Review: EVGA X570 DARK

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The BIOS of our X570 DARK:

As far as the BIOS is concerned, if you are not a regular user of the brand, you might be a bit lost but that would be normal. We will try to briefly go through it, because there is so much to say, so that we can highlight the main different features. Personally, I really like the UI structure chosen by EVGA, especially the memory section.

As a reminder, you can access the bios by pressing the « Del » key when booting your PC or during a Clear CMOS. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t take any screenshots with the F12 key. It never choose my USB stick to save them. As you can see, you end up with a screen that will offer you four choices:

  • Enter Setup (advanced configuration) which allows you to access all the settings. It is of course in this part that you will spend the most time.
  • Default Mode to restore your configuration with the default settings.
  • Gamer Mode, which in our case, proposes us to overclock our processor to 4.5 GHz.
  • EVGA OC ROBOT (auto overclock) which will try to push your processor to the maximum by tweaking the voltage and monitoring the temperature.

We will come back to these different modes in the overclocking section.

The different tabs :

In the upper left corner is the « EXTRAS » tab. Here you can check the stability of your overclocking and activate the « OC ROBOT ». You can also use the eight overclocking profiles for memory. Finally, you can update your BIOS by selecting the BIOS to flash on your USB stick. A vertical USB port is located directly on the PCB of your X570 DARK.

The « OC » tab will focus on the various options for CPU control and voltages. It is also in this section that you can set the « Load Line Calibration » which EVGA named « VCore Vdroop ». It is reported here as a percentage. On our side, we opted for the least Vdroop by choosing 25%.

Next, let’s move on to « Memory ». Here you will be able to activate your XMP profile. As we keep reminding you, it is essential to activate the XMP (Intel) or DOCP (AMD) profile of your memory kit. Of course you have the opportunity to modify the timings and subtimings manually. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice on our forum and discord if you encounter any problems when setting up your BIOS.

Another important element is to regularly update your BIOS to avoid incompatibility issues with your memory kit for example. The last three sections will allow you to optimise certain settings specific to AMD processors.

Finally, saving profiles is highly recommended when testing. It saves time. You can also save them on a USB stick and/or share them with another user with the same motherboard.

Now that we’ve had a look at the BIOS, it’s time to get our hands on it and overclock our Ryzen 9 5950X and various memory kits.