BIOS interface

Since the PI-A9RX480 is targeted towards enthusiasts, Sapphire knew they’d have to work hard on the board’s BIOS, often times it’s the BIOS interface that makes or breaks an enthusiast-level board.

With this in mind, Sapphire didn’t half-step with the PI-A9RX480’s BIOS implementation.

All the standard settings you’d expect to see on a high-end motherboard are here. For instance, you’ve got memory voltages ranging from 2.5V all the way up to a whopping 4.0V in 0.05V increments. As a result, you may as well consider the PI-A9RX480 ready for high-end memory modules such as OCZ’s Voltage eXtreme (VX) memory or Mushkin’s Redline series, both of which are good for up to 3.5V. Meanwhile, voltage options for the RX480 North Bridge include 1.22V, 1.32V, 1.40V, and 1.50V (1.22V is the default setting) while the HyperTransport and PCI-E voltages are also adjustable.

Bus speed settings are flexible. With the flick of a few keystrokes, bus speeds from 200-440MHz are available, while PCI-E clock settings from 100-200MHz can also be found within the board’s BIOS.

Navigating through the board’s BIOS isn’t flawless though. While the BIOS features Award’s familiar interface, some settings are a bit hard to find. For instance, settings for adjusting the CPU’s clock multiplier and voltage are buried under the Power Management menu, even though there’s an Overclocking Features Menu right below it that seems like a more natural fit for these settings.

The PI-A9RX480’s BIOS could have used more flexibility here also. CPU voltage options range from 0.0825V-1.55V in increments of 0.025V. This is hardly enough voltage options for most enthusiasts. Fortunately, CPU clock multiplier settings range from to 4.0-25.0x in 0.50x increments, so you’re pretty well covered there.

We also would have liked to see some form of dynamic fan speed control. ASUS introduced the motherboard world to this feature with their Q-Fan technology. Now practically every motherboard manufacturer out there has some form of dynamic fan speed control that adjusts the speed of the CPU’s fan and for that matter, all other fans on the board based temperature(s) that you can preset. This comes in handy for setting up silent or near silent systems.