BIOS upgrades and performance

cosmogenesis · 2 May 2024 at 10:14

Does a BIOS upgrade offer a performance enhancement or just to fix issues ?

ALD · 2 May 2024 at 10:41

It can be a performance downgrade if it is patching a security vulnerability.

SpellowHouse · 2 May 2024 at 10:58

It's usually a bug-fix or an "upgrade" to support new devices (for example, a new CPU has been released), but you need to check whether the new BIOS is relevant to you. It might not be.
What I tend to do is to update the BIOS when I first get the motherboard or PC, and then just checkout new releases and only update to a new BIOS if there is something I think will benefit me.

Glanza · 2 May 2024 at 10:59

Depends on AMD when the agesa version gets updated it can come with benefits.

opethdisciple · 2 May 2024 at 12:28

Most recently the bios updates are either support for new CPUs and or security releases.

Jay85 · 2 May 2024 at 13:15

I've only ever done it to either fix bios bugs/performance issues or to extend my memory compatibility and overclockability. Usually for memory overclockability and compatibility as i tweak those a lot.

For the average user though, you really don't need to touch it if everything is working as it should.

cosmogenesis · 2 May 2024 at 14:21

Makes sense that it is to fix an issue and that performance increases are rare, My X570 is on its original BIOS and it works fine.

Tetras · 2 May 2024 at 15:27

cosmogenesis said:
Does a BIOS upgrade offer a performance enhancement or just to fix issues ?

cosmogenesis said:
Makes sense that it is to fix an issue and that performance increases are rare, My X570 is on its original BIOS and it works fine.

Generally a BIOS update doesn't offer more performance, except for e.g. with AM5, AMD unlocked higher memory speeds. But, for AM4, you might well notice a performance improvement between the stock BIOS and the latest BIOS, as AMD made many improvements over that period.

pastymuncher · 7 May 2024 at 14:48

cosmogenesis said:
Makes sense that it is to fix an issue and that performance increases are rare, My X570 is on its original BIOS and it works fine.

You should update that because one of the Agesa updates included in the bios release gave AM4 a significant performance increase. Personally I always keep my motherboard bios up to date.

opethdisciple · Sunday at 11:56

It's not just bug fixes and performance increases, the last 2 years have been about security patches as well.

El Jimben · Monday at 22:33

They make it so easy to update your BIOS these days, there's little reason not to. That said, I normally do every other release on my current board as updates are reasonably frequent anyway.