Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 rev 3.0

[Smorch]

Hi Martin,

I've just started using HWiNFO64 and think its great; interesting you should bring up
a redesign of the sensor window. The first thing I thought when I saw the HWiNFO64 sensor window is "Wow, I didn't there were that many sensors!". LOL

I'm a bit sleep deprived lately, so pardon me if I glossed over your description of
a possible enhancement; that is you may have mentioned what I am about to propose.

Perhaps a "sensors" preference configuration window, with little check boxes to
indicate "which" sensors the user is interested in, such that only those get displayed?

BTW, given I'm a bit tired, perhaps I can ask a question regarding several related sensors, namely temperature sensors.

In my particular case I have an AMD FX-8350 processor and a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 rev 3.0 motherboard. There are are a number of temperatures that are
labelled specifically, such as "CPU 0", and "GPU 0", which fall under their respective products (AMD FX-8350 processor, and Nvidia GTX 560 graphics card).

The temperatures I'm unclear about, as to what they specifically represent are,
temperature 1, temperature 2, and temperature 3, all found under "ITE IT8728F".
If I'm not mistaken "ITE IT8728F" has something to do with SUPER I/O?

What do temperataures 1, 2, 3 actually represent? Do any of the temperatures in
HWiNFO64 represent the MosFets, Northbridge, or Voltage Regulators?

Thanks again for creating HWiNFO...I think I'll find it very useful.

Cheers,

- Rich

 

[Martin]

RE: Sensor window redesign

You can easily remove sensors which you don't need - either using right-click on that item and "Hide", or via the Configure screen.

The IT8728F is a Super IO/LPC controller which features a sensor monitoring circuit too. This can monitor a variety of different sensors placed over the mainboard and it's up-to the mainboard vendor where exactly they are placed. If HWiNFO supports the particular mainboard model, it should show more exact labels for these temperatures (like CPU, Mainboard, etc). So it seems HWiNFO might need to adjust sensor values for your model. If you could send me a screenshot of the sensors window showing all values under IT8728F + screenshot of Gigabyte Easytune tool showing actual sensor values, I'll try to fix this.

 

[Smorch]

RE: Sensor window redesign

[attachment=636]

You can easily remove sensors which you don't need - either using right-click on that item and "Hide", or via the Configure screen.

The IT8728F is a Super IO/LPC controller which features a sensor monitoring circuit too. This can monitor a variety of different sensors placed over the mainboard and it's up-to the mainboard vendor where exactly they are placed. If HWiNFO supports the particular mainboard model, it should show more exact labels for these temperatures (like CPU, Mainboard, etc). So it seems HWiNFO might need to adjust sensor values for your model. If you could send me a screenshot of the sensors window showing all values under IT8728F + screenshot of Gigabyte Easytune tool showing actual sensor values, I'll try to fix this.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the prompt reply. Before I read your reply I found out how to "configure" what is displayed...see...I told you I was tired...lol. Anyway, please find attached a screenshot of the requested IT8728F values from HWiNFO64.

Unfortunately, a sad tale regarding EasyTune... I wouldn't install from dvd or download...the primary error indicated being "Open Device Handle Failure". So, at least for now (until I resolve how to get EasyTune and the other Gigabyte utilities installed), I won't be able to provide you any snapshots of easytune.

If need be, I can contact Gigabyte Support, and see if they can provide me an
EasyTune snapshot using the same model motherboard as mine.

Let me know how you'd like me to proceed.

Thanks much,

- Rich Fengler

 

[Martin]

RE: Sensor window redesign

Hi Rich,
I think there's no need for further information, meanwhile I found how to adjust sensor values for your mainboard, so the next HWiNFO build released will fix this and report correct temperature labels and voltage values. Temperature 1 in your case is Mainboard, Temperature 2 is unknown to me. Temperature 3 is the CPU temperature, which seems to read value from CPU diode - unfortunately due to the fact that recent AMD CPU diodes are faulty especially at lower temperatures (as already acknowledged by AMD), its value is quite erratic.

 

[Smorch]

RE: Sensor window redesign

Hi Rich,
I think there's no need for further information, meanwhile I found how to adjust sensor values for your mainboard, so the next HWiNFO build released will fix this and report correct temperature labels and voltage values. Temperature 1 in your case is Mainboard, Temperature 2 is unknown to me. Temperature 3 is the CPU temperature, which seems to read value from CPU diode - unfortunately due to the fact that recent AMD CPU diodes are faulty especially at lower temperatures (as already acknowledged by AMD), its value is quite erratic.

