AMD Fixes More Ryzen Issues with New BIOS Firmware Microcode

Performance keeps on improving in games with Ryzen, that would be the generic message AMD is evangelizing in a new Blog post. It seems that AMD has made good progress on the software side of things. Yesterday we already reported on the Ashes update with a very significant performance boost. Today Dota 2 is getting that TLC. More importantly there is a microcode update planned that will improve memory latency, and thus again 1080p game performance.

The new microcode will go along with a BIOS update. With the AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA) 1.0.0.4 update the overall memory latency will drop with roughly 6 nanoseconds. By itself that doesn't sound huge, but as we have shown you in our reviews, memory timings, frequency and thus latency matters quite a bit for Ryzen relative to CPU game performance and sure, that would be a 8% imprivement in overal memory latency.  The microcode update will help applications sensitive to exactly that, memory latency.

The earlier FMA3 benchmark bug also is fixed with the new motherboard firmware updates, but we reported on that one earlier already. Also an Overclock-sleep mode bug will be fixed. Last and not least, AMD Ryzen Master no longer needs the High-Precision Event Timer. 

As a brief primer, the AGESA is responsible for initializing AMD x86-64 processors during boot time, acting as something of a “nucleus” for the BIOS updates you receive for your motherboard. Motherboard vendors take the baseline capabilities of our AGESA releases and build on that infrastructure to create the files you download and flash.

We will soon be distributing AGESA point release 1.0.0.4 to our motherboard partners. We expect BIOSes based on this AGESA to start hitting the public in early April, though specific dates will depend on the schedules and QA practices of your motherboard vendor.

BIOSes based on this new code will have four important improvements for you

1. We have reduced DRAM latency by approximately 6ns. This can result in higher performance for latency-sensitive applications.
2. We resolved a condition where an unusual FMA3 code sequence could cause a system hang.
3. We resolved the “overclock sleep bug” where an incorrect CPU frequency could be reported after resuming from S3 sleep.
4. AMD Ryzen™ Master no longer requires the High-Precision Event Timer (HPET).

The new BIOS updates with updated micro-code will be released in April. Below you can check some benchmark results (from AMD) on Ashes of the Singularity and DOTA 2.