If you have been looking to buy a CPU during the last several months, the decision has been complicated by scary headlines for both Intel and AMD. With warranty issues being a primary concern, we have some new information that will be good news to those purchasing AMD’s Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 processors.
The Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X recently gained the ability to crank their power limit from 65W to 105W, a sizable bump up. MSI offered a new feature on its 600-series motherboards that allows both of these chips to draw up to 105 watts.
It seems that in AGESA 1.2.0.2, this 105-watt TDP will become official and sanctioned by AMD. This means that it is not considered overclocking or modifying the chip, but part of its typical operation and spec.
AMD hasn’t had any major technical problems with Ryzen 9000, but the release still didn’t go particularly smoothly. First, the launch was delayed by several weeks due to odd issues apparently related to the processors’ packaging. Then, while reviews like ours were generally good, the lackluster performance results failed to create much excitement, leading to stagnant sales.
The AGESA 1.2.0.2 update is expected to release sometime in September, and should be available on all motherboards for Ryzen 9000. Currently it’s in a testing phase, but will surely mature as more users seek out the higher TDP for increased performance. The increased TDP might make a substantial difference in the performance of both the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X, at least in multi-threaded applications.