As with any new hardware, AMD’s Ryzen platform launched earlier this year with plenty of room for improvement.
The latest update AMD has released is an AGESA (AMD Generic Encapsulated System) update which updates the code to v1.0.0.6. For those unfamiliar, AGESA is the base code from AMD which is what motherboard BIOS makers build their BIOSes off of. The new update largely improves memory support and overclocking, but also adds some new virtualization features as well.
The biggest update with AGESA v1.0.0.6 is improved memory support and overclocking. AMD has added 26 new parameters that can be adjusted in the BIOS for memory that doesn’t adhere strictly to JEDEC specifications. This includes pretty much any memory that can be overclocked beyond DDR4-2667. AMD is also increasing support for overclocking DDR4 memory up to 4,000MHz for the hardcore overclockers out there.
In addition, AMD is also adding support for PCIe ACS (Access Control Services). ACS allows PCIe graphics cards to be assigned to specific virtual machines. As a result, it’s now possible for those with multiple graphics cards and systems with multiple VMs to assign each VM with an individual dedicated graphics card with little to no hit to performance. This could be a great solution for those who want to run Linux, but also want to be able to run games or content creation apps in a separate VM container.
More information about AMD’s latest AGESA update can be found on AMD’s community blog here.
