Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2 & Gigabyte 8I945P-G

Gigabyte's GA-8I945P-G BIOS Making it All Tick

From a BIOS standpoint, the Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G covered the bases well, especially with regards to overclocking options.  One of the added features Gigabyte is pushing with the GA-8I945P-G is their Q-Flash capability.  In essence, the board has two distinct BIOS chips as a fail-safe.  If for any reason the primary BIOS becomes corrupted, the system will default to the backup BIOS.  This can be a life saver if you lose power during a BIOS update, which can leave you with a dead board.

The remainder of the BIOS's strengths lie in the MB Intelligent Tweaker screen, but you'll need to hit CTRL-F1 to access the more advanced features.  Here, there are several avenues one can take when attempting to overclock the system.  The first option is the no-brainer method for those not looking to spend a lot of time fine tuning system settings.  Dubbed C.I.A.2, the system has five custom profiles that will adjust system performance in ever increasing degrees of intensity.  In this scenario, the system overclocking dynamically adjusts, increasing in times of heavy demand and throttling back to normal when not needed.  This is a useful option for the novice overclocker or the user looking for a simple boost once in a while.

For the overclocker looking for more control over system behavior, Gigabyte offers up several options.  First, the CPU frequency adjustment offers an exceptionally broad range from 100MHz to 600MHz FSB.  The PCI Express frequency was adjustable from 90MHz up to 130MHz.  The Memory Frequency Divider offered a lot of options, ranging from 1.5, 2, 2.5, 2.66, 3, 3.33 and 4.  The DDR Voltage was able to be raised from .1 through .6v in .1 increments, while PCI Express voltage increases ranged from .1-.3v.  The CPU voltage was also adjustable in very fine increments.  The scale ranged from .8275 through 1.6v in increments of .125v, offering very precise CPU voltage tuning.

The CAS memory timings ranged from 3, 4, 5 and 6 while RAS-to-CAS and Precharge went from 2-6 in increments of 1.  Aditionally, Gigabyte offers M.I.B.2 which offers optimizations based on memory brand.  Whether you have Micron, Hynix, Kingston, Samsung or other listed models, the BIOS will adjust performance accordingly.