Your BIOS is hiding 4 free performance tweaks (and 4 settings that'll brick your PC)

Of all things related to PCs, the BIOS/UEFI seems to be the one that most people would rather steer clear of. Most PC users only venture into the BIOS when something has gone terribly wrong, and even then, many would just rather skip it entirely. And I get it—no matter how user-friendly motherboard makers try to make it seem, it's never as easy as just clicking your way around an operating system.

However, avoiding the BIOS is a real shame. You may be missing out on genuinely useful settings and performance tweaks.

But there's also a darker side to the BIOS, which is why people tend to steer clear of it. There are certain settings you should almost never touch. Below, we'll go over both, making this a one-stop shop for all things BIOS.

Your BIOS is super useful, but it's not a playground

The good tweaks are good, but the bad tweaks can be disastrous

The BIOS (or UEFI) is the low-level software that starts your computer before Windows ever sinks its hands into it. It checks your hardware, starts up your CPU, RAM, storage, fans, and motherboard devices, and then hands things over to the OS. It's absolutely critical in every sense of the word.

As the BIOS can control settings that the OS can't touch, it's used for things that can genuinely boost performance. You'll use it to set the right memory profile, adjust fan behavior, and more.

But it can also be massively risky. You're not just changing small settings that can easily be reverted; you're changing how your PC behaves before anything else even gets the chance to load. Some tweaks are harmless or easy to undo, but others can be a nightmare to deal with.

4 BIOS settings you should change right now

Get yourself some more performance for free

Venturing into the BIOS can be fantastic if you know what you're doing. Once you're there, here are some tweaks that are genuinely worth making.

1. Enable XMP or EXPO for your RAM

Your RAM may not be running at the speed printed on the box (it can almost feel like a CPU bottleneck sometimes), which is where XMP and EXPO come in. These are memory profiles stored on the RAM itself. Enabling them tells your motherboard to use the advertised speeds, timings, and voltages. You can usually find this near the top of the BIOS, often under names like XMP, EXPO, DOCP, A-XMP, or memory profile.

Keep in mind that this is still technically an overclock, so if your PC becomes unstable, you need to dial it back.

2. Turn on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory

Resizable BAR, or Smart Access Memory, lets your CPU access more of your GPU's VRAM at once instead of working with it in smaller chunks. You'll usually find it somewhere in the PCIe, advanced, or chipset section of the BIOS. This isn't a magic fps button, but it can improve performance in some games. Your CPU, GPU, motherboard, and BIOS all need to support it for it to work.

3. Set a sensible fan curve

A fan curve tells your PC how fast to spin its fans at different temperatures. Changing it can make your system cooler. In the BIOS, you'll usually find this under hardware monitor, fan control, Smart Fan, Q-Fan, or similar settings. From there, have fun tweaking the fans on a fan-by-fan level, choosing PWM or DC mode, and adjusting how aggressively the fans can ramp up.

4. Enable TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot

TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are security features (no surprise there, I guess) that matter a lot if you're using Windows 11 or plan to upgrade to it. Enabling them can help your PC meet Windows 11 requirements and support certain security features, and some games with anti-cheat systems may also expect them to be switched on. The risk is that Secure Boot can be awkward on older Windows installs, especially if the system was installed in Legacy mode instead of UEFI mode.

4 BIOS settings you should never touch without a plan

These settings spell trouble if you're not ready for the results

The BIOS controls many aspects of your PC, and some of those aspects should never be tweaked without knowing the end results. Unless you know exactly what you're doing, I'd recommend steering clear of the below.

1. Manual CPU voltage

Overclocking can give you some serious performance gains, but if you're not careful, it can quite literally destroy your CPU. Manual CPU voltage is exactly what it sounds like: it lets you control how much voltage your processor receives. You'll often find it surrounded by other tempting performance controls, but if you're not a seasoned overclocker, I recommend staying away. If you do want to make changes, do it in tiny, tiny, tiny increments and turn back if it backfires.

2. BCLK/base clock

The base clock, often called BCLK, affects the base frequency your system uses to derive other speeds, and that's what makes it tricky. Changing it can increase performance in some very specific overclocking scenarios, but on many systems, it can also affect more than just the CPU, which means you might run into instability issues.

3. SATA mode or storage controller mode

SATA mode, storage controller mode, Intel RST, RAID, and AHCI settings all control how your motherboard talks to storage drives. Changing them after Windows is installed can stop your PC from booting properly. There are valid reasons to change this when setting up RAID, troubleshooting storage, or installing the OS in a specific configuration, but it's not a casual performance tweak you should bother with.

4. Secure Boot keys and TPM clearing

Enabling TPM or Secure Boot is one thing; clearing TPM data or messing with Secure Boot keys is something else entirely. These options may sound harmless because you'll find them next to useful settings. They're not harmless.

Clearing the TPM can interfere with encryption, sign-in features, and other security tools, while changing or deleting Secure Boot keys can stop your system from trusting the software it needs to boot.

The best BIOS tweak is knowing what you're doing

It can be tedious, but it's worth it

I totally get why many people think twice before entering the BIOS. Honestly, I think it's the best course of action. Just like following outdated Wi-Fi optimization advice can get you stuck with no internet connection, tweaking the wrong BIOS settings can majorly backfire, so playing it safe is good. Avoiding it entirely is not the way to do it, though.

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Free performance is great until it becomes troubleshooting

I hope that the settings described above help you squeeze some extra free performance out of your PC. However, if you're not exactly sure what each setting does, it's always better to leave it and do a bit more reading, as the BIOS/UEFI contains some settings that are very difficult to undo.