MSI has introduced a new “105W TDP” mode for its AM5 motherboards, which benefits AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X CPUs when running the latest AGESA 1.2.0.1 BIOS. This update is designed to enhance the performance of these CPUs, notably offering up to a 13% boost in Cinebench R23 multi-core scores.
The background of this enhancement dates back to June when there were talks about AMD planning to revise the Ryzen 7 9700X’s TDP to 120W from its official 65W to improve its gaming and multi-threaded performance. However, this re-spec wasn’t implemented at launch.
Recently, it was speculated that AMD intended to introduce the “105W TDP” mode through the AGESA 1.2.0.1 BIOS update. Despite plans to officially roll out the higher TDP mode with the AGESA 1.2.0.2 BIOS, which is expected to come later in September or early October, some motherboard manufacturers, including MSI, have preemptively integrated this feature into their AGESA 1.2.0.1 BIOS updates, which are now available for download.
The new mode, marked as “TDP to 105W,” is compatible specifically with the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X CPUs. The performance enhancements using this mode have shown promising results in initial benchmarks. For instance, in Cinebench R23 multi-core tests, the Ryzen 7 9700X improved from a score of 20,409 at 65W to 23,153 at 105W, marking a 13% performance boost.
These findings, while currently limited to synthetic multi-threaded benchmarks, suggest potential performance gains in other applications. AMD continues to optimize its Zen 5 architecture, with recent updates like the Branch Prediction patch for Windows 11 24H2 and 23H2 systems contributing to this ongoing development. Further updates for AMD’s Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” CPUs are anticipated in the coming months.
