ASUS has become the latest motherboard manufacturer to include a ‘Turbo Game Mode’ designed for AMD’s popular X3D gaming processors. A new BIOS update is now being rolled out for AM5 motherboards – these are the ones that support Team Red’s latest CPUs (the 7000 series onwards) and we expect AM5 to be supported for some years to come.

Just prior to this, Gigabyte announced its own version of the tweak, ‘X3D Turbo Mode’ in an official post. It claims up to 18% performance increase for both the existing 9000 series CPUs as well as upcoming 16-core X3D processors. No specific numbers are given for the 7000X3D series, but this setting will support those last-gen chips too.

Turbo Game Mode released for ASUS motherboards

As tested by the German outlet ComputerBase, the new Turbo Game mode setting is available in the latest BIOS version which was released at the tail end of October. It claims to “Enhance performance in certain games” and can easily be toggled on in the BIOS tweaker options. You can download it via the ASUS website’s support page; support seems to be rolling out for all AM5 motherboards, including the latest X870E chipset. We’ve also spotted cheaper boards like the B650-A included.

Since the new mode is designed for a performance boost in games, the setting disables SMT (Simultaneous multithreading) to perform better in games that benefit from fewer (but faster) cores. Disabling the second chiplet is best suited for the high-end Ryzen 9 X3D processors, as multi-threading can be downplayed to instead focus on single-thread, which is ideal for gaming. This is one of the reasons why the 7800X3D actually performs better than the 7950X3D in gaming by default.

This BIOS setting comes just as the 9800X3D release date is around the corner. Motherboard manufacturers are gearing up for AMD’s launch of the 9000X3D range, though the Ryzen 9 variants are speculated to arrive sometime in early 2025.

For further reference, we’ve reviewed a few ASUS AM5 motherboards, so if you want to read more, see below:

• ASUS ROG Strix X870E-E
• ASUS PRIME X870-P WiFi
• ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.