MSI releases new BIOS for its 600/700 series motherboards: Support Intel 14th generation Core

Last month, Intel officially launched the 14th generation of its Core desktop processors, known as the Raptor Lake Refresh. This release also introduced new features specifically tailored for gaming, such as the Intel Application Optimization (APO). This technology works in tandem with Intel’s existing hardware thread scheduler to enhance the processing of application threads, ensuring more efficient handling of sub-threads in applications.

Recently, it was discovered by users that MSI has begun rolling out new BIOS updates for its 600/700 series motherboards, incorporating support for the APO feature, which is integrated into Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU). It’s important to note that the APO functionality is exclusively designed for Intel’s 14th-generation Core desktop processors. Some enthusiasts have pointed out that the 13th and 14th generation Core products are quite similar, and restricting APO to the latter seems somewhat unjustified, artificially differentiating the two.

Moreover, not all processors in the 14th generation Core lineup have access to the APO feature. Currently, MSI’s updated BIOS only supports the Core i7-14700K, Core i7-14700KF, Core i9-14900K, and Core i9-14900KF. This limitation is somewhat unexpected, especially since APO’s primary aim is to enhance gaming performance. The Core i5, a popular choice among many mainstream gamers, is notably absent. It remains to be seen whether this issue will be addressed in the future.

Not all games benefit from the APO feature either. At present, it only supports “Metro: Exodus” and “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege,” significantly limiting its impact on the PC gaming market. Intel is also contemplating extending the APO functionality to other software types, not just limiting it to gaming applications.