Performance Analysis: AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 v2 1.0.0.2 + SMU 46.61

Benchmarks (Part 2)

AIDA64 CPU Queen

AIDA64 CPU Photoworxx

AIDA64 Memory Test

When I used the old BIOS, the highest XMP profile I was able to use was DDR4-2666, but I was able to take it all the way up to DDR4-3600 using XMP profile with the new BIOS. This resulted in better memory performance with no added effort 😀

Cinebench R15

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and OS X).

HyperPi 32M

A simple-to-configure and portable software program that helps you calculate the pi value for a given number of digits and perform overclocking operations on multi-core machines

Verdict and Conclusion

I’ve always known that updating the BIOS for most motherboards, would normally fix most compatibility issues, as well offering better stability. And this is certainly true with ASRock’s AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 v2 1.0.0.2 + SMU 46.61 BIOS version P1.10A. We saw an improvement in the compatibility on the type of memory kits you can use. This allowed us take the memory speeds all the way up to DDR4-3600 using XMP profile. With the older BIOS, we could only manage DDR4-2666 under XMP profile.

This improvement in compatibility allow us to achieve benchmarks as shown in the above tests. As you can see from the results, the newer BIOS only offered a slight improvement over the older BIOS, a difference of only 0.5-1.0% increase. Although the increase was only marginal, it’s still an increase nevertheless … especially when, the only thing that you did was to update the BIOS. Totally effortless.

WARNING: Please carefully read and understand how to update the BIOS on your motherboard. Failure to do so can result in a damaged motherboard. ASRock and Funky Kit assumes no responsibility for any damages caused by improper operations of downloading or updating the BIOS.

Final Thoughts

If you can get an increase in performance effortlessly (even if it’s only a small increase) with simple BIOS update, then why not? What’s more advantageous with a BIOS update, is the fact that you can get more memory speed options (including higher XMP profiles), better memory compatibility, improved memory overclocking capabilities, as well as better power saving functionality, and fixes to some vulnerabilities too.

If you’re confident enough to update the BIOS … then I recommend you do so, but only if you know what you’re doing (read the above disclaimer in red).

You can buy the ASRock B550 Taichi motherboard for around USD $299 from Amazon – https://amzn.to/2CBevYa

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Performance Analysis: AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 v2 1.0.0.2 + SMU 46.61

Benchmarks (Part 2)

Verdict and Conclusion

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