Abstract
- Precision Increase Overdrive (PBO) is a secure and straightforward technique to improve CPU efficiency on AMD Ryzen chips.
- Enabling PBO offers a modest efficiency increase with potential beneficial properties various primarily based on CPU mannequin.
- To maximise PBO advantages, spend money on a very good aftermarket cooler and motherboard with high-quality VRMs.
Overclocking a brand new PC could be intimidating. You would possibly marvel if it is even obligatory, however leaving efficiency on the desk feels even worse. Fortunately, if in case you have an AMD Ryzen chip, there’s a straightforward technique to get a efficiency increase with out the trouble.
PBO is taken into account a type of overclocking. In case your CPU is broken on account of overclocking, AMD’s guarantee is not going to cowl the product. Proceed at your personal threat.
What’s Precision Increase Overdrive (PBO)?
AMD’s Precision Increase (PB) know-how permits Ryzen CPUs to dynamically improve clock speeds as much as the utmost marketed pace on a number of cores primarily based on thermal headroom and present limits. It is primarily a elaborate title for CPU boost.
Precision Increase Overdrive (PBO), because the title implies, overrides key energy and thermal parameters, resembling PPT (Package deal Energy Monitoring), TDC (Thermal Design Present), and EDC (Electrical Design Present). This enables your CPU to succeed in its most clock pace and maintain it for longer, but it surely does not essentially improve clock speeds like a correct overclock would.
When used this fashion, PBO offers a minor however very secure and headache-free efficiency enchancment on virtually any AMD CPU. It is essentially the most you can get out of PBO with out diving deeper into the BIOS.
Thankfully, PBO additionally has a baked-in Auto OC (computerized overclocking) characteristic that provides you the choice to override the utmost increase clock. It is a straightforward technique to overclock your CPU with PBO serving as a security web. You’ll be able to even undervolt your CPU with Curve Optimizer inside PBO. I will go over the main points of how one can configure PBO for max beneficial properties later on this article.

Associated
What Is Undervolting a GPU or CPU, and When Should You Do It?
Much less juice for extra pace? Appears too good to be true, proper?
Causes Why You Ought to Allow PBO
To state the plain, enabling PBO offers a modest efficiency increase in video games and different demanding purposes with a single toggle within the BIOS. It is very handy and straightforward to allow PBO on any fashionable AMD system.
Nevertheless, the precise efficiency beneficial properties rely upon a number of components, with essentially the most vital being the precise CPU mannequin you may have. As an example, the Ryzen 9000 Sequence is each cooler and extra environment friendly than the Ryzen 7000 Sequence by default. In concept, enabling PBO on the 9000 Sequence might yield larger efficiency enhancements than on the 7000 Sequence, assuming you may have an enough CPU cooler and motherboard.
That mentioned, you’ll be able to nonetheless improve your CPU increase clock inside PBO on any Ryzen chip to barely enhance efficiency.
The Curve Optimizer can be straightforward to make use of. It offsets the voltage throughout the whole voltage/frequency curve, so you need to use it to attain a slight undervolt with out instantly tweaking voltages. It will make your CPU extra environment friendly and cooler, and it will possibly even improve its lifespan barely.
What You Have to Allow PBO
When you can and may allow PBO even on a inventory CPU cooler, you must actually spend money on an aftermarket cooler to get essentially the most out of it. You needn’t get a liquid cooler, although; a high-quality air cooler just like the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB can get you the mandatory thermal overhead to push your CPU to its most.

Thermalright Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB
The Thermalright Peerless Murderer 120 SE ARGB is an reasonably priced but high-performance CPU cooler that may simply maintain temperatures in test for any consumer-grade processor. It options six heatpipes and a cut up heatsink design, paired with two 120mm ARGB followers that give it a premium aesthetic.
You will additionally want a good motherboard with a ample variety of high-quality VRMs (voltage regulator modules). These parts present steady energy to your CPU, they usually’re important if you wish to use superior PBO settings for increased clock speeds and decrease voltages.
On the very least, you must have a motherboard with a B650 or B850 chipset, however an X670/X870 just like the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi Gaming motherboard is right.

MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi Gaming Motherboard
The MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi Gaming is a high-end AMD AM5 motherboard with all the newest bells and whistles, resembling Wi-Fi 7, USB 40Gbps, PCIe 5.0, and extra. It is excellent for fanatics who need to get essentially the most out of their AMD programs by way of overclocking.
You additionally want a good energy provide, as even a small hiccup within the energy supply between it and the motherboard might end in stability points when your system is drawing quite a lot of energy. It doesn’t need to be some fancy oversized 1,000W PSU; one thing made by a good producer that has sufficient energy to your system is ample.
Don’t Simply Allow PBO; Tweak It for Even Higher Good points
Whereas you may get lots from simply switching PBO on and leaving it at that, you may get much more out of it with just a few easy tweaks. Some motherboards even have a handful of first rate PBO presets you can select from, that are a step up in comparison with leaving PBO on auto.
For instance, my ASRock B650M PG Riptide provides me just a few choices that decrease the Tjmax (which reduces energy consumption, warmth, and noise at the price of efficiency) and apply a detrimental voltage offset through the Curve Optimizer.
Nevertheless, I nonetheless favor setting my PBO manually. For the needs of this text, I did a bunch of benchmarks utilizing Cinebench and located that I received one of the best outcomes with a +200MHz clock pace increase, the PBO limits set to the motherboard (Ryzen Grasp tells me they’re 1,000 PPT, 180 TDC, and 250 EDC), the Scalar set to Auto, and the Curve Optimizer set to -30mV.
You could possibly go a step farther from right here by adjusting the PPT, TDC, and EDC values manually, however frankly, I do not suppose you can obtain a lot by doing so. Except for the CPU, your motherboard is the limiting issue, so you’ll be able to’t go a lot past what the motherboard can provide.
Nevertheless, I like to recommend enjoying round with the utmost CPU clock pace and undervolt through Curve Optimizer to search out the candy spot of the very best clock pace on the lowest voltage to your system. You may as well set the thermal throttle management manually to the utmost that the CPU can assist.
As an example, my CPU has a TJmax of 95°C, however PBO defaults it to 85°C, so if I set the thermal throttle management to 95°C, I will permit my CPU to run hotter and attain increased speeds earlier than it slows again down.
So, how a lot are you able to anticipate to realize from PBO? If my unexpectedly carried out Cinebench exams on my AMD Ryzen 7 7700 are something to go by, you’ll be able to anticipate round a ten.9% enchancment in multi-core efficiency and about 2.5% in single-core duties. Granted, the single-core acquire would possibly fall throughout the margin of error, however a Redditor reported similar results when evaluating PBO in opposition to the inventory Ryzen 7 7700.
PBO is a neat all-in-one package deal that gives AMD customers with an easy methodology to enhance efficiency and probably overclock and undervolt their CPUs. If in case you have a Ryzen chip and are not utilizing PBO, I strongly suggest attempting it, offered you are conscious of the small dangers concerned.