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the update. When you indicate Temp-1 is "Mainboard", is that the temperature of the MOBO itself (hence the very constant temperature)? Also, I did see you have CPU 0 temp, as compared to Termperature-3, which you indicate is the CPU temp (from a diode on the FX-8350 itelf I assume). So if Temp-3 is the CPU temp, then where do you get "CPU 0" temperature? Also, do you think Temp-2 could be the Northbridge temp? I can contact Gigabyte support if you wish and see if they will confirm what temperature 2 is. Just let me know.
Thanks for putting the label fixes in the next HWiINFO build...I really appreciate it.
Cheers,
- Rich

 

[Martin]

RE: Sensor window redesign

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the update. When you indicate Temp-1 is "Mainboard", is that the temperature of the MOBO itself (hence the very constant temperature)? Also, I did see you have CPU 0 temp, as compared to Termperature-3, which you indicate is the CPU temp (from a diode on the FX-8350 itelf I assume). So if Temp-3 is the CPU temp, then where do you get "CPU 0" temperature? Also, do you think Temp-2 could be the Northbridge temp? I can contact Gigabyte support if you wish and see if they will confirm what temperature 2 is. Just let me know.
Thanks for putting the label fixes in the next HWiINFO build...I really appreciate it.
Cheers,
- Rich

Since the IT8728F chip resides on the mainboard and can measure its own local temperature, the Mainboard temperature is in fact usually reported as that temperature (local temperature of a sensor monitoring circuit). But this doesn't have to be the rule always, it depends on mainboard manufacturer, which can place a variety of diodes anywhere across the mainboard and connect them to such SuperIO/LPC chip. So it's mainboard specific and since the manufacturers usually don't give out exact data where a particular diode is placed, only they know exactly. The same for Temp-2.
If you can contact Gigabyte and they will give you this information, I'd appreciate this and would surely adjust HWiNFO with this information.

 

[Smorch]

RE: Sensor window redesign

[attachment=637]

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the update. When you indicate Temp-1 is "Mainboard", is that the temperature of the MOBO itself (hence the very constant temperature)? Also, I did see you have CPU 0 temp, as compared to Termperature-3, which you indicate is the CPU temp (from a diode on the FX-8350 itelf I assume). So if Temp-3 is the CPU temp, then where do you get "CPU 0" temperature? Also, do you think Temp-2 could be the Northbridge temp? I can contact Gigabyte support if you wish and see if they will confirm what temperature 2 is. Just let me know.
Thanks for putting the label fixes in the next HWiINFO build...I really appreciate it.
Cheers,
- Rich

Since the IT8728F chip resides on the mainboard and can measure its own local temperature, the Mainboard temperature is in fact usually reported as that temperature (local temperature of a sensor monitoring circuit). But this doesn't have to be the rule always, it depends on mainboard manufacturer, which can place a variety of diodes anywhere across the mainboard and connect them to such SuperIO/LPC chip. So it's mainboard specific and since the manufacturers usually don't give out exact data where a particular diode is placed, only they know exactly. The same for Temp-2.
If you can contact Gigabyte and they will give you this information, I'd appreciate this and would surely adjust HWiNFO with this information.

Hi Martin,
I sent a question off to Gigabyte about 2 hours ago, and got a reply (see attached file). However, I'm not sure I asked the question clearly enough for them (there based in Taiwan or Hong Kong...maybe there is a slight language barrier).
There logic is a little fuzzy (no pun intended), when it comes to their answer, but
they do say Temperature 2 is the Northbridge temp. I'm just not sure "they are sure"....lol. Let me know if that's a sufficient answer for your needs. If not, maybe you can word a more concise question, and I will pass it through to Gigabyte support for an answer. Let me know how you'd like to proceed.
Thanks for your help.
Cordially,
Rich Fengler

 

[Martin]

RE: Sensor window redesign

Thanks, I haven't expected such a fast response !
I think they understood it well, but just to be sure, here's more precise where I'm reading the values from:
For Gigabyte GA-990XA/GA-990FXA:
LPC HWMON reg[0x29] = Temperature1 = System (mainboard)
LPC HWMON reg[0x2A] = Temperature2 = ?? (NB ??)
LPC HWMON reg[0x2B] = Temperature3 = CPU

Would be great if they would provide such information for other mainboard models too. Maybe you can try to ask them?

 

[Smorch]

RE: Sensor window redesign

Thanks, I haven't expected such a fast response !
I think they understood it well, but just to be sure, here's more precise where I'm reading the values from:
For Gigabyte GA-990XA/GA-990FXA:
LPC HWMON reg[0x29] = Temperature1 = System (mainboard)
LPC HWMON reg[0x2A] = Temperature2 = ?? (NB ??)
LPC HWMON reg[0x2B] = Temperature3 = CPU

Would be great if they would provide such information for other mainboard models too. Maybe you can try to ask them?

