Intel Meteor Lake CPUs: BIOS update makes them faster and more efficient retrospectively

Intel recently released its “Core Ultra” Meteor Lake processors and the first reviewers and customers have already gotten their hands on them. According to a review by UltrabookReview, Intel’s Meteor Lake laptops are equipped with a pre-release BIOS firmware that severely impacts performance, mainly because it causes inefficiencies in the power delivery process. The review shows that Intel has noticed the problem and is working with partners to provide a solution. ASUS has already released its latest UEFI firmware update, which brings noticeable performance and efficiency improvements.

Author Andrei Girbea of UltrabookReview reports that after upgrading the BIOS version from 201 to 203, a performance increase of 12.5% was noted in Cinebench tests. He also collects data for other applications.

I ran and updated the Cinebench scores again, with the laptop fresh from a cold boot up. In Cinebench R23, the CPU starts at 50W and ends up around 35W for the best-effort run. For the 10 min loop, it starts at 50W and then gradually drops and stabilizes at around 28W (after about 5-6 minutes it gets to 28W).

201: CineBench R23: CPU 12357 pts (best run), CPU 11342 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1751 pts (best run);
203: CineBench R23: CPU 13873 pts (best run), CPU 12132 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1761 pts (best run);

Yes, 3dmark, Uniengine are on BIOS 203. Everything else except for games and Cinebench R24 are on BIOS 203. Still updating those.

via UltrabookReview

An interesting review was also conducted a week ago by well-known hardware leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, which pointed to the same “inefficient power system” in its tests. Golden Pig Upgrade says that there is a scheduling issue due to early power metering and after the laptop was updated with the latest firmware, significant improvements were seen in both power consumption and performance.

As a new architecture, Intel’s Core Ultra “Meteor Lake” CPUs and the corresponding laptops are destined to see various tweaks, optimizations and similar BIOS firmware updates that would lead to further performance and efficiency improvements. This is Intel’s first chiplet design and we have also reported that Intel is working on a new driver that will address both CPU/GPU performance at lower power modes such as below 28W. These updates will be phased in during the first quarter of 2024 when Meteor Lake laptops become accessible to the majority of consumers.

Source: UltraBook Review, Golden Pig Upgrade, TechpowerUp

Source: HWiNFO