I agree with ShrimpBrime - it is probably a good idea to reset the BIOS back to the defaults before updating the firmware. If you have made several changes, you might want to record them first.
Asking if you clear RTC after the bios flash or did you just post straight to windows.....
Clear RTC (cmos jumpers)
Right idea, not so right terminology.
Resetting the BIOS deletes or "
clears" the CMOS data from the CMOS device's memory and it "
resets" the RTC (real-time clock) back to zero.
The CMOS data contains the user changes to the BIOS firmware default settings. A prime example of this information is the "boot order", telling the system which drive to look for first for an OS.
It also includes the system date and time, but note the date and time are
NOT the same as the RTC (real-time clock) information.
The RTC may be a separate device or integrated in the CMOS device. Either way, the RTC is a discrete device by function, even if physically integrated with the CMOS device. The RTC is simply a counter that counts the cycles of an oscillator - commonly running at 32.768KHz. That frequency is NOT arbitrary but specifically used because in binary circuits, it equals 2^15 (2 to the power of 15) and provides a time period of precisely 1.0 second with a 15 stage binary counter.
So the RTC does not know what the date and time are, it only knows how many oscillations (thus seconds) have elapsed since it was reset back to zero.
When you set the date and time in the BIOS, you are just resetting the RTC again, only this time, not to zero but to a value (number of oscillations) that "represents" the current date and time.
Clear as mud, huh?
The CMOS battery is there not just to keep the data containing the user changes to the BIOS firmware "alive" but also to keep the RTC oscillator oscillating while the computer is turned off (and the PSU unplugged or its master power switch set to off).
Side note. "CMOS" is actually a misnomer
these days. Originally, more than 60 years ago, CMOS was an discrete (individual and separate) electronics component, a type of memory device and stood for "complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor". Fast forward 40 - 50 years and CMOS these days on motherboards refers to an entire circuit consisting of several components. Either way, the concept remains the same.
Note too that CMOS memory devices were chosen for this purpose because they are
easy for the user to reset (delete all stored data). All that's needed to totally erase CMOS data is to remove the "holding" voltage from the device. Then almost instantly (within just a few clock cycles) the data is gone. Had motherboard engineers and designers wanted the CMOS data to be hard to delete/reset, they could have easily used a different device, like an EEPROM instead.
The fact that your CPU clocks back to lower frequencies after a few seconds is normal.
I agree with this. When the demand on the CPU decreases, there is no reason for it to keep running at full speed. However, when the demand on the CPU increases, the frequency should too - up to the CPU's maximum capability.
but in a cost on going down from 3.88Ghz to 3.54Ghz
Are you saying 3.54GHz is as high as it goes, even when stressed?
I must confess, I am a bit confused because according to the
Intel ARK for the i5 13400F, the maximum single core freq should be 4.6GHz.
I note according to
Intel, the Microcode (0x129) patch does not prevent users from overclocking so it seems to me it should not prevent the CPU from throttling up to its published "turbo" max speed of 4.6GHz.
I note on
this ASUS page, it says the latest BIOS version is a "Beta" version. Unfortunately, there's no way to really tell what to read into that.
