UEFI/BIOS Setup for Intel users with i 9 13900k

Questions for Intel users with i 9 13900k, Win 11 Pro Cubase 12 Pro

Hello everyone,
what settings have you made in the UEFI/BIOS with the 13900k?
Do you constantly overclock CPU, if so at how many GHz? (TurboBoost etc. off)

Or is that no longer necessary and let the system regulate itself with Turboboost Hyperthread etc. on ?

Thank you for sharing your experience

Turn on XMP if it is not already. You should be fine with the default settings. Asus motherboards are generally more aggressive with power limit’s than for example Gigabyte motherboards and may run hotter. If your temps are fine, there is no need to tinker with the BIOS settings.

ok, thank you for answering🙋‍♂️

Personal preference maybe, But I usually like to disable onboard Graphics and Sound, assuming you have them and are not using them of course! I don’t make any other tweaks with same gen CPU, I do enable XMP as peakae mentioned.

ok, good to know, thank you :+1:

Here’s my standard BIOS adjustments. Using Asus Rog Maximus Hero 790 with 128gb DDR5

  • Onboard Sound off
  • Thunderbolt off (this lowers the chipset temp)
  • Wake on PCI Express on (for Wake On Lan)
  • Fast boot off (as above)
  • LEDs are set to stealth mode (all off)
  • Important one RAM, no XMP and speed set to 4000 (My ram is rated at 5200)

As you can see above, zero changes to cpu settings and no overlocking.

Why slow RAM speed? There are lots of issues with DDR5 using 4 sticks. Even with rated sticks and those that are on the qvl. This is known to cause instability. This includes using xmp etc.

You have memtest86 built into the BIOS. If you are using xmp, I highly recommend you run memtest and see if your system is stable.

I’ve done a lot of research and testing on this specific setup, (which I built myself as always), so please feel free to ask specifics.

Oh and also I installed CPU parking utility to disable CPU parking. (It’s not immediately available in per settings by default). This is the single only CPU tweak I have needed. And tbh even that has minimal use on the DAW side.

Cheers. P.

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When I turn on XMP (I or II) windows crashes at boot. When I select a lower memory clockrate that windows “accepts” Ableton Live (my other main DAW) crashes. I don’t know why. System spec: Asus_ROG_STRIX_Z790-E, IntelCore-i9_13900K, 2 x Corsair 32 GB DDR5-7200 Kit, Windows 11 x64.

This answers my question I think. My RAM is rated at 7200 and runs at 4800 with no XMP.

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Yup most likely. Xmp is often badly recommended with this chipset.

You have Memtest86 built in to the BIOS so it’s worth testing. Yes it’s time consuming. But you only really need to run it up to test 5. (Note that even 1 error is too many).

Start at your current speed then try increasing it slightly add run test again. etc.

I’ll do that when I don’t need my pc. Once I started the test but as you mentioned it’s time consuming - 4 hours at the least. I interrupted after chip one.

Yup. I mean if you’re stable right now it’s not an issue. But might be an idea to set aside a day sometime in the future.

I spent 3 days on this one thing, as when I built my machine, most people were unaware of the ddr5 issues. (May still are). So I had to figure it out myself.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
I can imagine that Core Parking disable definitely helps for a stable, crackle-free system, super Tip!
Everyone here has their own special tricks, but everyone doesn’t seem to be overclocking anymore, which is interesting.
With my “old” 10920x CPU this still brought a lot of stability. But 13900k I another dimension.
I’ll deal with XMP later, it seems a bit tricky to start with

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Yes really no need to touch much at all and certainly no need of any OCing at all. Main thing is with the DDR5 stability when using large amounts, but that may not hot you if you have only 2 sticks. :slight_smile:

XMP technically shouldn’t be a problem, but it is under certain circumstances with the 790. You would soon know though, as the system will become pretty obviously unstable.

btw the (free) Park Control Application: ParkControl – Tweak CPU Core Parking and More

Thank you for taking the time again, I really appreciate it and thank you for the tip about core parking tool​:raising_hand_man::+1:

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