ASUS introduces PBO Enhancement for AMD X670 and B650 motherboards

Advanced thermal control for AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors in the ASUS ROG, TUF Gaming, ProArt and Prime AM5 line of motherboards.

These latest CPUs are pushing the performance envelope further than ever before. They utilise the available thermal headroom dynamically to allow users to run at greater clock rates. Users may notice higher CPU temperatures in a new AMD Ryzen-powered device than they are accustomed to. ASUS is releasing a BIOS update for its X670 and B650 motherboards with new PBO Enhancement features that make it simple to manage heat and performance. Users may substantially reduce CPU temperatures with a few clicks, perhaps enhancing performance and lowering fan noise. To be clear, AMD assures its customers that its most recent chips can run securely at ordinary temperatures. Modern CPUs have self-imposed restrictions that keep them from reaching dangerous temperatures. Furthermore, users are unlikely to reach the 95 C maximum temperature until they undertake a workload that utilises all CPU cores. Users will often notice substantially lower CPU temperatures in regular operations, from modest workloads to most gaming sessions.

Enabling PBO Enhancement in BIOS

Several factors affect how CPU performance changes after enabling PBO Enhancement. The model of the CPU and the motherboard have the greatest influence, followed by the cooling solution. The PBO Enhancement setting also has a significant impact, as do factors such as the ambient temperature and the characteristics of the other components in the computer. To get an idea of what kind of performance changes to expect, ASUS ran its own tests with four different AMD Ryzen CPUs. Each chip has been tested with a 280mm AIO liquid cooler. For comparison, ASUS also tested each chip with the default PBO settings. Let's start at the top with the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and the Ryzen 9 7900X: With the default settings, this system achieved a score of 37,811 in the Cinebench R23 multi-core test. Enabling PBO Enhancement Level 1 lowered temperatures by 5°C while increasing performance – because with this setting, the user not only sets a temperature limit, but also enables voltage and PBO optimizations. Setting PBO Enhancement to Level 3 reduced performance by just 3.5% while peak temperatures dropped by 25°C. That's a compromise that many enthusiasts would be happy to make. The benefits of PBO Enhancement are even more pronounced on the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X. Setting PBO Enhancement to Level 3—the most aggressive option—reduces observed CPU temperatures by as much as 20 C without changing performance by more than 0.003% in this test. Users of this chip can expect Level 3 PBO Enhancement to significantly lower CPU temperatures without a noticeable impact on system performance.

Begin with a basic BIOS upgrade.
The first step is to install the most recent firmware on the motherboard. ASUS is introducing the new capability through BIOS upgrades to the complete X670 and B650 motherboard families. The products where ASUS is implementing this feature are listed below, along with links to their corresponding product support sites and BIOS version numbers.