- Asus' AI Cache Boost is said to improve AI workload uplift by nearly 20%
- The tests were conducted with the three most recent AMD Ryzen 9000 processors
- AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D seems to benefit the most
Asus has launched a BIOS feature named AI Cache Boost which is said to increase AI workload performance on AMD's Ryzen 9000 processors by up to 19.35%.
AI Cache Boost comes as part of a new BIOS firmware update for Asus' AMD 800 series motherboards which is said to "pump up the AI performance of your AMD Ryzen system" for AI apps, such as working with large language models (LLMs).
Specifically, Asus has tested the two recently released AMD Ryzen 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D processors and their optimizations benefitting "AI enthusiasts".
To use the tech with a Ryzen 9000 series CPU and an Asus AMD 800 series motherboard, then, you go to the UEFI BIOS utility, head into the Extreme Tweaker tab, and then toggle AI Cache Boost to 'Enabled' and that will have it ready to handle more AI workloads.
Asus claims its AI Cache Boost includes overclocking the Infinity Fabric clock to 2100 MHz, which is said to boost the total bandwidth of data transfers between the Ryzen 9000 series CPU cores, cache, and memory for working with large language models.
The hardware manufacturer's tests were conducted with a ROG Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard, an RTX 5090, and 32GB DDR5 RAM as the test bench. As well as the two most recently released AM5 chips, the 9800X3D was also put through its paces in Geekbench AI with the ONNX DirectML framework as a benchmark.
On average, Asus' AI Cache Boost saw around a 5% increase in Geekbench AI with its Single Precision and Half Precision scores for both the 9950X3D and 9900X3D. However, the 9800X3D saw the highest difference, of 7.93% with its Half Precision Score (comparing the default of 63365 to 68393).
The claimed 12.5% performance bump was also achieved on the 9800X3D with the UL Procyon AI Computer Vision Benchmark, a sweeping improvement of 1680 compared to 1490. Based on the published benchmarks, it seems that the popular gaming CPU may benefit more than the two leading models.
Asus acknowledges that it's still "early days" for the RTX 5090, so it had conducted tests with the previous-generation (but still excellent) RTX 4090 as well. It's this pairing that we see the largest boost, in tandem with the existing BIOS feature Turbo Game Boost (which allows the CPU to operate more efficiently by disabling simultaneous multithreading).
By using both AI Cache Boost and Turbo Game Mode together, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D saw a jump from 1426 to 1702 in the UL Procyon AI Computer Vision Benchmark. Without Turbo Game Mode, however, the difference was minimal at just 1485 (4.1%). To get the best experience, you may need both BIOS features enabled.
A leg up for AI workloads on niche hardware
Asus' benchmarks reveal anywhere from a slight boost to a significant uplift in AI performance on the Ryzen 9000 series, when paired with leading 90-class graphics cards for good measure. Based on the averages, it seems like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D benefits the most (barring one or two top-end exceptions).
With that said, to use this feature, you'll need a specific motherboard series and also the use of Turbo Game Mode to take things further. If you're thinking of building a rig purely for AI workloads then it seems like the new BIOS feature could be a small shot in the arm to make things a little faster and easier, however, it's debatable whether around 3-6% in most tests is worth upgrading.
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