Mario Bautista
MSI has made a 105W TDP mode available on its motherboards, for use with AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X CPUs. The new 105W AMD CPU mode can unlock up to 13% higher performance, as it allows these new CPUs to crank up their clock speeds higher than when using their stock 65W TDP modes.
TDP stands for thermal design power, and refers to the heat output of the CPU, which also correlates with the power draw. The AMD Ryzen 9700X and 9600X only have a 65W TDP by default, compared to 105W on the previous Ryzen 5 7600X, which has a place on our guide to the best gaming CPU. The new mode is likely to come at the cost of higher power consumption, but gives users the option of extracting more performance from their new chips.
On the one hand, the 65W TDP target of these CPUs resulted in very low power consumption – less than half that of some competitors – while still maintaining impressive performance. However, it was clear from testing that AMD had left performance on the table by restricting the chip’s ability to push its clock frequency and voltage.
This new update, then, opens up the taps, allowing the new chips to run faster. While we don’t have figures for the changes in clock speed, voltage, and power consumption that result from this update, MSI has provided its own performance figures to WCCFtech.
These show that the 9700X increases its Cinebench R23 score from 20,409 to 23,153, which is a 13% increase. It’s unclear how gaming performance is affected, but we would expect the increase to be somewhat reflected in frame rates in CPU-bound situations.
This update is expected to be rolled out across the board for all owners of these new AMD CPUs, via official AMD updates applied to newer AMD motherboards. However, AMD has apparently pushed back its plans, so MSI has jumped the gun and released its own version of the update.
To apply the update, owners of AMD 600-series motherboards will have to check MSI’s website for a motherboard BIOS/EFI update that includes a note saying “added ‘TDP to 105W’ feature improving CPU performance by just one switch.”
These updates will also say “AGESA PI 1.2.0.1 released for trial use.” AGESA, or AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture, is a set of instructions provided by AMD for motherboard makers to implement into their motherboard BIOS updates, to ensure they work properly with the company’s CPUs.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed the new BIOS, you should be able to switch on the new 65W>105W feature and bask in your new-found extra performance, assuming you have either the 9700X or 9600X – the change isn’t set to affect the Ryzen 9 9950X or 9900X.
For more on how AMD’s 9000-series of chips is shaping up in terms of gaming performance, check out our AMD Ryzen 9000 launch coverage.
