MSI’s Latest Z790 & B760 Motherboard BIOS Brings CEP Tuning: Lower Voltages & Higher Performance On Non-K 14th Gen CPUs

MSI has rolled out a new BIOS for its Z790 & B760 motherboards which allows users to tune CEP on Non-K 14th Gen CPUs, enabling lower voltages & higher performance.

We recently talked about CEP (Current Excursion Protection) function since it was introduced by ASRock for its 700 and 600-series motherboards. Now MSI is following the same suite & offering more functionality surrounding this feature. The aim is similar, to offer users the ability to disable CEP when running a Non-K Intel 14th Gen CPU. The feature is already supported by the "K" Unlocked lineup.

What happens is that if the CPU voltage is insufficient, CEP will put the CPU in a "phantom throttle" mode which can degrade performance. Furthermore, if users try to lower voltages while CEP is enabled, they will get slightly lower temperatures but at the cost of lower performance. Disabling CEP entirely does come with its benefits such as you don't have to worry about lowering voltages & getting lower performance. These benefits include:

In performance measurements run by MSI, you can see that disabling CEP has a positive effect on both "K" and "Non-K" Intel 14th Gen CPUs. You get lower temperatures when voltages are lowered with CEP disabled and slightly better performance. Do note that only 14th Gen Non-K "B0" stepping supports this feature but not "C0" stepping chips.

MSI also has other features incorporated in its latest BIOS which can deliver lower voltages & CPU temperatures. Considering how much excessive voltage is being pumped in the latest 13th & 14th Gen CPUs which leads to instability and crashes within games as recently discussed, these can be great solutions for gamers to overcome such issues.

I built a new gaming PC for myself back when the 4090 launched. I upgraded from a 12900K to a 13900K & everything ran well besides the high temperatures that were within the TjMax limit but hit 95C using a high end AIO cooler.

A few months later. I started having the same issues https://t.co/ASMgCRrFu8

— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) February 21, 2024

The features include "Microcode Selection - No UVP" and "Lock BCLK 102.5" which do exactly what the naming suggests. Following is the full list of motherboards along with their respective BIOS that have received the update:

Following is the support list of the said features for each Intel 600/700 CPU SKU:

MSI is aware of the excessive voltages that motherboard BIOS can pump into the latest 13th & 14th Gen CPUs from Intel. There is a lot of evidence that such voltages can degrade the quality of the chip and its performance over time so such features are beneficial. The BIOS also brings 256 GB DDR5 memory support to the B760 lineup which is great too. You can grab the latest BIOS from the MSI support page here.