Friday, May 26th 2017
AMD Announces AGESA Update 1.0.0.6 - Supports up to 4000 MHz Memory Clocks
You've probably heard of AMD's AGESA updates by now - the firmware updates that are ironing out the remaining kinks in AMD's Ryzen platform, which really could have used a little more time in the oven before release. However, kinks have been disappearing, the platform has been maturing and evolving, and AMD has been working hard in improving the experience for consumers and enthusiasts alike. As a brief primer, AGESA is responsible for initializing AMD x86-64 processors during boot time, acting as something of a "nucleus" for the BIOS of your motherboard. Motherboard vendors take the core capabilities of AGESA updates and build on them with their own "secret sauce" to create the BIOS that ultimately populate your motherboard of choice. The process of cooking up BIOS updates built on the new AGESA will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but AMD's Robert Hallock says you should be seeing BIOSes based on this version halfway through the month of June - if your vendor isn't already providing a Beta version of some kind.
This new AGESA update code, version 1.0.0.6, should be just up the alley of enthusiasts, however, in that it adds a grand total of 26 new parameters for memory configuration, improving the compatibility and reliability of DRAM, especially for memory that does not follow the industry-standard JEDEC specifications (e.g. faster than 2667, manual overclocking, or XMP2 profiles). Below you'll find the 26 parameters that were introduced.
As an added bonus for users interested in virtualization, this new AGESA update also brings something their way, through support for PCI Express Access Control Services (ACS).This capability is especially useful for users that want 3D-accelerated graphics inside a virtual machine. With ACS support, it is possible to split a 2-GPU system such that a host Linux OS and a Windows VM both have a dedicated graphics cards. The virtual machine can access all the capabilities of the dedicated GPU, and run games inside the virtual machine at near-native performance.
Source:
Community @ AMD
This new AGESA update code, version 1.0.0.6, should be just up the alley of enthusiasts, however, in that it adds a grand total of 26 new parameters for memory configuration, improving the compatibility and reliability of DRAM, especially for memory that does not follow the industry-standard JEDEC specifications (e.g. faster than 2667, manual overclocking, or XMP2 profiles). Below you'll find the 26 parameters that were introduced.
48 Comments on AMD Announces AGESA Update 1.0.0.6 - Supports up to 4000 MHz Memory Clocks
Tested it on the cheapest PC possible, an A4-4000. Works as intended without problems, but you need at the very least 4 threads or else the overhead kills your performance, that won't be a problem with a Ryzen APU.
You should only upgrade if you have highly threaded workloads that can actually use Ryzen's many threads, otherwise it's going to be a downgrade.
And they have proven already, even at release that were faster than Intel in all escenarios except for gaming, where core and memory speed are king. If AMD fix that, then is game over.
And if there is still some doubt, Threadripper is gonna place the final blow.
For me on 1440p things would be GPU limited. Tho Ryzen does help on 0.1% and 1% low scores.
anyway, I ugraded from intel 4770k to 1800x. my cpu single core was weaker than one single core from ryzen. not by too much but an improvement on the amd side oc vs oc.
my ram runs @ 3466 divider @1.35v and in games I not only reach the fps I did on the 4770k, I also get far smoother frame times making gaming on the amd system far more enjoyable. this is only my first hand experience....so imo.
anyone who owns an intel 4c 8t cpu should upgrade asap to the amd architecture. getting the frame times right trumps anything else. and btw since the new amd micro code released my fps compete with the jerky 7700k. so to clarify, the 7700k shows higher frames, but has uneven frame times making games feel less smooth. in comparison the amd frame times are completely smooth.
my user experience matches that of the 6850k easily.... I'm very happy using my quicker AMD system... the architecture is something else.:toast:
The only game so far in which I've seen a boost compared to the old overclocked 2600K has been Civ 6. I can't think of any other game in which I noticed better performance with Ryzen, I didn't measure minimums, but I didn't get much suttering with the old Sandy either (had decently fast DDR3). In some cases I even noticed lower FPS, like Squad, but I'd chalk that down to it being an Early Access game.
If you want a gaming CPU, personally I'd wait for the new Skylake-X line, the 6C/12T probably won't be that much more expensive than the R7 parts and higher IPC coupled with Skylake-X probably being able to reach higher than 4Ghz clocks will make it a much better CPU for gaming.
Tho when we're talking about 6c/12 it should be compared to R5 instead wich is even cheaper.
Personally i think HEDT platforms be they upcoming X299 SKL-X or Threadripper are always a bad value-performance proposition when it comes to gaming. Mainstream R5 and i7 are always better in this regard.