Latest AMD AGESA 1.0.0.4 update improves all-core boost and boot times for Ryzen 3000 processors

MSI recently spoke about a new AGESA microcode update in the works that is slated to bring 100+ improvements to AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs. The AGESA 1.0.0.4 update is set to be released in November by all motherboard manufacturers for eligible AMD chipsets with some of them already offering beta versions of the update for testing. Going by preliminary reports, it looks like the new update will bring in some much needed all-core boosts along with reduced boot times.

The effect of AGESA 1.0.0.4 on all-core boost clocks was tested by ComputerBase on the AMD Ryzen 7 3800X CPU running on an ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 motherboard with PBO disabled and 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM using timings CL 14-14-14-34. While the earlier 1.0.0.3ABBA microcode could allow the Ryzen 7 3800X to run up to 4,245 MHz on all cores, the new 1.0.0.4 version allowed a further 1.9% higher boost up to 4,325 MHz. Single-core boost remained the same at 4,550 MHz. 

The AGESA 1.0.0.4 update also seems to have helped with faster boot timings. MSI recently claimed that the new microcode improves boot times by up to 20% when tested on hardware comprised of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, MSI MEG X570 Godlike motherboard, and dual 8 GB DDR4 memory. This claim was independently verified by HKEPC as well. Since booting into Windows can be affected by many variables, the boot time was measured as the time it takes to get into the motherboard's BIOS. 

If you are rocking an MSI X570 motherboard, you can flash it with the latest beta version of AGESA 1.0.0.4. However, we would suggest waiting a bit as the new microcode does not yet include the latest System Management Unit (SMU) firmware 46.54.xx or above. We also do not know what the so-called 100+ new improvements are and whether they will be restricted only to the X570 boards or not.