AMD's best gaming CPU gets even better: MSI releases a BIOS utility to get more performance out of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D
While the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is one of the best gaming CPUs on the market, MSI has managed to push the processor beyond what it is capable of right out of the box. The company accomplished this through a BIOS utility it calls “Kombo Strike”. The BIOS update that enables this option is in beta and is only available on a limited number of MSI’s X570S, X570, and B550 motherboards.
For the uninitiated, AMD has disabled core frequency overclocking and voltage tweaking on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D to prevent the CPU from misbehaving. A while ago we reported that a lower-than-usual voltage limit was the reason AMD didn’t enable overclocking on its first 3D V-Cache chip. The fact that MSI has managed to find a way to boost the performance of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D without overclocking begs the question: how does MSI’s Kombo Strike utility work?
Sadly, we don’t know as MSI remains tight-lipped. Tom Hardware speculates that the company may have found a way to raise the power limit of the chip.
Once you install the BIOS update on a supported motherboard, you can find the Kombo Strike utility inside the “Overclocking/Advanced CPU Configuration” section. Kombo Strike offers four options “Disabled, 1, 2, and 3” to choose from. While the first option is self-explanatory, we can guess that the final option is meant to offer the biggest performance bump.
In addition to pushing the Ryzen 7 5800X3D through Kombo Strike, MSI has also enabled “Core Offset Voltage” for people who want to undervolt their CPUs.
As a word of caution, these new features are experimental hence the “beta” moniker for the latest BIOS update from MSI. So, if you value stable operation over squeezing your processor for every last bit of performance, don’t install such updates.
Finally, you won’t have to wait long to get a better processor with 3D V-Cache. AMD is expected to reveal the Zen 4-based successor to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D shortly after launching the Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” desktop chips.
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