AMD Announces AM4 BIOS Update in Time for Ryzen 5

We’re less than a fortnight away from the release of AMD’s mid-range Ryzen 5 processors, but the company has already revealed a new BIOS update for socket AM4 motherboards ahead of the launch of the new CPU family. The AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA) update for its motherboard partners is expected to be pushed out in early April.

AMD’s Rob Hallock says:

“As a brief primer, the AGESA is responsible for initializing AMD x86-64 processors during boot time, acting as something of a “nucleus” for the BIOS updates you receive for your motherboard. Motherboard vendors take the baseline capabilities of our AGESA releases and build on that infrastructure to create the files you download and flash.

We will soon be distributing AGESA point release 1.0.0.4 to our motherboard partners. We expect BIOSes based on this AGESA to start hitting the public in early April, though specific dates will depend on the schedules and QA practices of your motherboard vendor.

 BIOSes based on this new code will have four important improvements for you

1. We have reduced DRAM latency by approximately 6ns. This can result in higher performance for latency-sensitive applications.
2. We resolved a condition where an unusual FMA3 code sequence could cause a system hang.
3. We resolved the “overclock sleep bug” where an incorrect CPU frequency could be reported after resuming from S3 sleep.
4. AMD Ryzen™ Master no longer requires the High-Precision Event Timer (HPET).

We will continue to update you on future AGESA releases when they’re complete, and we’re already working hard to bring you a May release that focuses on overclocked DDR4 memory.”

AMD is also planning a further AGESA BIOS update to boost performance of its Ryzen chips sometime in May.