[SOLVED] BIOS downgrade possible on MSI MPG x570 Gaming Plus ?

[Fiorezy]

I've been getting lower CPU performance with every BIOS update, with tge latest version, my 3700x is barely hitting 4.2Ghz on single core at 57c and 4Ghz all cores at 67c, it was much better with previous releases.

After some Googling, I learned that 1.0.0.3ABBA which was released a year ago is when people got the highest boost and scores on Ryzen 3000.

I am currently on latest version, so is it possible to downgrade to 1.0.0.3ABBA? Will there be any risks? Will the process be the same as updating?

Full build:

• MSI MPG x570 Gaming Plus
• Ryzen 7 3700x
• Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC
• G.Skill Trident Z 2x8GB 3200MHz CL16
• 2x1TB SSD SATA
• 1TB HDD
• Corsair RM 650i
• MasterCase MC600P

 

[COLGeek]

Downgrading your BIOS can result in issues with GPUs and memory compatibility/optimization in particular. These reductions in performance could be from other factors (heat, power, applications in use....any number of things).

 

[drea.drechsler]

I've been getting lower CPU performance with every BIOS update, with tge latest version, my 3700x is barely hitting 4.2Ghz on single core at 57c and 4Ghz all cores at 67c, it was much better with previous releases.

After some Googling, I learned that 1.0.0.3ABBA which was released a year ago is when people got the highest boost and scores on Ryzen 3000.

I am currently on latest version, so is it possible to downgrade to 1.0.0.3ABBA? Will there be any risks? Will the process be the same as updating?

Full build:

• MSI MPG x570 Gaming Plus
• Ryzen 7 3700x
• Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC
• G.Skill Trident Z 2x8GB 3200MHz CL16
• 2x1TB SSD SATA
• 1TB HDD
• Corsair RM 650i
• MasterCase MC600P

Don't look at clocks alone to infer performance. That can be very misleading on Ryzen 3000 CPU's because boosting is frequently too brief for monitoring utilities to adequate show what's happening.

Instead look at a benchmark utility that measures both multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. Probably the best one is Cinebench 20 since it uses production rendering routines instead of synthetic routines. Higher performance isn't really the result of the highest boost clocks; instead the result of higher intermediate boosts being sustained even under heavy loads. For that, you also need better than stock cooling.

Lastly, if you do want to look at clocks be sure to set up correctly to catch them in monitoring utilities as best as possible. In BIOS be sure to leave frequency and core voltage in AUTO. Then set the following to ENABLED: Cool n Quiet, Advanced C States, Processor CPPC and CPPC Preferred Cores. Install AMD's chipset drivers and use the AMD Ryzen Balanced power plan UNALTERED.

Now, use HWInfo64 to monitor processor core clocks and set a polling period of 500mS. You need it pretty often to catch enough of the boosting but not so often it affects the results itself. Run a lightly threaded workload, something like a Defender quick scan usually works well for me. You should see it boosting to 4400, one core at a time. Don't be surprised to also see STI2/TFN core spikes up to 1.5V range in light bursty processing; it's perfectly normal and by design. AMD has clearly stated this many times.

Later AGESA's actually boost better and, as @COLGeek suggests, have much better hardware compatibility. 1003abb or -abba only just started the better boosting behaviour.