A ‘revolutionary’ Turbo Mode promises up to 35% faster gaming on Ryzen chips

By Luke Larsen October 18, 2024

The Ryzen 9 9950X socketed in a motherboard.

Ryzen 9000 hasn’t been the surefire hit AMD fans were hoping for. Enthusiasts are still waiting for the X3D chip in the line, but Gigabyte has already announced a new X3D Turbo Mode for its motherboards that supposedly delivers between 20% and 35% better gaming performance.

Gigabyte calls it a “revolutionary BIOS feature” that’s designed to improve performance for X870E, X870, and 600 series motherboards that can boost the Ryzen 7000X3D and Ryzen 9000 series processors.

Recommended Videos

Perhaps the most fascinating nugget from Gigabyte’s press release is mention of an “incoming Ryzen 9000 X3D” processor, which will receive the largest performance benefit of up to 35% and is already being anticipated to be among the best processors you’ll be able to buy when it eventually launches. The non-X3D Ryzen 9000 chips will get a lower 20% performance boost. Gigabyte notes that the X3D Turbo Mode ups the Ryzen 9000 chips to “achieve similar gaming performance levels as their Ryzen X3D counterparts.”

The X3D Turbo Mode being shown in the BIOS.

Gigabyte didn’t, however, mention the exact performance boost that would be offered to the Ryzen 7000X3D processors. As Tom’s Hardware notes, Gigabyte also doesn’t explain how exactly its new Turbo Mode works, instead referring to it as “wizardry.”

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming

The promise of the faster performance is enticing, though, and hopefully improves the value of AMD’s Ryzen 9000 chips. AMD itself offered a 17% boost to performance on these processors a couple of months after their launch, and Gigabyte’s Turbo Mode could enhance performance even more. More than anything, confirmation of the “incoming” Ryzen 9000X3D chips was enough to get my attention.

Gigabyte says the X3D Turbo Mode is available in the latest beta BIOS release now, so you can go check out the performance gains for yourself.

Topics

Senior Editor, Computing

Luke Larsen is the Senior Editor of Computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.

Computing

AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D may not give Intel any breathing room

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D installed in a motherboard.

The competition between Intel Arrow Lake and AMD Zen 5 hasn't been as fierce as usual, with both lineups delivering small gen-to-gen improvements. However, it seems that AMD may soon add a staple to its list of the best processors, and the CPU might be announced at the worst possible time for Intel. I'm talking about the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which now has a rumored release date alongside some performance benchmarks.

The release date speculation was initially shared on Bilibili, but the user has since deleted their post. However, the discussion continued on Chiphell forums, spilling the beans on both the official announcement date and the possible release date.

Computing

I’ve reviewed every AMD and Nvidia GPU this generation — here’s how the two companies stack up

Three graphics cards on a gray background.

Nvidia and AMD make the best graphics cards you can buy, but choosing between them isn't easy. Unlike previous generations, AMD and Nvidia trade blows point-for-point in 2024, and picking a brand to go with isn't as easy as counting the dollars in your wallet.

I've reviewed every graphics card AMD and Nvidia have released this generation, comparing not only raw performance, but also features like DLSS and FSR, ray tracing performance, and how VRAM works in modern games. After dozens of graphics card reviews, here's how AMD and Nvidia stack up against each other in 2024.
Nvidia vs. AMD in 2024

Computing

How AMD boosted Ryzen 9000 CPUs by 17% overnight

amd ryzen 9000 retested dt respec

AMD's Zen 5 CPUs, called Ryzen 9000, released with a collective sigh. None of them have it made it onto the list of the best processors, not so much because they're bad, but just because they aren't the best option. Outside of a few niche tasks, they felt more like a price increase and less like a performance increase compared to the previous generation. But that's changing.

We've seen a handful of updates from AMD over the last couple of months, which have culminated in a new BIOS for AMD motherboards that boosts performance across the range -- or so AMD says. I retested the full range of Zen 5 CPUs across games and productivity apps to see where they really sit now that the launch dust has settled.
How did we get here?