The Intel Planned Release 5 BIOS has been released on some of the MSI Z890 motherboards for gaming performance optimization.
MSI MEG Z890 ACE and MPG Z890 Carbon WiFi receive Intel PR5 BIOS with Microcode 0x114 update and ME firmware 1854 v2.2
Intel’s regular BIOS updates are now rolling out for the Z890 chipset, which aims at delivering stability and better optimizations in gaming performance for the Core Ultra Series 2 processors. The latest ME Firmware 1854 v2.2 is now available for some of the MSI Z890 motherboards through the new Intel Planned Release 5 (PR5) BIOS, which also contains the microcode 0x114.
The Microcode 0x114 was also present in the Intel PR5 BIOS but the latest firmware 1854 v2.2 seeks to deliver more optimizations which were absent in the PR4. We don’t know how much performance uplift users should expect as the Intel PR5 isn’t common on the Z890 at the moment. Some vendors have released this BIOS version for only a couple of Z890 motherboards.
As far as MSI goes, there are currently two Z890 motherboards that have received this update. These are the MEG Z890 ACE and MPG Z890 Carbon Wi-Fi. Other motherboards still lack this update in their support section, including the flagship MEG Z890 GODLIKE. The BIOS version is ‘7E22v1A41’, released on the 27th of December, and is 9.98 MB in size.
The previous BIOS version was ‘7E22v1A4’, released on 25th December, and supported the Intel PR4 and microcode 0x114 as well, but apparently, it wasn’t fully matured. It’s expected that Intel may release even newer ME firmware than 1854 v2.2 in January as some users have received even newer firmware than this. However, even with that, no user has reported any noticeable gaming uplifts.
The chances of significant or even noticeable gaming performance uplifts appear slim and this could be pretty misleading for the customers who bought the Intel Core Ultra 200 chips believing Intel’s promise of delivering better gaming performance than what we saw in the independent reviews.
News Sources: @go1d3nm4ng0, MEG Z890 ACE
