MSI Exclusive “PBO Enhanced Mode” Offers 22% Boost To AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs, Thermal Limit Features

MSI is offering some nice boosts with its "PBO Enhanced" Mode on AM5 motherboards running the AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs.

MSI has just released a brand new feature for AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs to improve performance using its AM5 motherboards. These motherboards recently received the latest AGESA 1.2.0.1a update which offers exclusive features on the platform like the ones we detailed here.

MSI calls the new feature PBO Enhanced, which is built on AMD's Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) to optimize the Ryzen 9000 CPUs for higher performance. By turning on the PBO Enhanced, MSI claims the Zen 5 CPUs can gain anywhere from 3-15% performance on different Ryzen 9000 chips versus the standard PBO mode.

For Benchmarking the new feature, MSI used its MAG X670E TOMAHAWK WiFi motherboard and 32GB of DDR5 RAM kit running at 6000 MT/s. The CPU cooler used was the MSI MAG CORELIQUID I360, which remains the same for all the Ryzen 9000 CPUs. In testing, MSI finds that the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X processor achieves 4-10% higher performance compared to auto mode or stock configuration.

The applications used were CPU-Z, Cinebench R20, Cinebench R23, and Cinebench 2024, where each processor's multi-threaded performance was tested. Using the AMD PBO mode, the CPU maxes out at around 5% higher performance but with PBO Enhanced, the performance gap was increased further by 1-5% depending on the PBO Enhanced modes. Similarly, the Ryzen 9 9900X archives up to 8% higher performance on PBO Enhanced 3, which is roughly 3% higher than PBO.

AMD's Ryzen 7 9700X saw the highest performance uplift by around 15% on PBO Enhanced 3 but the PBO mode was already delivering 10% higher performance than default settings. The Ryzen 5 9600X saw roughly 3-8% performance boost, increasing the performance by up to 5% at the third PBO Enhanced level. The Ryzen 7 9700X is a 65W chip and reviews reveal that it's very TDP starved so we can see why enabling PBO delivers a big boost on this chip. AMD is also planning to add 105 Watts PBO mode to its Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X through the AGESA 1.2.0.1 Patch A BIOS.

PBO Enhanced will be available in the OC Menu inside the BIOS for MSI motherboards that support overclocking such as the B650/B650E and X670/X670E motherboards. The BIOS will provide three different levels of Enhanced modes to choose from. Furthermore, there are two additional Enhanced Mode Boost profiles that MSI didn't discuss in the blog post.

Additionally, the option window also includes three different Set Thermal Point levels:

These profiles keep the CPU thermals under control. So, for instance, if you choose Set Thermal Point 75, the CPU won't exceed 75°C. This will decrease the performance of processors noticeably but MSI claims that setting the STP at 85 won't have any difference in performance. Instead, in some cases, the performance will see a small uplift. According to the graphs, the performance difference is around 1% for most CPUs but the Set Thermal Point can decrease the temperature of these by at least 3-4°C.

The High-Efficiency Mode is another feature that lets users fine-tune the memory settings for lower latency, thereby increasing performance in games. There are four presets in this feature: Tightest, Tighter, Balance, and Relax. This feature can be used with AMD's Optimized Performance Profile and MSI Memory Try It!

News Source: MSI