ASRock on Monday (25/11) announced that its Z890 chipset motherboards support the new Intel Platform Power Management (PPM) driver version 1007.20240913, which promises an up to 13.23% increase in performance with games and gaming benchmarks, hinting that this could be the much awaited "fix" to the lower-than-expected gaming performance of its Core Ultra "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors, which was crushed by AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D "Zen 5." As ASRock's announcement was somewhat unclear and raised more questions than answers, we have updated the post accordingly. It turns out there's more to this story, and this PPM driver might not be the magic fix Intel has been touting.

The PPM driver, in theory, enables a closer collaboration between the software and the processor, so it can allocate more power budget to applications that could do with more performance, such as games. Given how much lower the gaming power draw of the Core Ultra 285K is, compared to its predecessor, the Core i9-14900K "Raptor Lake," the obvious vector to Intel to dial up performance for the 285K was expected to be better power budgeting, provided the thermals and physical stability of the processor permit.

ASRock, the global leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, mini PCs, and gaming monitors, announced that the Intel Platform Power Management driver for its Z890 series motherboards is now available on the official website. Consumers are encouraged to download and install it promptly to enhance Intel Core Ultra series processor performance.

The Intel Platform Power Management driver dynamically adjusts processor frequency and voltage based on system loading, offering more efficient power management functionality. This allows consumers to enjoy improved system and gaming performance. ASRock Z890 series motherboard users can download and install the Platform Power Management (PPM) driver, version 1007.20240913, from the "Support and Download" section of the official website to easily boost their system and gaming performance."

Benchmarks show that installing the driver can deliver up to a 13.23% improvement in gaming performance. Users are strongly recommended to download and install it as soon as possible to enjoy the enhanced experience.

ASRock's PR regarding the latest Platform Power Management (PPM) driver, promised up to 13.23 percent boost in gaming performance. Unfortunately, ASRock did not provide any benchmark data or system specifications, so it was unclear in which games actually got the performance boost, other than the Final Fantasy XIV Downtrail benchmark that was a part of ASRock's PR. The screenshot from ASRock does give some details, showing an increased score in Final Fantasy XIV Downtrail benchmark from 29,157 to 33,017 on Intel Core Ultra 9 285K when Intel PPM is enabled.

As ASRock did not provide any specific details, we reached out to Intel for further clarification regarding the update and if it has anything to do with the previously Core Ultra 200 fix announced by Robert Hallock, so hopefully we'll get a response soon.

As spotted by Videocardz.com, the drivers in question were already available for nearly two weeks and apparently do not have anything to do with the Core Ultra 200 fix announced previously by Robert Hallock. We have asked Intel for an official clarification and will post an update as soon as we get it.As of this writing, no other motherboard vendor put out similar announcements with such significant performance uplift claims.