AMD’s Locked $55 Athlon is now Overclockable using new MSI BIOS
AMD’s Locked $55 Athlon is now Overclockable using new MSI BIOS
When AMD released their Zen-based Athlon 200GE processor, they revealed that the processor would be their first locked Zen-based desktop processor, lacking support for precision boost and other performance-enhancing features.Â
Things have changed over the past few months with the YouTube channel TechEpiphany discovering that the Athlon 200GE is overclockable using certain BIO files, revealing a similar UEFI bug to what was seen in early Skylake non-K processors.Â
Using MSI’s B350M Gaming Pro motherboard and the company’s latest AGESA 1006 BIOS installed, AMD’s Athlon 200GE can be overclocked using both Base Clock and Multiplier overclocking, also enabling higher RAM speeds using higher BCLK clocks.Â
Using this method, TechEpiphany managed to achieve a clock speed of slightly over 3.9GHz, a significant boost over the dual core’s default 3.2GHz clock speed, representing an increase of over 20%. Tom’s Hardware has managed to validate these findings using an MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC motherboard using its latest BIOS files.Â
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While overclocking a dual-core may not be high on some people’s priority list, the performance bump seen here may be more than worthwhile for those who use the Athlon 200GE as a basic desktop machine or as part of an HTPC or a home file storage server. This will push the CPU over its 35W TDP, though depending on the user the additional power draw may be a price worth paying.Â
You can join the discussion on how new MSI BIOS files have unlocked the Athlon 200GE on the OC3D Forums.Â