You don’t need to change much in the BIOS of a new gaming PC, but a few settings are off by default and they matter. Work through these once the PC powers on for the first time. Menu names differ between ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock; the motherboard manual shows where each setting lives on your board.
The first boot
Press Delete repeatedly as soon as you turn the PC on (a few boards use F2). On the first boot with DDR5 the screen can stay black for a minute or more while the board trains the memory. Leave it alone; turning it off restarts the process.
Once you’re in, check the basics before changing anything:
- The CPU model is listed correctly.
- The full amount of memory shows up. If a 32 GB kit shows 16 GB, one stick isn’t seated.
- Your drives are detected.
- The CPU temperature at idle is sensible, well below the temperatures under load. A reading that climbs fast usually means the cooler isn’t making contact or the plastic film is still on its base.
- The CPU fan and any pump show a speed on the monitoring page.
Update the BIOS if the board needs it
A new CPU on an older motherboard may need a BIOS update before it will boot. Ryzen 9000 on early B650 and X670 boards is a common example. Updates also fix memory compatibility and security issues, so check the board’s support page for the latest version even if everything works.
- With the PC booting: download the file from the motherboard maker’s site (not a third-party site), put it on a USB stick, and use the board’s built-in updater (EZ Flash, M-Flash, Q-Flash or Instant Flash, depending on the brand).
- Without a compatible CPU: many boards can update from a USB stick with no CPU installed. ASUS calls it BIOS FlashBack, MSI the Flash BIOS Button, Gigabyte Q-Flash Plus and ASRock BIOS Flashback. The manual says which USB port and file name to use.
- Don’t cut the power while an update runs. Updates usually reset your settings, so re-enable XMP or EXPO afterwards.
Turn on XMP or EXPO
Out of the box, memory runs at its slower JEDEC default speed, commonly 4800 or 5600 MT/s for DDR5, not the speed printed on the kit. Turn on the kit’s profile to run it at its rated speed: XMP (Intel’s name, which many AMD boards also read) or EXPO (AMD’s). It’s usually one setting on the main or overclocking page.
If the PC becomes unstable or won’t boot afterwards, clear the CMOS (below) and try the kit’s second profile, or set the next speed down. On AMD boards, a setting called Memory Context Restore can shorten boot times after the first training; if it causes instability, turn it off again.
Resizable BAR and fan curves
Resizable BAR lets the CPU address all of the graphics card’s memory at once. AMD calls it Smart Access Memory. Intel says it’s required for full performance on Arc cards; on NVIDIA and AMD cards the gain depends on the game, and the drivers turn it on per game. It usually needs “Above 4G Decoding” on and the PC booting in UEFI mode, which is the default for a new Windows 11 install.
Set fan curves so the case fans stay quiet at idle and ramp up with CPU or GPU temperature. If your board offers a step-up delay or smoothing setting, a couple of seconds stops the fans surging every time a background task briefly loads the CPU.
Windows 11 requirements
Windows 11 needs TPM 2.0 and a UEFI system capable of Secure Boot. Current boards have the CPU’s firmware TPM (fTPM on AMD, PTT on Intel) turned on by default. If the Windows installer says the PC can’t run Windows 11, check that the TPM is enabled and that CSM (legacy boot) is off.
Then set the boot order so the Windows USB stick comes first, install Windows, and afterwards install the chipset driver from AMD or Intel and the graphics driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel.
Settings to leave alone for now
Precision Boost Overdrive, manual voltages and CPU overclocking can wait until the PC is stable and you’ve used it for a while. Get it running reliably at default settings first; that makes any later problem much easier to trace.
Clearing the CMOS
Clearing the CMOS resets every BIOS setting to the defaults. Use it when a setting stops the PC from booting. Shut down and unplug the PC first, then do one of these:
- Press the Clear CMOS button, if the board has one on the rear I/O panel.
- Short the two CLR_CMOS pins (the manual shows where) with a screwdriver tip for a few seconds.
- Take out the coin-cell battery for a few minutes.
Still not booting? See troubleshooting a new build.