7 Tips to get the best performance from amd ryzen

AMD Ryzen processors have been the most anticipated computer product in recent years, after five years in which Intel has dominated without rival, we finally have a real alternative capable of competing in the high-end. The new Zen microarchitecture has shown excellent performance despite the fact that there are still some scenarios in which it is slightly below its rival, we are talking about games where Intel continues to command despite the fact that AMD has improved enormously. We offer you this guide with 7 tips to get the most out of your AMD Ryzen.

Index of contents

Top tips for AMD Ryzen

Choose the correct motherboard

The motherboard is the component on which the entire PC is built, that said, there will be no doubt that choosing the right one is a primary decision. Motherboards are offered with different chipsets depending on the range of use for which they are intended. Not all chipsets provide the same features, there are differences regarding the number of SATA ports, USB 3.0 ports, NVMe drive support, multi-GPU configurations and even overclocking.

You can check our post for the different chipsets of Ryzen AM4 motherboards.

Update the BIOS regularly

AMD has wanted to put Ryzen on the market as soon as possible, a situation that has caused motherboard manufacturers to not have had the time to properly develop and test BIOSes. For this reason the boards available on the market have very immature BIOSes that do not work as well as they should. Manufacturers update BIOS every day or every few days including major improvements so it is essential that you pay attention to this point.

RAM speed

The speed of RAM in MHZ has a big impact on AMD Ryzen's performance, especially in gaming which is where they are furthest from their rival Intel. Many of the AM4 motherboards run the memory modules well below their capabilities so it is important that the user find the best configuration.

This point depends on the manufacturer of the board and its BIOS, but in essence you must enter the configuration of the BIOS itself and look for the Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) section within the memory settings section. In this section you can manually select the speed of the RAM, the recommendation is that you start with the highest available and go down if the equipment does not work properly.

If you want to avoid problems in this regard, it is better to wait to buy your Ryzen equipment until the BIOS of the motherboards are more mature and certified memories are available for Ryzen.

Overclock the processor

The AMD Ryzen processors have the multiplier unlocked and AMD has also designed a tool to facilitate overclocking for users, AMD Ryzen Master. This is crying out to you to overclock your processor to improve its performance.

The AMD Ryzen reach 4 GHz quite easily although for this you will need an advanced heatsink if you do not want it to overheat, with the overclock the 1700 model can overcome the 1800X saving almost 200 euros on the way.

WE RECOMMEND YOU Intel Whiskey Lake laptop processors

If you want us to help you with the overclocking of your AMD Ryzen you can ask in this same post or in our forum.

Use a clean installation of Windows

When Windows is installed on a computer, configuration files are generated that can reduce performance if we change some system components. AMD recommends that we use a clean installation of Windows with Ryzen processors, especially if we have previously used an Intel processor. The recommendation is clear, install Windows from 0 on your new computer with Ryzen.

Change the Windows power plan

Windows gives us the option to select several power plans so that it can be managed automatically in the best way. The problem is that these plans don't go well with SenseMI Pure Power and Precision Boost technologies so they can negatively affect Ryzen's behavior. The recommendation is that we put the "high performance" plan.

Turn off High Precision Event Timer

Another feature of Windows that does not work well with AMD Ryzen processors because it is specifically designed for the Intel architecture. Its deactivation can earn us a 5-8% performance in games and other scenarios. For this we have to open a command window (cmd) and write:

bcdedit / deletevalue useplatformclock

We recommend reading our review of the AMD Ryzen 7 1700.

Source: pcworld