Tuesday, March 9th 2021

MSI Released AGESA COMBO PI V2 1.2.0.1 Beta BIOS for AMD 500 Series Motherboards

Press Release by
AleksandarK
 Discuss (17 Comments)
MSI, a world-leading motherboard manufacturer, announces the release of AGESA COMBO PI V2 1.2.0.1 beta BIOS for its AMD 500 series motherboards to add SMART ACCESS MEMORY support to AMD RYZEN 3000 desktop processors. Now both RYZEN 5000 and RYZEN 3000* desktop processors support SMART ACCESS MEMORY. AGESA COMBO PI V2 1.2.0.1 BIOS also improves L3 Cache bandwidth in AIDA64 for RYZEN 5000 desktop processors.

SMART ACCESS MEMORY is an innovative feature that allows the system to access the full capacity of the VRAM on the graphics card. Compare to the current solution which has a 256 MB access limitation, this feature will provide the users a better gaming experience.
This feature requires pairing the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card with AMD RYZEN 5000/3000* series desktop processors. Also, don't forget to update the graphics card driver to the latest version. After taking these steps, this feature will be online and ready to boost your gaming performance.

AGESA COMBO PI V2 1.2.0.1 also fixes the RYZEN 5000 series processor L3 Cache bandwidth issue in AIDA64. With the new AGESA, the L3 Cache bandwidth has a dramatic improvement.
The new AGESA COMBO PI V2 1.2.0.1 BIOSes are online. Please go to the corresponding support page of the product to download the latest BIOS and enjoy the sweet performance boost.

*Smart Access Memory is supported on Ryzen 3000 series processors excluding the Ryzen 5 3400G and Ryzen 3 3200G.

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17 Comments on MSI Released AGESA COMBO PI V2 1.2.0.1 Beta BIOS for AMD 500 Series Motherboards

#1
john_
Did they fixed a specific problem with AIDA or did they fixed a general problem of Ryzen?

MSI also gave some benchmarks to.... Wccftech


Are Ryzen CPUs suddenly faster in gaming compared to before? Should sites retest?
Posted on Reply
#2
Space Lynx
Astronaut
I have been using this BIOS for 5 days now. been rock solid for me. and allowed for much better overclocking on ram, overall stability improved too.
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#3
Unregistered
john_Did they fixed a specific problem with AIDA or did they fixed a general problem of Ryzen?

MSI also gave some benchmarks to.... Wccftech


Are Ryzen CPUs suddenly faster in gaming compared to before? Should sites retest?
The 1.2.0.0 BIOS allegedly destroyed L3 cache performance on some Zen 3 SKUs and 1.2.0.1 fixed that. Not affecting Zen 2 AFAIK as I am on 1.2.0.0 rn and my 3900X cache speeds are normal.
#4
chris.london
john_Did they fixed a specific problem with AIDA or did they fixed a general problem of Ryzen?

MSI also gave some benchmarks to.... Wccftech


Are Ryzen CPUs suddenly faster in gaming compared to before? Should sites retest?
The new firmware only fixes L3 cache performance in AIDA. That picture is extremely misleading. It likely shows the effect of SAM.
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#5
Nater
MSI is way ahead of the curve on BIOS updates eh? *stares at ASUS*
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#6
VulkanBros
I think they released that on th 24th of february - at least for my board (X570 UNIFY) - shame I not own a Ryzen 3000 or 5000 CPU :ohwell:

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#7
Unregistered
NaterMSI is way ahead of the curve on BIOS updates eh? *stares at ASUS*
I'd rather get more QA testing done on them, not in a rush to update my BIOS every day.
#8
INSTG8R
Vanguard Beta Tester
NaterMSI is way ahead of the curve on BIOS updates eh? *stares at ASUS*
GB is the slowest...
AlexaI'd rather get more QA testing done on them, not in a rush to update my BIOS every day.
Yeah the latest GB beta BIOS breaks my NVME on the chipset..thankfully I keep the previous ones as GB likes to pull them.
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#9
Octopuss
Is the AIDA bugfix related to that program alone or does it actually have a performance impact?
Posted on Reply
#10
watzupken
I feel there's too many beta BIOS out there. Beta somehow sounds like it is not thoroughly tested, thus, don't instill a lot of confidence for people to start updating their motherboard.
Posted on Reply
#11
INSTG8R
Vanguard Beta Tester
watzupkenI feel there's too many beta BIOS out there. Beta somehow sounds like it is not thoroughly tested, thus, don't instill a lot of confidence for people to start updating their motherboard.
Of course you always take chances with a Beta. The current GB Beta BIOS for my board breaks my chipset NVME, F33c, F33a is fine, this latest AGESA ironically has "NVME detection improvements" so I am obviously waiting for GB to out theirs. They are also trying to pin down the USB 2.0 issues as the last 2 BIOS have had it in the "notes"
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#12
watzupken
INSTG8ROf course you always take chances with a Beta. The current GB Beta BIOS for my board breaks my chipset NVME, F33c, F33a is fine, this latest AGESA ironically has "NVME detection improvements" so I am obviously waiting for GB to out theirs. They are also trying to pin down the USB 2.0 issues as the last 2 BIOS have had it in the "notes"
If the beta BIOS fixes some teething issue(s) that you are facing, then it may make sense to try it. Even so, I won't jump head first into it because it may end up breaking other things. Normally BIOS should not be something that people have to flash often.
Posted on Reply
#13
INSTG8R
Vanguard Beta Tester
watzupkenIf the beta BIOS fixes some teething issue(s) that you are facing, then it may make sense to try it. Even so, I won't jump head first into it because it may end up breaking other things. Normally BIOS should not be something that people have to flash often.
Well new CPUs so getting lots of updates to iron out the bugs that come with it and adding new features I'm a beta tester for AMD I'm used to taking chances and as I said the current latest BIOS definitely has issues for me so I just rolled back to the previous one and wait for this one.
Posted on Reply
#14
Chrispy_
AlexaI'd rather get more QA testing done on them, not in a rush to update my BIOS every day.
IME Asus BIOSes are no better than others in terms of quashing bugs.
Asus just have too many motherboard SKUs and not enough people on the BIOS teams to compensate for their ridiculously bloated product portfolio.
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#15
Unregistered
Chrispy_IME Asus BIOSes are no better than others in terms of quashing bugs.
Asus just have too many motherboard SKUs and not enough people on the BIOS teams to compensate for their ridiculously bloated product portfolio.
Well at least their boards BIOS didn't die on me after I set one DRAM timing wrong. Looking at you Gigabyte
#16
Chrispy_
AlexaWell at least their boards BIOS didn't die on me after I set one DRAM timing wrong. Looking at you Gigabyte
I've been building hundreds of PC's a year for 20 years now and I basically treat ASUS, MSI, Asrock, Gigabyte as equals. They all have their BIOS/hardware quirks and all of them have good products and bad products; You just have to accept that whatever vendor you pick there are pitfalls because at the end of the day it's just an error-prone human doing the work.

My gripe with Asus is mostly that they're overpriced compared to the other three for "prestige" reasons but outside of their flagship boards their product stack does nothing to warrant that prestige and their support/driver process is definitely slower/worse than Gigabyte/Asrock. When you consider that ASUS has far more SKUs for any chipset than the competitors, it's no wonder their BIOS updates arrive slower. Do we really need 50+ different motherboards per chipset?
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#17
Nater
Chrispy_When you consider that ASUS has far more SKUs for any chipset than the competitors, it's no wonder their BIOS updates arrive slower. Do we really need 50+ different motherboards per chipset?
That drives me crazy with all the vendors, but I think it's also the reason I do end up w/ Asus boards - I can get what I want, and none of what I don't for the money.

And the naming schemes suit my style honestly...Asus you have the RoG, Tuf, and Prime essentially. Gigabyte Aorus Master Ultra Deluxe Super Combo Edition what? What is IT?! What's the target market? I've found it hard to become familiar with their brands (Gigabyte/Asrock/MSI) being used to Asus.
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