MSI has introduced a new automated overclocking tool for its 800-series Max, MEG Godlike, and B850M Power motherboards known as PBO BCLK Booster. It effectively overclocks the BCLK (Base Clock) on the CPU by a few MHz, which, when multiplied, can make a sizeable impact on frequency. MSI claims that in some games, performance can increase by up to 15%, according to WCCFTech.
It’s rare that free performance with anything is actually free. (Who didn’t try to download more RAM at some point?) But MSI’s new feature genuinely seems to be a free upgrade, leveraging the external clock generator to automatically set the CPU’s BCLK to 103 MHz, instead of 100 MHz on Profile 1 or up to 105 MHz on Profile 2. It’s an alternative to the Precision Boost Overdrive and offers performance well beyond standard boost algorithms.
The biggest gains do come when using Efficiency mode and EXPO as well.
Credit: MSI
MSI’s first-party performance numbers show a Ryzen 7 9800X3D on a B850M Power motherboard with an RTX 5090 delivering impressive results at 1080p. In Cyberpunk 2077, just enabling this feature added another 5fps, around a 2% increase. In Doom Dark Ages, frame rates improved by 3%. With Efficiency Mode enabled and memory tuned with their EXPO profile, MSI increased that to 15% over stock.
These are first-party numbers, so MSI is going to be using best-case scenarios; there’s certainly no bottlenecking at 1080p with that 5090 screaming away, but the performance results are undeniably there.
This isn’t something entry-level gamers are going to benefit from. Still, if you’re building a new high-end gaming PC, you may want to consider MSI over alternatives if you’re targeting absolute maximum performance. Be aware that you may need greater cooling with this enabled, though, as faster chips tend to run a bit hotter.