This stands for Serial Presence Detect and refers to the information programmed into your memory modules by the manufacturer, which tells the BIOS what latencies and voltage to use at any given clockspeed to ensure compatibility. If overclocking or tuning for additional performance, you can manually set the multiplier.ĭRAM Timing Selectable: You may see the letters SPD in this section. System Memory Multiplier: Left on Auto, your BIOS will determine the safest multiplier, or FSB:DRAM ratio, and resulting memory frequency for your RAM based on its pre-programmed SPD settings. Performance Enhance: Applicable to Gigabyte boards, this section tells the BIOS how aggressively to auto-tune your RAM's settings.Įxtreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.): Short for eXtreme Memory Profile, X.M.P.-compatible RAM contain additional, pre-programmed settings tuned for both performance and overclocking. Unless you're dealing with older hardware or niggling IRQ conflicts that are not resolved by moving PCI cards to a different PCI slot, you should leave this one on Auto.
PCI1 and PCI2 IRQ Assignment: This lets you configure whether to let your PC dole out IRQ resources automatically or to let you configure them manually. Unless you're attempting to run legacy hardware or are running into troubleshooting issues with your PCI peripherals, you won't be spending much time, if any, in this section. This is the section of the BIOS that deals with the PCI bus and Plug-and-Play settings, most notably IRQ mapping. Virtualization Technology: Enabling this feature allows virtualization programs like VMWare and Virtual PC to tap into your processor's hardware virtualization supportīi-Directional PROCHOT: Enabling this setting sends a bi-directional signal that indicates if the processor has exceeded its maximum temperature and whether or not it should activate the Thermal Control Circuit (TCC).
Again, overclocking results may vary, but performance does not.ĬPU Thermal Monitor: First introduced with the Pentium 4, current iterations take a somewhat different approach by dropping down the core clockspeed and voltage when things get a bit too hot under the collar.ĬPU EIST Function: Short for Enhanced Intel SpeedStep, this power-saving setting allows Intel chips to dynamically change frequency and voltage levels in small increments based on need. This doesn't affect performance, though some power users have noted better overclocking headroom when disabling this setting.Ĭ3/C67/C7 State Support: Essentially a revised version of C1E, these higher-numbered halt states put the processor into an even lower power state when idle. This halt state reduces both the processor's voltage and multiplier so that it consumes less power and runs cooler. CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) : A power saving feature in Intel chips, enabling C1E will allow the operating system to send a halt command to the CPU when inactive.