The BIOS is something many people just choose to ignore entirely.That's okay, I guess—your PC should usually work even if you never set foot in the BIOS/UEFI.But some BIOS tweaks can really improve your computer.
One of the lesser-known BIOS optimizations helped me diagnose and fix a throttling PC once upon a time—here's what you need to do.The clock speeds made throttling look possible My CPU was running suspiciously close to its base clock Close When I first thought my PC had a problem, I didn't immediately blame the BIOS, because who does? There could be about a million different reasons why a computer might be slow in CPU-heavy workloads.So, my first step wasn't to throw various things at said problem and see what sticks, but rather to investigate.
For that, I usually use HWiNFO.It was a good couple of years ago now, but I remember finding the clock speeds quite suspicious.No matter the workload, the CPU ran at or even slightly under the base clocks instead of boosting, which is what I typically expected it to do.
So, my first thought was, is it overheating? An easy fix, fortunately, most of the time—just need to give your PC a good clean.Which I did, but it didn't help, which isn't surprising; I tend to clean my PC pretty frequently, so dust buildup never gets bad enough for it to start throttling.Besides, simply seeing a CPU run below its advertised maximum boost clock doesn't really prove much.
These days, CPUs are micro-adjusting their frequency depending on what you're up to.But mine was consistently disappointing, so ...I thought there was something wrong.
Related My PC took 30 minutes to boot until I fixed this one SSD problem SSD problems can make your PC entirely unusable Posts 11 By Monica J.White But the temps didn't really add up? The CPU had all the thermal headroom it could've dreamed of Once the PC was all nice, shiny, and dust-free, I went back to staring at HWiNFO with a frown on my face.The temps just didn't support any kind of overheating claims.
Even under heavy load, my good ol' Ryzen 7800X3D wasn't anywhere close to its thermal limit, and it is a CPU that tends to run hot, so that's saying something.Still, the clock speeds puzzled me.The whole temperature debacle is important because CPUs tend to boost opportunistically when they have enough thermal and electrical headroom.
This one did, so, what was the problem? With the cleaning done, I considered the fan speeds and curves, and even replacing thermal paste.But you don't need to replace thermal paste that often, and I've already micromanaged my fans into oblivion.That's when I figured it was time to peek at the BIOS.
Core Performance Boost was the setting I'd overlooked This isn't the same thing as PBO, by the way Going through the BIOS quickly revealed that the culprit was a little setting called Core Performance Boost, or CPB.Somehow, it ended up disabled in my BIOS.This is an AMD feature that lets your CPU raise individual core frequencies above the advertised base clock whenever the workload calls for it.
Again, this only happens if the CPU has that thermal/electrical headroom available, so it won't spontaneously combust (phew).It's part of the CPU's normal behavior, so it's not an optional overclocking thing you're supposed to enable only if you trust your CPU to be able to handle it.As far as AMD goes, it's important to separate CPB from Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO).
Precision Boost is AMD's standard boosting behavior, while PBO gives your CPU an extra advantage by lending it additional power and current headroom beyond its normal limits.CPB is the BIOS switch that allows that basic above-base-clock boosting behavior in the first place, which is why my CPU was stubbornly stuck below boost clock speeds.Mystery solved.
Re-enabling the boost fixed the problem Gotta love a quick fix for a change I tracked down the culprit, and if you're in the same boat, you'll be happy to hear that the fix is super easy.Go into the BIOS, find Core Performance Boost, and change it to Enabled.Yes, that's really it.
Some mobos may have this set to Auto, which should let your CPU do what it sees fit, but if it's not working well, just try Enabled instead.The exact path to track down this setting varies between motherboard vendors, so you might have to dig through advanced settings for the CPU or overclocking.Don't just change every setting that mentions boosts, though.
Once you save and go back to Windows, start up your favorite CPU-bound game (or any other workload that really puts your CPU through the wringer) and check the clock speeds in HWiNFO.If your processor is happily boosting past the base clock speed, you're all good.But if it isn't? Beyond the BIOS, you may have to look into some other cheap or free desktop upgrades instead.
Check your BIOS before throwing away good hardware I'm sure you know as well as I do that buying new hardware is not so fun right now.Unless you happen to be sitting on a pile of cash you're happy to hand over to various manufacturers during the current price hikes, I'd recommend against it.You might find some free tweaks in the BIOS, so start exploring, but do so responsibly—if you don't know what a setting does, don't touch it without investigating.
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