Got an AMD CPU and Aren't Using PBO? You’re Missing Out

Overclocking a caller PC tin beryllium intimidating. You mightiness wonderment if it's adjacent necessary, but leaving show connected the array feels adjacent worse. Luckily, if you person an AMD Ryzen chip, there's an casual mode to get a show boost without the hassle.

What is Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO)?

AMD's Precision Boost (PB) exertion allows Ryzen CPUs to dynamically summation timepiece speeds up to the maximum advertised velocity connected 1 oregon much cores based connected thermal headroom and existent limits. It's fundamentally a fancy sanction for CPU boost.

Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO), arsenic the sanction implies, overrides cardinal powerfulness and thermal parameters, specified arsenic PPT (Package Power Tracking), TDC (Thermal Design Current), and EDC (Electrical Design Current). This allows your CPU to scope its maximum timepiece velocity and prolong it for longer, but it doesn't needfully summation timepiece speeds similar a due overclock would.

When utilized this way, PBO provides a insignificant but precise harmless and headache-free show betterment connected astir immoderate AMD CPU. It's the astir that you tin get retired of PBO without diving deeper into the BIOS.

Fortunately, PBO besides has a baked-in Auto OC (automatic overclocking) diagnostic that gives you the enactment to override the maximum boost clock. It's an casual mode to overclock your CPU with PBO serving arsenic a information net. You tin adjacent undervolt your CPU with Curve Optimizer wrong PBO. I'll spell implicit the details of however you tin configure PBO for maximum gains aboriginal successful this article.

Reasons Why You Should Enable PBO

To authorities the obvious, enabling PBO provides a humble show boost successful games and different demanding applications with a azygous toggle successful the BIOS. It's precise convenient and casual to alteration PBO connected immoderate modern AMD system.

However, the existent show gains beryllium connected respective factors, with the astir important being the circumstantial CPU exemplary you have. For instance, the Ryzen 9000 Series is some cooler and much businesslike than the Ryzen 7000 Series by default. In theory, enabling PBO connected the 9000 Series could output greater show improvements than connected the 7000 Series, assuming you person an capable CPU cooler and motherboard.

That said, you tin inactive summation your CPU boost timepiece wrong PBO connected immoderate Ryzen spot to somewhat amended performance.

The Curve Optimizer is besides casual to use. It offsets the voltage crossed the full voltage/frequency curve, truthful you tin usage it to execute a flimsy undervolt without straight tweaking voltages. This volition marque your CPU much businesslike and cooler, and it tin adjacent summation its lifespan slightly.

What You Need to Enable PBO

While you tin and should alteration PBO adjacent connected a banal CPU cooler, you should truly put successful an aftermarket cooler to get the astir retired of it. You don't request to get a liquid cooler, though; a high-quality aerial cooler similar the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB tin get you the indispensable thermal overhead to propulsion your CPU to its maximum.

You'll besides request a decent motherboard with a capable fig of high-quality VRMs (voltage regulator modules). These components supply unchangeable powerfulness to your CPU, and they're captious if you privation to usage precocious PBO settings for higher timepiece speeds and little voltages.

At the precise least, you should person a motherboard with a B650 oregon B850 chipset, but an X670/X870 similar the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi Gaming motherboard is ideal.

You besides request a decent powerfulness supply, arsenic adjacent a tiny hiccup successful the powerfulness transportation betwixt it and the motherboard could effect successful stableness issues erstwhile your strategy is drafting a batch of power. It doesn't request to beryllium immoderate fancy oversized 1,000W PSU; thing made by a reputable shaper that has capable powerfulness for your strategy is sufficient.

Don’t Just Enable PBO; Tweak It for Even Better Gains

While you tin get a batch from conscionable switching PBO connected and leaving it astatine that, you tin get adjacent much retired of it with a fewer elemental tweaks. Some motherboards really person a fistful of decent PBO presets that you tin take from, which are a measurement up compared to leaving PBO connected auto.

For example, my ASRock B650M PG Riptide gives maine a fewer options that little the Tjmax (which reduces powerfulness consumption, heat, and sound astatine the outgo of performance) and use a antagonistic voltage offset via the Curve Optimizer.

However, I inactive similar mounting my PBO manually. For the purposes of this article, I did a clump of benchmarks utilizing Cinebench and recovered that I got the champion results with a +200MHz timepiece velocity boost, the PBO limits acceptable to the motherboard (Ryzen Master tells maine they're 1,000 PPT, 180 TDC, and 250 EDC), the Scalar acceptable to Auto, and the Curve Optimizer acceptable to -30mV.

You could spell a measurement further from present by adjusting the PPT, TDC, and EDC values manually, but frankly, I don't deliberation that you tin execute overmuch by doing so. Aside from the CPU, your motherboard is the limiting factor, truthful you can't spell overmuch beyond what the motherboard tin supply.

However, I urge playing astir with the maximum CPU timepiece velocity and undervolt via Curve Optimizer to find the saccharine spot of the highest timepiece velocity astatine the lowest voltage for your system. You tin besides acceptable the thermal throttle power manually to the maximum that the CPU tin support.

For instance, my CPU has a TJmax of 95°C, but PBO defaults it to 85°C, truthful if I acceptable the thermal throttle power to 95°C, I'll let my CPU to tally hotter and scope higher speeds earlier it slows backmost down.

So, however overmuch tin you expect to summation from PBO? If my hastily done Cinebench tests connected my AMD Ryzen 7 7700 are thing to spell by, you tin expect astir a 10.9% betterment successful multi-core show and astir 2.5% successful single-core tasks. Granted, the single-core summation mightiness autumn wrong the borderline of error, but a Redditor reported akin results erstwhile comparing PBO against the banal Ryzen 7 7700.

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PBO is simply a neat all-in-one bundle that provides AMD users with an effortless method to amended show and perchance overclock and undervolt their CPUs. If you person a Ryzen spot and aren't utilizing PBO, I powerfully urge trying it, provided you're alert of the tiny risks involved.