Which BIOS (UEFI) version should I use for VFIO?

Software & Operating Systems VFIO
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1

Hello all

I’ve read that different BIOS versions can improve or ruin IOMMU groupings and I would like some help to pick a good version.

My mobo is the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme with BIOS version F2. Any info on that board or other Gigabyte X570 boards, AGESA versions, or even other manufacturers, hearsay, second-hand info, etc. is welcome.

I’ve included the X570 Aorus Xtreme BIOS changelog in case anyone wants to read it.

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme BIOS changelog

F30a - 2‎020/08/28

  1. Update AMD AGESA ComboV2 1.0.8.1

F22 - 2‎020/08/20

  1. Improve memory compatibility

F21 - 2‎020/07/31

  1. Improve PCIe device compatibility

F20 - 2‎020/07/10

  1. Update AMD AGESA ComboV2 1.0.0.2 for 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen XT series processors and New Gen AMD Ryzen with Radeon Graphics processors support
  2. Fix AMD security vulnerabilities for SMM Callout Privilege Escalation

F11 - 2‎019/12/09

  1. Improve PCIe device compatibility
  2. Improve memory compatibility

F10 - 2‎019/11/21

  1. Update AMD AGESA 1.0.0.4 B
  2. Improve system boot time
  3. Improve RAID function compatibility
  4. Add AMD Raven Ridge APU (Ryzen 2400G/ 2200G) support

F4 - 2‎019/09/04

  1. Fix compatibility of SATA hot plug and RAIDXpert2 setting

F3 - 2‎019/08/26

  1. Update AGESA 1.0.0.3 ABB
  2. Improve Destiny 2 gaming compatibility
  3. Improve XMP DDR compatibility
  4. Support AORUS Memory Boost
  5. Support JEDEC DDR4 native 3200MHz memory

F2 - 2‎019/06/26

  1. Modify RGB function

F1 - 2‎019/06/14

  1. First Release
  2. AGESA 1.0.0.3 for Matisse/ Pinnacle/ Picasso CPU support

Any help is greatly appreciated.

EDIT:

I just looked at the IOMMU groups, expecting the worst, and was pleasantly surprised to find it pretty good. Only complaint is the USB controllers may not be separated enough.

Full IOMMU groups for Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme, BIOS F2

IOMMU Group 0 00:01.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]

IOMMU Group 1 00:01.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]

IOMMU Group 2 00:01.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]

IOMMU Group 3 00:02.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]

IOMMU Group 4 00:03.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]

IOMMU Group 5 00:03.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]

IOMMU Group 6 00:03.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge [1022:1483]

IOMMU Group 7 00:04.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]

IOMMU Group 8 00:05.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]

IOMMU Group 9 00:07.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
IOMMU Group 9 00:07.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to bus[E:B] [1022:1484]
IOMMU Group 9 0d:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Function [1022:148a]

IOMMU Group 10 00:08.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge [1022:1482]
IOMMU Group 10 00:08.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to bus[E:B] [1022:1484]
IOMMU Group 10 0e:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP [1022:1485]
IOMMU Group 10 0e:00.1 Encryption controller [1080]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Cryptographic Coprocessor PSPCPP [1022:1486]
IOMMU Group 10 0e:00.3 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller [1022:149c]
IOMMU Group 10 0e:00.4 Audio device [0403]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller [1022:1487]

IOMMU Group 11 00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller [1022:790b] (rev 61)
IOMMU Group 11 00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge [1022:790e] (rev 51)

IOMMU Group 12 00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Device 24: Function 0 [1022:1440]
IOMMU Group 12 00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Device 24: Function 1 [1022:1441]
IOMMU Group 12 00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Device 24: Function 2 [1022:1442]
IOMMU Group 12 00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Device 24: Function 3 [1022:1443]
IOMMU Group 12 00:18.4 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Device 24: Function 4 [1022:1444]
IOMMU Group 12 00:18.5 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Device 24: Function 5 [1022:1445]
IOMMU Group 12 00:18.6 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Device 24: Function 6 [1022:1446]
IOMMU Group 12 00:18.7 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Device 24: Function 7 [1022:1447]

IOMMU Group 13 01:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller [0108]: Phison Electronics Corporation Device [1987:5016] (rev 01)

IOMMU Group 14 02:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:57ad]

IOMMU Group 15 03:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:57a3]

IOMMU Group 16 03:03.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:57a3]

IOMMU Group 17 03:04.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:57a3]

IOMMU Group 18 03:05.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:57a3]

IOMMU Group 19 03:08.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:57a4]
IOMMU Group 19 08:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP [1022:1485]
IOMMU Group 19 08:00.1 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller [1022:149c]
IOMMU Group 19 08:00.3 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller [1022:149c]

IOMMU Group 20 03:09.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:57a4]
IOMMU Group 20 09:00.0 SATA controller [0106]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [1022:7901] (rev 51)

IOMMU Group 21 03:0a.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:57a4]
IOMMU Group 21 0a:00.0 SATA controller [0106]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [1022:7901] (rev 51)

IOMMU Group 22 04:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller [0108]: Sandisk Corp WD Black 2018/PC SN720 NVMe SSD [15b7:5002]

IOMMU Group 23 05:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Aquantia Corp. AQC107 NBase-T/IEEE 802.3bz Ethernet Controller [AQtion] [1d6a:d107] (rev 02)

IOMMU Group 24 06:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1539] (rev 03)

IOMMU Group 25 07:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:2723] (rev 1a)

IOMMU Group 26 0b:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation TU102 [GeForce RTX 2080 Ti] [10de:1e04] (rev a1)
IOMMU Group 26 0b:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation TU102 High Definition Audio Controller [10de:10f7] (rev a1)
IOMMU Group 26 0b:00.2 USB controller [0c03]: NVIDIA Corporation TU102 USB 3.1 Controller [10de:1ad6] (rev a1)
IOMMU Group 26 0b:00.3 Serial bus controller [0c80]: NVIDIA Corporation TU102 UCSI Controller [10de:1ad7] (rev a1)

IOMMU Group 27 0c:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK208 [GeForce GT 730] [10de:1287] (rev a1)
IOMMU Group 27 0c:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation GK208 HDMI/DP Audio Controller [10de:0e0f] (rev a1)

2

I think all bios versions of the X570 are good. I haven’t heard of degradations of x570 bioses. The x570 chipset seems really IOMMU group friendly since its something of a AMD chiplet hub derivative.

3

Thank you for the info @Pleytos . I did not know that.

4

My experience is that after the BIOS AGESA is updated to ComboAm4v2PI 1.1.0.0, it brings the problem of IOMMU grouping. What is more interesting is that it seems that this version of AGESA brings zen3 microcode support…

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