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AMD Precision Boost Overdrive 2 tunes up your single thread perf

by Mark Tyson on 24 November 2020, 10:11

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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AMD is preparing a refined Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) feature for Ryzen 5000 Series processors. PBO 2 will arrive with the roll out of AGESA 1.1.8.0 BIOS updates for AMD 500 Series motherboard in December. Owners of AMD 400 Series motherboards won't be left out, they should start to get BIOS updates that enable PBO 2 from January next year.

The key benefits of PBO 2 are outlined in the slide above. If you have used or are using the original PBO you will likely be aware of the feature's limitations - the main one being that this one-click overclocking option only really benefitted multi-threaded workloads. PBO 2 is claimed to bring similar benefits to single threaded performance without taking anything away from multi-thread – it might even be faster.

In the PBO 2 design goals section above you can see another major feather in the cap of the update is that undervolting is supported in a number of ways. Firstly it can be automated by PCO 2, secondly the feature wil be available as a standalone tweak. To briefly explain, depending upon the silicon lottery, some chips can operate reliably at lower voltages. Turning the voltage down will bring benefits in cooler running, making the chip less likely to thermal throttle, using less power, and providing increased boost headroom.

Normally users have to try and set one reduced voltage level that is stable across all their application and particular use-cases. PBO 2 will provide Curve Optimiser to opportunistically adjust voltage based upon operating conditions and computing demands.

To provide some insight about how PBO 2 can deliver better results for Ryzen 5000 CPU owners, AMD provided some benchmarks with the various settings applied. The Cinebench tests show that PBO 2 doesn't deliver earth shattering results but, as mentioned above, the undervolting might make your processor consume less power and run cooler in general and that is why it has been a popular task for performance laptop owners to try out.

PBO 2 is rolling out in December, as I said in the intro, as a BIOS-only function to start with. It is expected to appear in the Ryzen Master software early in 2021. Owners of AMD 4000 Series motherboards should find the feature enabled next year too. Last but not least, using PBO 2 isn't expected to be 'risky' but will void your CPU warranty.

Source: Tom's Hardware

 


HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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wtf, why is this 5000 series only? Is there really a difference in architecture that prevents this applying to 3000 series? Is it because the single thread 3900x would be the same as the 5900x once this is enabled so they don't want to undermine their sales?
ik9000
wtf, why is this 5000 series only?

It doesn't look that much different from the original PBO on ryzen 3000, so it might just be a release to try and keep themselves in the press with positive stuff.
ik9000
wtf, why is this 5000 series only? Is there really a difference in architecture that prevents this applying to 3000 series? Is it because the single thread 3900x would be the same as the 5900x once this is enabled so they don't want to undermine their sales?

No,just like when AMD admitted recently SAM is being brought to Intel and Nvidia:
https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/317636-amd-will-bring-smart-access-memory-support-to-intel-nvidia-hardware

Yet,apparently Zen2 has this functionality under Linux for yonks. Yet no mention of Zen,Zen+ or Zen2. The same as when AMD decided to pull PCI-E 4.0 off B450/X470 despite OEMs wanting to support it.

Because they can,and it gives another reason for people to buy the new shiny.
MarkI
It doesn't look that much different from the original PBO on ryzen 3000, so it might just be a release to try and keep themselves in the press with positive stuff.

that's my point - it isn't much different from the original PBO, it's just coded better now they've had longer to refine it. It just sticks two fingers up at those of us who paid to go Ryzen 3000 which is still current retail stock and really should be being supported.
ik9000
that's my point - it isn't much different from the original PBO, it's just coded better now they've had longer to refine it. It just sticks two fingers up at those of us who paid to go Ryzen 3000 which is still current retail stock and really should be being supported.

But,but somethingsomething Intel and Nvidia??!! :P