Gigabyte Issues BIOS Update for X79 Motherboards Prone to Overheating when Overclocked

Gigabyte Issues BIOS Update for X79 Motherboards Prone to Overheating when Overclocked

Gigabyte has issued a crucial BIOS update for three of its X79 motherboards, namely the GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5 and G1.Assassin 2. The company has admitted these boards may overheat and burn when they are overclocked. Gigabyte attributes the issue to a combination of poor quality PWM components and bad firmware.

According to an overclocker who goes by his online moniker of "japan0827", he was in the process of overclocking his GA-X79-UD3 with the intention of filming his BIOS settings in the 3D BIOS user environment. He encountered overheating issues with his board which was burnt in the process. The fire seemed to have originated from the CPU VRM components.

Gigabyte has issued a statement, urging users of the affected boards to update their BIOS for safety reasons. The company said that it has requested its official Taiwanese distributors to assist owners of these boards if they are not confident of updating the BIOS by themselves. According to techPowerUp, the new BIOS update will cripple the board's overclocking abilities by throttling the CPU when it is subjected to extreme stress in order to avoid overheating the board's VRM.

Source: techPowerUp, XFastest