Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, October 27, AMD released the latest version of AGESA microcode for Socket AM5 platform, version 1.0.0.3, with adjustments for Ryzen 7000 series processors based on Zen 4 architecture, which is also the first update since the release of the new platform.

It is worth noting that the new version reintroduces a "Precision Boost C-State Limiter" limiter that prevents the CPU kernel from rising above 5.50GHz when more than four kernels are active (heavy workload).

CTOnews.com learned that from SkatterBencher's demonstration, the performance of high-end AMD Ryzen 7000 series desktop processors may be affected, but the impact is limited.

▲ NopBench is a program developed by ElmorLabs that calculates the maximum frequency available with the workload of the CPU kernel (from 1 to n threads).

NopBench can use the NOP instruction to measure the number of NOP instructions that can be processed per second. To make NOP throughput comparable between processors of different microarchitectures, it also uses an architecture-specific factor, which in the case of "Raphael" equals 2.5.

By comparing the NOP throughput of the Ryzen 9 7950X processor tested with AGESA 1.0.0.2 to 1.0.0.3 (ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme BIOS version 0611 and 0705), SkatterBench concluded:

In the original 0046 or 0611 version of BIOS, the 16 cores of Ryzen 9 7950X processor can reach the frequency of about 5.7GHz. When upgrading to version 0705 BIOS based on AM5 AGESA 1.0.0.3 microcode, the highest frequency can only be between 5.4GHz and 5.5GHz.

Finally, SkatterBencher summarizes six points, which are:

Enabling C-State is the first choice, and it originally provides higher performance for AGESA 1.0.0.2max 1.0.0.3.

AGESA 1.0.0.3 microcode reintroduced "Precision Boost C-State Limiter", which did not exist on the first motherboard and BIOS released before.

When more than 4 cores are active, the highest processor frequency is only 5.5GHz, which means that some Ryzen 7000 series processors may suffer performance loss.

On motherboards with this option, you only need to enable "Medium Load Boostit" to bypass the restrictions.

On motherboards that do not have this option, asynchronous eclk provides the only viable overclocking strategy to increase the processor frequency above 5.5GHz.

The actual performance limitations imposed by "Precision Boost C-State Limiter" are small, because users need at least one core to run on processors above 5.5GHz, and in fact most workloads may trigger other restrictions that limit the frequency of processors.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.