Frustration has been building over the last few months for Intel customers with 13th and 14th-generation Raptor Lake CPUs. Users have been experiencing instability issues which Intel officially addressed in a recent statement on Reddit, claiming that they’re aiming to have this problem fixed this August.

In their post, Intel states that an ‘elevated operating voltage is causing instability issues in some 13th/14th Gen desktop processors’. Furthermore, this issue is being caused by a microcode algorithm, and by mid-August, Intel is aiming to deliver a ‘microcode patch which addresses the root cause’.

This is all well and good, but a report from Igor’s Lab, containing leaked internal Intel communications, suggests that additional factors are causing these instability issues and have yet to be fully solved.

Leaked Intel communication regarding 13th & 14th gen instability

– Intel observes a significant increase to the minimum operating voltage (Vmin) across multiple cores on returned affected processors from customers.
– This increase is similar in outcome to parts subjected to elevated voltage and temperature conditions for reliability testing.
– Factors contributing to this Vmin increase include elevated voltage, high frequency, and elevated temperature.
– Even under idle conditions at relatively cool temperatures, sporadic elevated voltages are observed when the processor is resumed from low power states in order to service background operations before entering a low power state again.
– At a sufficiently high voltage, these short-duration events can accumulate over time, contributing to the increase in Vmin.
– Intel analysis indicates a need to reduce the maximum voltage requested by the processor in order to reduce or eliminate accumulated exposure to voltages which may result in an increase to Vmin.
– While Intel has confirmed elevated voltages impact the increase in Vmin, investigation continues in order to fully understand root cause and address other potential aspects of this issue.

– Intel is validating a microcode update to limit VID requests above 1.55V as a potential future corrective action, targeted for production release in mid-August to NDA customers.
– Early testing by Intel on a small number of benchmarks indicates minimal performance impact due to this microcode change.
– While this microcode update addresses the elevated voltage aspect of this issue, further analysis is required to understand if this proposed mitigation addresses all scenarios.
– This microcode update, once validated and released, may not address existing systems in the field with instability symptoms.
– Systems which continue to exhibit symptoms associated with this issue should have the processor returned to Intel for RMA.
––Intel—

Report via Igor’s Lab

What this report means for Intel

The report implies that the core problem hasn’t been resolved yet, and it’s more complex than Intel publicly admitted. The leaked internal communications from Intel suggest that the instability is also linked to increased minimum operating voltage (Vmin) across multiple cores seen in returned CPUs, indicating a need to reduce the maximum voltage requests to mitigate the issue. This is exacerbated by factors such as elevated voltage, high frequency, and temperature.

Essentially, Intel is still investigating the root cause and other potential aspects of the problem. They have also ruled out the ‘Oxidation’ rumors, discussed by users on Reddit, as being the root cause. However, with these new details surfacing on the potential causes of the instability, it seems strange that this wasn’t mentioned by Intel on Reddit. Additionally, it begs the question of whether a mid-August solution is realistic.

What we do know is that Intel is working to address the instability issues in their 13th and 14th Gen processors and a new microcode patch is in the works. On Reddit, they are advising customers to contact support if problems persist, indicating potential processor replacements could be needed.

About the Author

Bruce Dent

Bruce has always had a strong interest in tech and gaming, and in particular, the latest product updates and releases.