Hi Martin,

I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

As far as your request...
I can ask them, but I'm just not sure they will provide the answer for Temp 1, 2, 3
for all their motherboards. I happened to check, and just for the AMD AM3+ socket,
they have 35 different motherboards (true, some are various revisions of the same model).

I believe they have about 7 different AMD sockets, and for each socket, they could have the same number of motherboards as the AM3+ !!

They also have motherboards for 6 different Intel Sockets. So, bottom line, that ends up being "a lot" of motherboards.... who knows maybe Temp 1, 2, 3 are consistent across all motherboards with the same socket (e.g. - AM3+) and/or
chipset.

But, I'll be happy to ask...the worst they can do is not provide the information.

Before I contact them, can you clarify the calls you make in HWiNFO? You mentioned:

the values from:
For Gigabyte GA-990XA/GA-990FXA:
LPC HWMON reg[0x29] = Temperature1 = System (mainboard)
LPC HWMON reg[0x2A] = Temperature2 = ?? (NB ??)
LPC HWMON reg[0x2B] = Temperature3 = CPU

My programming skills are a bit outdated and rusty. For example, the call
LPC HWMON reg[0x29]
Is that code from HWiNFO that simply reads a register? And would I be correct in assuming that the registers are on the Super I/O chip (ITE IT8728F)?

Is it also correct that all 990XA and 990FXA based Gigabyte boards return the same
values; that is the 1st and 3rd calls return actual values of
"System", and "CPU", whereas the 2nd call returns either a null string, or
something equivalent?

And, lastly, in your experience, have you found that most current motherboards use
the ITE IT8728F Super I/O chip?

I'm just trying to become a bit more educated on the topic before I contact Gigabyte
support again to ask them for info on all their motherboards.

Send me what answers you can provide to my questions, and I'll be glad to contact
Gigabyte support again.

Cordially,
Rich Fengler

 

[Martin]

RE: Sensor window redesign

Hi Rich,

yes, the information I provided is a kind of reading a register (i.e. 0x29) of the Hardware Monitoring space of the ITE LPC. I'm sure they will understand it I forgot to add, that this concerns only later revisions of Gigabyte 990XA/990FXA mainboards with IT8728F. Earlier revisions used IT8720F which has has a slightly different layout. So basically I believe all Gigabyte 990XA/990FXA with IT8728F share the same sensor layout, those with IT8720F a different one. The 2nd temperature register returns a value, but I was not sure what it represents. The problem is the there's no way how to determine from which place a particular value is read, since there's no mechanism to know this. So an application reading values from the LPC hardware monitor needs to know about each mainboard model and what the values read represent. This is not just for temperatures, but for fans and voltages especially - voltages require even more handling, since the values read need to be adjusted per every model to get correct values (because of various voltage dividers used). Now that you say how many different boards Gigabyte has for AMD AM3+... This is just Gigabyte and one socket, now add all the other socket models and from all other vendors and then you get a rough estimate of how many models HWiNFO need to support It's a tough job...

Btw, I'll move this recent communication into a different thread in this forum, since it goes off-topic (from the original Sensor window redesign).

 

[Smorch]

Hi Martin,

Life's been busy and I haven't signed into the forum since our last discussion at the
end of May. Since then, I had been using HWiNFO64 v4.18.1930....until today, when
I "finally" upgraded to HWiNFO64 v4.20.1960. I noticed right away, the new
Sensor Status window Configure->Layout has been totally overhauled. Impressive!
I haven't the chance to try out the features, but I will over the course of the coming
weeks.

The second thing I noticed, which is pertinent to this thread is that the ITE IT8728F
super I/O chip values for a number of items has been corrected. Thankyou! I
appreciate all your hard work!

Although our previous discussion focused on Temperature 1 through 3, I notice that
the voltages are correct too! I don't think I mentioned the incorrect voltages in our
previous discussion, since HWiNFO wasn't the only monitoring tool that reported
incorrect voltage values. Now, it appears HWiNFO is the ONLY monitor tool that I
have used (with my GA-990FXA-UD3 rev 3.0 + AMD FX-8350), that correctly
reports the voltages for +3.3v, +5V, +12V, and VBAT. VCore has always been
correct in previous HWiNFO versions.

So, thanks again Martin, for all you efforts!

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Martin]

Thanks for your feedback, Rich.