The reviews of the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X thus far has been a mixed bag, and some of the criticisms have been directing towards too conservative power targets to let these new chips stretch their legs. According to chi11eddog (@g0ld3nm4ng0 on X/Twitter), it looks like AMD is taking that feedback seriously.
AMD Went Too Conservative?
The tweet states that AMD will be pushing a new AGESA patch (version 1.2.0.1a Patch A) that basically raises the power limit of the two mid-range Ryzen 9000 chips from 65W to 105W. This effectively bring them back on par with their Ryzen 7000 equivalents, which were at the time criticized for having a significantly higher TDP over its Ryzen 5000 counterparts. (Moral of the lesson: it’s all about perspectives.)
Still, having the extra power headroom means more performance can be extracted, since using PBO may not necessarily provide reliable stability given that it technically counts as an overclocking mechanism. A simple TDP increase will keep parameters like core voltage and clock speeds within factory specs, so there’s less risks involved here. Besides, users can likely still activate “Eco Mode” to lock it down to 65W should they wish.
Keep in mind that AMD hasn’t confirmed this change just yet, though there were previous reports of the chipmaker contemplating on raising the TDP limit to as high as 120W. That eventually didn’t happen, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens when these chips get extra power to work with.
Source: Videocardz
Pokdepinion: I do agree 65W seems a bit too little for an 8-core chip – besides, AMD can always spin off a non-X version for 65W variants. Makes segmentation clearer this way, too.
