BIOS Setup

ZOTAC nForce 790i-Supreme mainboard, like other mainboards using reference design use BIOS on Phoenix-Award code. There are no built-in reflashing tools, like those on ASUS or Gigabyte mainboards. However, there is WinFlash utility that allows easily reflsashing the BIOS from Windows operating system even without a floppy drive. We tested the board with the latest BIOS version available at the time of tests: P05.

Advanced Chipset Features section contains a lot of useful overclocking friendly options.

The first subsection on the list is System Clocks. It allows changing the processor clock frequency multiplier and the information field will immediately report the resulting frequency. You can change the PCI-E bus frequencies, separately for two side PCI Express 2.0 x16 implemented by the chipset North Bridge and the middle PCI Express 1.0 x16 slot provided by the South Bridge. You can change the basic frequency of the HyperTransport bus between the chipset bridges as well as the data transfer rate from the North Bridge to the South and the other way around. Moreover, you can enable and disable Spread Spectrum for processors, HyperTransport bus, PCI Express buses from the North and South Bridges of the chipset and for Serial ATA.

FSB & Memory Config section allows setting the desired front side bus and memory bus frequencies. FSB speed is reported in quadrupled values and changes from 400 to 3000MHz, i.e. from 100 to 750MHz FSB in conventional measuring units.

In Unlinked mode we can set the memory frequency to any number from 400 to 2500 (!) MHz with a very small increment. In Linked mode there are only three dividers to choose from:

The corresponding information fields will report the resulting values after every frequency change, so it is very easy and convenient to work with the FSB & Memory Config subsection.

P1 and P2 parameters maybe set to Auto or Enabled. They appeared only in the latest BIOS version that is why there are no descriptions of these parameters in the paper and electronic mainboard manuals. And Memory Timing Setting parameter opens a separate page with adjustable memory timings.

As you see, the features a superb: there are a lot of adjustable parameters, each can be changed independently of the rest, all the current and resulting values are immediately displayed.