AMD Confirms Warranty Support For Ryzen 9000 “105W TDP” Mode, AGESA 1.2.0.2 & Many Improvements For Zen 5 Desktop CPUs

lAMD has confirmed its “105W TDP” mode for Ryzen 9000 CPUs within AGESA 1.2.0.2 will be covered under warranty & offer several improvements.

AMD Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” Desktop CPUs Improved With Latest Updates Such As AGESA 1.2.0.2 BIOS, Better Core-To-Core Latencies, Branch Prediction Patches For Windows 11 & Warranty Support For 105W TDP Mode

It’s been over a month since the launch of the AMD Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” Desktop CPUs & since then, the company has offered various enhancements to address some of the shortcomings while also adding new features to the lineup. Today, the company is offering a recap along with a few updates on how it has made the Zen 5 Desktop CPU experience better for everyone.

Starting with the first feature, we have the “105W cTDP” mode for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X & Ryzen 5 9600X CPUs. Back in June, we reported that AMD might respec its Ryzen 7 9700X to a higher TDP which was later confirmed with the 105W TPD mode for both Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips. In early tests, we have seen that the new modes can offer double-digit gains in applications & a nice boost in terms of gaming performance.

Boost Your Performance with new, Warrantied 105W cTDP for the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X

With a stock Thermal Design Power (TDP) of a low 65 Watts, our vision for the Ryzen 9600X and 9700X was all about efficient performance. But we hear that some of you will always crave more power and more speed. Well, guess what? With the new 1.2.0.2 BIOS update, you can run your Ryzen 9600X and 9700X at 105W TDP without voiding your warranty. Just enable the 105W cTDP in the BIOS, and you’re good to go!

These processors have been validated at 105W since their release, so you won’t be pushing them beyond their design limits. This boost is especially beneficial for multithreaded workloads, but you might see some gains in less-threaded apps too. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility: make sure you have an appropriate cooling solution to handle the higher thermal limit that 105W brings to the table.

via AMD

The 105W configurable TDP mode increases the power spec by 62% (65W vs 105W) so those who want extra performance can get that with the latest AGESA 1.2.0.2 BIOS firmware which is already rolling out by several motherboard manufacturers for their existing 600-series and new 800-series AM5 motherboards.

Official release and spec in 1.2.0.2, warranty approved by AMD

— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) August 30, 2024

The best part is that the new “105W cTDP” mode will be supported under warranty so users don’t have to worry about their warranties being canceled once they use the higher TDP mode. This is a great decision by AMD and it shows that it is willing to offer more performance to its customers & also offer extended support.

The other major performance enhancement update is the New “Automatic Windows Updates” and users will no longer have to download optional Windows updates to get the latest branch prediction optimizations on AMD Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” CPUs. These updates will be rolled out automatically in the latest versions of Windows 11 which are “build 22631.4112” for 23H2 and “build 26100.1301” for 24H2. These updates are already rolling out to Windows 11 systems and you can check your version of the OS to ensure that you have the optimizations loaded into your systems for better performance.

AMD also addresses some of the core-to-core latency concerns and confirms that its AGESA PI 1.2.0.2 BIOS firmware includes optimizations for better latency in latency-sensitive use cases. The company also states that real-world applications will see minimal impact but it’s good to have the optimizations in place. Games such as Metro Exodus, Starfield, and Borderlands 3 have shown some uplift in performance while synthetic tests such as 3DMark Time Spy also see uplifts as tested by AMD.

Core-to-Core Latency Improvements

Some websites reported an increase in core-to-core latency between the Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series multi-CCD models. This was mainly due to some corner cases where it takes two transactions to both read, and write, when information is shared across cores on different parts of a Ryzen 9 9000 processor. However, we’ve been working on optimizing this since the launch of the 9000 series.

In the new 1.2.0.2 BIOS update, we’ve managed to cut the number of transactions in half for this use case, which helps reduce core-to-core latency in multi-CCD models. While this will show up on some core-to-core latency benchmarks, the real-world improvement is most noticeable in a very specific gaming scenario: in heavily threaded games that don’t trigger core parking. Our lab tests suggest Metro, Starfield, and Borderlands 3 can show some uplift, as well as synthetic tests like 3DMark Time Spy.

via AMD

AMD also talks about its X870E and X870 motherboards which are launched and now available across major retailers. These motherboards will come pre-loaded with the AGESA 1.2.0.2 BIOS firmware so you can expect the best performance and optimizations while supporting higher frequency DDR5 memory 8000 MT/s EXPO support and above.

Manufacturers such as G.Skill are pushing EXPO profiles up to 9000 MT/s which is a phenomenal upgrade over X670E motherboards. The new DDR5-8000 EXPO mode was made possible thanks to AMD’s enthusiast memory team (shout out to Bill Alverson & Joseph Portillo-Wightman).