Intel nonetheless does not know what’s inflicting its i9 desktop chips to crash

Why it issues: For months now, Raptor Lake players have been irritated a few stability problem with the chips inflicting video games to crash. For a second, it appeared as if Intel was about to push a repair. Sadly, the corporate tossed water on these studies, saying there was extra to the issue than was being portrayed.

Not too long ago, customers have struggled with stability points associated to Intel’s Core i9-14900K & 13900K CPUs. These with the processors have observed elevated sport crashing, main quite a few builders to problem help notices. Intel stated it might examine.

Stories that Intel had discovered a repair originated with the German weblog Igor’s Lab. It claimed it obtained an inner doc below NDA that stated the instability’s underlying trigger was “an incorrect worth in microcode algorithm related to the eTVB (enhanced Thermal Velocity Increase) function.”

For a short second, Raptor Lake customers believed Intel had a repair within the queue. Sadly, Intel stated studies figuring out the fault had been incorrect. It’s nonetheless attempting to find out the trigger.

“Opposite to current media studies, Intel has not confirmed root trigger and is continuous, with its companions, to analyze consumer studies concerning instability points on unlocked Intel Core thirteenth and 14th era (Okay/KF/KS) desktop processors,” it stated in an announcement. “The microcode patch referenced in press studies fixes an eTVB bug found by Intel whereas investigating the instability studies. Whereas this problem is doubtlessly contributing to instability, it isn’t the basis trigger.”

Igor’s Lab has since added an addendum to its report.

Intel developed eTVB know-how particularly for Intel’s Raptor Lake S processors to provide them a burst of efficiency in video games and purposes by overclocking the processor’s cores above the utmost turbo frequency below sure circumstances. Igor initially reported that Intel detected a displacement within the minimal working voltage on the Core i9 components because of publicity to elevated core voltages and {that a} firmware replace was forthcoming, which was solely partially appropriate.

Within the meantime, players have developed workarounds, with some recommendation from builders. The crashes range relying on the title, with some producing “out of reminiscence” errors, others exiting to the desktop, and a few locking up the pc solely. Moreover, among the chips work wonderful for per week to a few month however finally begin having stability points. Unreal Engine appears to be a frequent denominator among the many video games.

Gamemakers have completely different recommendation on the way to keep away from the problem, however all are associated to clocking. Epic Video games issued a help discover to encourage customers to regulate BIOS settings. Vermintide 2 and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide developer Fatshark suggested utilizing Intel Excessive Tuning Utility (XTU) to underclock the Efficiency Core pace from x55 to x53. Gearbox stated to take away any overclocks in BIOS or use XTU, although modifications made within the BIOS persist after a reset, in contrast to these made with Intel’s software program. Outpost: Infinity devs instructed downclocking from 5.5GHz to round 5GHz to keep away from crashes.