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Those are significant single thread gains. It is concerning to me that BIOS firmware has such a large influence over CPU performance. Buy from motherboard man

Those are significant single thread gains. It is concerning to me that BIOS firmware has such a large influence over CPU performance. Buy from motherboard manufacturers that are known to emphasize BIOS quality and performance. There was also more performance left on the table in the initial AnandTech tests on 7/7; conservative DDR-3200 JEDEC memory timing was used throughout. More aggressive memory profiles will improve performance and AMD CPUs are known to benefit greatly from better RAM performance. So despite the already good results of Ryzen Gen 3 we can expect better performance as the platform is optimized.

toast0 7y ago
> It is concerning to me that BIOS firmware has such a large influence over CPU performance. This is probably related to the AGESA blob which sets up the power and frequency controls. These come from AMD, and as long as your vendor is reasonably prompt, you should be ok. When other vendors update for AGESA, they'll include that in the notes, so you can pester your vendor for an update.
jl6 7y ago
> Buy from motherboard manufacturers that are known to emphasize BIOS quality and performance. Any suggestions, and reasoning why?
- chronogram 7y ago
  They just wrote the reasoning why: because the firmware affects the system so much. As for the suggestion, that’s what I’ve been struggling with too. The gaming motherboards popular for self assembly seem to be getting better at updating the bios, but the manuals I’ve read still recommend against updating the firmware. Which makes me guess you’d want to wait for the PlayStation 5 or the next Xbox, or a PC vendor that is associated with fwupd, as that’s likely a good indicator that they care about firmware.
  - jl6 7y ago
    Sorry, by reasoning I meant the reason why you consider a particular vendor worthy of being associated with quality and performance. The internet currently seems lacking in anything approaching a longitudinal study of hardware vendors - it’s all a sea of opinions.
- topspin 7y ago
  Suggestion; purchase from manufacturers that have shown they are responsive to enthusiasts. Are responsive representatives actively monitoring customer feedback? Otherwise you may find yourself waiting long periods (or forever) on an indifferent manufacturer. Why; The Gen 3 Ryzen is a very frequency agile design. Performance depends strongly on how rapidly core frequency is adapted to load. Frequency is governed by firmware, so optimal firmware is crucial. Someone else speculated that the relevant firmware is the AMD provided "AGESA blob." Whatever it's called you're relying on the board vendor diligently bundling the latest version in a timely manner and not dragging their feet when there are issues with newer versions. Also, power supply is a function of board design and I wouldn't be surprised to learn of feedback mechanisms that afforded the board designer some degree of control; given the cost of high performance capacitors this actually seems pretty likely. If so then merely updating the blob may not be enough ensure optimum results. In any case I suspect the firmware that shipped on 7/7 is far from optimal given the pressure to deliver, so pursuing newer firmware will likely have significant ongoing pay offs.

toast0 7y ago

> It is concerning to me that BIOS firmware has such a large influence over CPU performance. This is probably related to the AGESA blob which sets up the power and frequency controls. These come from AMD, and as long as your vendor is reasonably prompt, you should be ok. When other vendors update for AGESA, they'll include that in the notes, so you can pester your vendor for an update.

jl6 7y ago

> Buy from motherboard manufacturers that are known to emphasize BIOS quality and performance. Any suggestions, and reasoning why?

chronogram 7y ago
They just wrote the reasoning why: because the firmware affects the system so much. As for the suggestion, that’s what I’ve been struggling with too. The gaming motherboards popular for self assembly seem to be getting better at updating the bios, but the manuals I’ve read still recommend against updating the firmware. Which makes me guess you’d want to wait for the PlayStation 5 or the next Xbox, or a PC vendor that is associated with fwupd, as that’s likely a good indicator that they care about firmware.
- jl6 7y ago
  Sorry, by reasoning I meant the reason why you consider a particular vendor worthy of being associated with quality and performance. The internet currently seems lacking in anything approaching a longitudinal study of hardware vendors - it’s all a sea of opinions.
topspin 7y ago
Suggestion; purchase from manufacturers that have shown they are responsive to enthusiasts. Are responsive representatives actively monitoring customer feedback? Otherwise you may find yourself waiting long periods (or forever) on an indifferent manufacturer. Why; The Gen 3 Ryzen is a very frequency agile design. Performance depends strongly on how rapidly core frequency is adapted to load. Frequency is governed by firmware, so optimal firmware is crucial. Someone else speculated that the relevant firmware is the AMD provided "AGESA blob." Whatever it's called you're relying on the board vendor diligently bundling the latest version in a timely manner and not dragging their feet when there are issues with newer versions. Also, power supply is a function of board design and I wouldn't be surprised to learn of feedback mechanisms that afforded the board designer some degree of control; given the cost of high performance capacitors this actually seems pretty likely. If so then merely updating the blob may not be enough ensure optimum results. In any case I suspect the firmware that shipped on 7/7 is far from optimal given the pressure to deliver, so pursuing newer firmware will likely have significant ongoing pay offs.