The BIOS settings actually worth changing

1. Step 1 of 3

   Finding your way around

   5 min

   Every manufacturer names things differently, but the layout is similar. Easy or Simple mode shows the basics: temperature, boot order and the memory profile. Advanced mode, usually behind F7, opens everything else.

   Before changing anything, save the current settings as a profile. Most boards have a Profile or Overclocking Profile section with several slots. It is thirty seconds of work that saves hours when a change stops the machine booting.

   Note where Load Optimized Defaults lives, too. It restores the factory configuration and is the fastest way out of having changed too much at once without knowing which change broke it.

   If the machine will not start at all after a change, the BIOS cannot be opened any more. The remaining route is clearing the settings: the Clear CMOS jumper on the board, a button on the rear panel of pricier models, or removing the CR2032 battery for a few minutes with the power disconnected.

2. Step 2 of 3

   Settings worth changing

   15 min

   The EXPO or XMP memory profile is the one mandatory change in every new build. Without it the memory runs at its base frequency — DDR5-4800 instead of the rated 6000, which is roughly 20 per cent of bandwidth thrown away.

   Resizable BAR, called Smart Access Memory on AMD boards, lets the CPU address the whole graphics card memory at once rather than through 256 MB windows. In some games it is worth a few per cent of frame rate for free. Enable it unless your card predates PCIe 4.0.

   Fan curves: the defaults are conservative and react to every momentary temperature spike, which you hear as constantly surging fans. Set quiet up to 60 degrees, a smooth ramp to 80 and full speed above 85, with a response delay of a few seconds.

   Wake on LAN, Bluetooth and controllers you do not use are worth disabling — not for performance, but for idle power draw and a few seconds off the boot time.

   Leave Secure Boot and TPM enabled. Windows 11 requires them, and disabling them speeds up nothing.

3. Step 3 of 3

   What to leave alone

   Do not raise CPU voltages until you know exactly what you are doing and why. Higher voltage means higher temperature and accelerated silicon degradation, and the gain at stock settings is usually zero — modern processors already boost as high as their cooling allows.

   Do not change SATA or NVMe mode after installing the operating system. Switching from AHCI to RAID on a working Windows install ends in a blue screen at startup.

   Updating the BIOS makes sense for a specific need: a newer CPU, a fix for a bug that affects you, or a security patch. Updating "because there is a new version" is needless risk — an interrupted update can brick a board, and not every board has a second BIOS chip as a safety net.

   Options whose names you do not recognise are best left alone. That sounds obvious, but most "I broke something in the BIOS" reports start with enabling something that looked promising.

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