X-bit labs

ATI Radeon Xpress 200P for Overclockers: Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 Mainboard Review (page 11)

Category: Mainboards

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 09/02/2005 | 10:27 AM ]

BIOS and Overclocking

Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 mainboard was tested with the latest BIOS we had at the time of our test session. The BIOS version dated back to August 19 2005.

The BIOS of Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 mainboard is based on standard Award Phoenix microcode and doesn’t have any special treats at first glance. However, this is only the first impression. The engineers decided not to change the BIOS Setup interface that much and didn’t add any brand name technologies of doubtful meaning. Instead they did their best to make sure that the user can access all the features of the system components through BIOS Setup. We consider it to be an absolutely correct and efficient approach. This is exactly what all overclockers want the BIOS to be like.

When we studied the Setup of Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 mainboard, we recalled our experience with the overclockers’ favorite DFI LANParty UT NF4 Ultra-D, for instance. The thing is that Sapphire’s mainboard boasts the same rich set of adjustable options, if not more. The memory configuring page and processor configuring page contain the fullest list of options, which is precisely what overclocker’s look for.

There is the whole page devoted solely to memory overclocking and configuring. It is DRAM Configuration page, where you can adjust a great variety of parameters and not just the major timing settings.

I have every right to state that the BIOS Setup of our mainboard is as functional as the popular A64 Tweaker utility.