AMD Promises to Fix 3rd-gen Ryzen Speed Boost Bug
AMD on Tuesday promised that a BIOS update will address reports that its 3rd-generation Ryzen processors aren’t able to hit advertised boost speeds under all conditions.
“While processor boost frequency is dependent on many variables including workload system design, and cooling solution, we have closely reviewed the feedback from our customers and have identified an issue in our firmware that reduces boost frequency in some situations,” AMD said via Twitter, The statement says that the BIOS update will be released on September 10 via AMD’s motherboard partners.
AMD acknowledged that some 3rd-gen Ryzen customers were reporting boost speeds below the rated frequency, which created buzz on social media, including Reddit, over the past few weeks. Normally, the 3rd-gen processor like the Ryzen 5 3600X should be able to reach a maximum boost speed of 4.4GHz, But some customers who had purchased one reported that they were only able to reach a slower boost level. Other reports indicated for example, that, while the Ryzen 5 3600X could hit the rated 4.4GHz boost speed, it could do so on just one of its six cores.
A survey by the der8auer YouTube channel also showed that the boost speeds of many 3rd-gen Ryzen chips owned by consumers were lower than expected. In the case of the 3600X, for example, a substantial number—much more than 50 percent—achieved clock speeds of less than the rated 4.4GHz. That was also the case for the 3700X and the 3800X.
A good gues would be that processors themselves appear to be defective, or at least not perfect. But AMD's response that a BIOS update will iron things out unveils that the issue is probably something different.
AMD’s statement also says the BIOS update will provide “additional boost performance optimizations,” in addition to addressing the boost issue.