When it comes to optimizing your PC, there are a dozen different routes you can take depending on what you plan to do with your rig. It all comes down to the questions that you want to ask yourself: are you a gaming enthusiast looking to squeeze the maximum bang for your buck out of your components? Or are you setting up a powerful home workstation to supercharge your productivity whilst creating a distraction-free environment, unaffected by the roar of your cooling fans?

No matter what the use case may be, there’s one BIOS setting I always change that can be tweaked to build a PC that is tailored to my needs for the rig, and the best part is that it can be toggled on both AMD and Intel-based PCs. These can be found in your BIOS CPU settings, labeled as Multicore Enhancement (MCE) on Intel-based rigs and Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) on AMD computers.

What do these settings do?

It’s got to do with the CPU

On Intel devices, Multicore Enhancement (MCE) is an optimization on the unlocked ‘K’ series chips, designed to exploit the parallel processing capabilities of their multicore processors. This enables the chip to maximize throughput in compute-intensive workflows, such as running simulations, ML algorithm training, and 3D rendering and video editing.

Similarly, on AMD Ryzen-powered machines, Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) is a processor enhancement that extends the stock Precision Boost (PB) algorithm by relaxing thermal and power constraints that enable higher, sustained clock frequencies across all cores. This can help the processor achieve extra clock headroom in single and multithreaded workloads on the order of a few hundred MHz.

Why I tailor these settings to my needs

Do I need high performance or high efficiency?

MCE on Intel processors delivers higher multicore performance by circumventing Intel’s default power and thermal throttling algorithms to sustain their maximum targeted ‘Turbo Boost’ frequencies across *all active *cores, rather than scaling them down under multithreaded loads. So, when you turn on MCE in your BIOS, you’re instructing the motherboard to run all cores at the boost clock frequency, which means that, instead of a few cores running at boosted frequency, all performance cores tend to run as fast as they can, draw significantly more power, and generate a large amount of heat. This means that to leverage this setting sustainably, you require a reliable air cooler with a sufficiently large heatsink or an AIO.

In a benchmark test of the Intel Core i9 13900K, the SI Puget Systems found that in heavy multicore workloads like Cinebench* and Unreal Engine *builds, disabling MCE led to a performance drop of around 10-20% and a significant 30-40°C drop in temperatures.

On the AMD side of things, Precision Boost is the default smart-boosting system. However, Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) takes that a step further by allowing the CPU to draw more power than the factory-set limits, giving it the extra voltage and current headroom that enables it to boost harder for longer. Think of it as AMD’s official ‘auto-overclock’ setting.

Similar to their experiment and findings on MCE, Puget Systems also found a large difference in temperatures during load while testing the Ryzen 9 7950X. The SI notes that the corresponding drop in temperature reached 30°C in Cinebench* *multicore, dropping from 95°C to 65°C, corresponding to about a 10% drop in performance.

This variance, of course, is subject to both silicon variance and the particular model of the Ryzen chip you are using. In the same Cinebench test, tech YouTuber JayzTwoCents found a jump of 14.6% in multicore performance while testing the Ryzen 7 9700X.

Deciding what works

For workflow, entertainment, and everything else

A key part of budgeting for and picking out the best PC components for your build is choosing a CPU that works well for your particular workflow and entertainment needs. For example, I chose a Ryzen 5 7600X to pair with an RTX 4070 Ti Super, along with a 240mm NZXT Kraken AIO to take care of my gaming needs at 1440p resolution, and found that it works particularly well for the sweet spot. For my dad, however, who only uses the PC for casual web browsing and using Microsoft Office, a decent AM4 processor and a 30-series NVIDIA GPU would work just fine (although integrated graphics do the trick as well).

The very same principle applies to the BIOS settings. When building for someone with asmall-form-factor case, light creative tasks, or an affinity for casual gaming, enabling MCE or PBO may offer little advantage in their day-to-day lives, especially since they would be operating lightly-threaded applications.

Whereas those who routinely dabble with Adobe After Effects and DaVinci Resolve, train ML algorithms on their desktop or are keen to push their PCs to their limit for the last ounce of performance, the benefits of MCE and PBO may be more pronounced.

Finding the balance

The choice to enable or disable boost settings ultimately becomes about tuning your system to your purpose. If your workflow demands maximum throughput, and you’re comfortable managing thermals, these settings can extract every drop of potential from your CPU. But if your priority is consistency, stability, and a quieter experience (and you’re happy with stock performance), sticking to the defaults might serve you better. Having a choice and the flexibility to tune your PC to your beat is what defines the beauty of building and having a PC, so it’s always a good idea not to chase benchmarks or let the defaults decide.