For months now, Intel’s 13th and 14th gen processors have been plagued with instability issues – also known as the Vmin Shift issue. Intel has offered extended warranties, exchanges, and even refunds to tackle these issues.
Alongside these efforts, Intel also rolled out BIOS updates and two microcode patches in hopes of addressing the instability. Now, Intel has rolled out yet another microcode patch that aims to address the root cause of the Vmin shift issue.
The “0x12B” patch will be available to users soon
As per the latest reports, Intel has released the “0x12B” patch, which will resolve a few other issues that were spotted during the larger investigation.
“Intel is releasing microcode 0x12B, which encompasses 0x125 and 0x129 microcode updates, and addresses elevated voltage requests by the processor during idle and/or light activity periods,” Intel said in its official statement.
Apparently, the Vmin shift issue could also cause the motherboard and BIOS code to request elevated voltages while the processor was idle or lightly active. This could potentially cause the CPU to become unstable or crash. The new 0x12B microcode patch will address this issue while retaining the fixes from previous patches.
Much like the previous microcodes, the new 0x12B microcode patch will be issued to system and motherboard partners and then become available to users via BIOS releases. It might take a while for the partners to roll out the update. Previously, Intel rolled out 0x125 and 0x129 patch fixes, after which, the number of crashes and instability issues were reduced.
What’s next for Intel?
In case you missed it, Intel launched the Core Ultra 200V processors (also known as the Lunar Lake CPUs) earlier this month. These CPUs will power upcoming thin and light laptops.
It is being speculated that Intel will release the Arrow Lake desktop CPUs in October, which is in a few weeks. However, there has been no official confirmation from Intel’s side so far. In any case, Intel has stated that Lunar Lake, Arrow Lake, and upcoming CPUs will not be affected by these instability issues. In fact, it is speculated that the new Intel Z980 motherboard will be equipped with a default power profile.
