Pictured above is an instance discover from a just lately up to date Asus motherboard. HXL notes that that is BIOS 1410 for an unspecified Asus motherboard. The important thing phrase is: “Enabling XMP/EXPO to vary reminiscence/voltage exterior of Intel or AMD-published specs could be thought-about overclocking.” It goes on to say that XMP/EXPO speeds should not assured on account of a variety of system variables. The message is that each one overclocking, whether or not for the CPU and/or reminiscence, void guarantee protection.
Is it honest for Asus so as to add this reminiscence overclocking warning? Firstly, reminiscence overclocking, be it XMP or EXPO, has by no means been coated by guarantee by both Intel or AMD. Nonetheless, Asus was in all probability as stunned as many others seeing burned-out and bubbled-up AMD CPUs seem. Furthermore, there hasn’t beforehand been a transparent, sensible hyperlink between CPUs/motherboards getting broken on account of reminiscence overclocking. There may be fairly a fancy set of energy relationships at play inflicting the harm we’ve got witnessed.
ASUS is now getting sensible.（BIOS 1410） https://t.co/SZCaliQn8N pic.twitter.com/MTtHWSx0F5April 30, 2023
Asus has a big roster of engineers and different consultants who needs to be sniffing out these sorts of points earlier than they hit shoppers. It has been proven that the extreme CPU and motherboard harm is well reproducible with out esoteric settings, and we all know Asus had overclockers pushing the most recent AMD CPUs and motherboards for fairly a while earlier than normal availability. Furthermore, Asus is an enormous promoter of EXPO reminiscence overclocking, with promoting, product pages, and FAQs highlighting EXPO benefits (opens in new tab) — which want updating with acceptable warnings.
To know why the ASUS overclocking warnings have been prolonged to reminiscence overclocking, you’ll be able to take a look at our article from final week, which incorporates the newest data from AMD and companions concerning the new BIOS recordsdata created to repair hardware-endangering points. In short, AMD has delivered AGESA updates to motherboard companions, which is able to put a 1.3V restrict on SoC voltage when an EXPO reminiscence overclocking profile is engaged. AMD has said {that a} 1.3V restrict will not materially affect overclocking headroom.
Overclocking in any type wasn’t beforehand supported, however the brand new BIOS notices make it very clear that options like XMP / EXPO are literally overclocking applied sciences. It’s in all probability a matter of time till different distributors observe Asus with comparable notices and pop-ups of their BIOS and utilities.