ASUS & MSI Roll Out “0x129” Microcode BIOS Patch To Address Intel 14th & 13th Gen Instability Issues, Coming First To Z790 Motherboards

ASUS & MSI have become the first motherboard makers to release the latest microcode BIOS patch to address Intel 14th & 13th Gen instability issues.

Update [8/10/2024] - ASUS has become the only motherboard vendor to roll out the latest update across its entire portfolio of products including Z790, B760, B660, Z690, W680, and the rest of the Intel 700/600 series stack. The details along with the full list of motherboards can be found below:

We have begun comprehensive deployment of these new UEFI BIOS releases, starting with BETA releases, and will soon have formal releases.

The current list of models issued the update is noted below. As the servers are updated, some boards will see the update quicker than others.…

— Juan Jose Guerrero (@ASUSTechMKTJJ) August 9, 2024

It looks like Intel and its partners have decided to roll out the newest microcode patch to address the 14th & 13th Gen instability issues a bit earlier as both ASUS and MSI are now offering new BIOS updates that ship with the latest "0x129" microcode patch. This new patch was expected to ship by mid of August but motherboard makers have decided to be swift and made it available for their Z790 motherboards.

Starting with ASUS, the motherboard maker now offers its latest BIOS for its entire Z790 board portfolio. The latest BIOS updates the microcode to "0x129, " the second major microcode patch following the release of the "0x125" update that addressed the eTVB bug. Do note that the BIOS being offered by ASUS is still a BETA release but should include the respective microcode fix for users to try out. Following are all the boards along with their respective links to the BIOS shared over at ASUS ROG forums by SAFEDISK:

In addition to ASUS, MSI is announcing that it will be rolling out the latest BIOS for its Intel Z790 motherboards first. Interestingly, MSI states that the new BIOS will mitigate the instability which seems like the issues might persist but won't be as bad as before. The microcode patch will start rolling out in the coming weeks or by the end of August and should be a Non-BETA release that will hit the following motherboards:

The motherboard manufacturer will also offer the respective BIOS updates for the rest of its 700 and 600-series Intel motherboards but the Z790 series takes priority as that's what most users are running with an Intel 14th Gen & 13th Gen Core i9 chip.

Intel 0x129 microcode Tested

Single-threaded performance drops a bit and 5.8 GHz is almost invisible.

Source: QQ pic.twitter.com/rCrRhJI3ci

— HXL (@9550pro) August 8, 2024

We will be testing out the new BIOS to see if it changes the behavior of chips in applications and games. More importantly, we will try to verify Intel's claims since it stated that overclocking will still be working and performance impact should be minimal.