AMD Ryzen 9700X and 9600X CPUs Just Got a Free Speed Boost from MSI – and Rumor Has It Other Motherboard Makers Will Follow
AMD’s mid-range Ryzen 9000 processors are getting a new speed boost, at least if MSI introduced the new option with its AM5 motherboards is anything to go by.
Wccftech discovered that MSI’s new BIOS (with AGESA 1.2. 0. 1) has a new option to enable a ‘105W TDP’ mode for AMD Ryzen 9700X and Ryzen 9600X processors.
Normally these operate at 65W, so if you increase the power consumption to 105W, the chips can deliver more performance (obviously at the cost of higher power consumption).
Kuroberu on X was the first to point this out, noting that the Ryzen 9700X with the new 105W mode achieved a multi-core score of 23,153 in Cinebench R23. That’s significantly faster than the standard 65W configuration, where it achieved a score of 20,409.
Received new BIOS from MSI, with a new “TDP up to 105W” option to increase Ryzen 9700X/9600X TDP from 65W to 105W. Ryzen 9700X Cinebench R23 multi-core score: 65W: 20,409, 105W: 23,153. It’s 13% faster. pic.twitter.com/mt9wh5AnJSAugust 28, 2024
That’s a performance improvement of just over 13%, but that’s for a single benchmark run, so we should be careful not to read too much into this.
That said, pumping 60% more juice to the CPU will inevitably yield some performance boost no matter what you do. Whether that will only yield relatively modest gains in other scenarios, however, remains to be seen.
We’re assuming this mode is disabled by default, but that’s not made clear. Given that the official spec for these CPUs is a TDP of 65W, this should certainly remain the default – and whether or not to enable 105W mode is up to the user (who may or may not do so given other considerations regarding their CPU cooler and PC thermals in general).
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As you may have noticed, Ryzen 9000 CPUs have stumbled somewhat out of the gate, with the 9700X and 9600X failing to impress reviewers, particularly in the gaming performance stakes. Sales have also been lackluster, according to reports, not helped by the relative price of Zen 5 Silicon at full MSRP compared to the now significantly discounted Ryzen 7000 models from the previous generation.
And, wrapped up in all this, there are rumors that AMD is considering moving to a 105W TDP with an incoming BIOS update to make Ryzen 9000 a bit more appealing – and this now appears to have arrived, at least from MSI. The crucial difference is that this isn’t an overall increase in power consumption, but an option to do so if you feel the need to squeeze the most out of your mid-range Zen 5 CPU (and you have decent cooling, as mentioned).
The question now is: will other motherboard manufacturers follow MSI’s lead? Likely, although Wccftech suggests that the 105W mode isn’t due until AGESA 1.2. 0.2, later in September or October, with MSI unexpectedly being too early to get it into its AGESA 1.2. 0.1-toting BIOS release.
If this new 105W mode does indeed make its way to all motherboards, there will be a lot of eyes keeping a close eye on the gaming performance boost it delivers. Of course, we’ve already had big news on that front for Ryzen 9000 and 7000 processors, with a new Windows 11 preview update available now appearing to massively (almost unbelievably, honestly) increase gaming framerates.
Of course, all of this won’t hurt the Ryzen 9000’s chances in the broader battle of the best CPUs, but Intel’s Arrow Lake chips are also about to launch, and that will change the battlefield once again.