Intel Says Its Upcoming Lunar Lake & Arrow Lake CPUs Won’t Be Affected By Instability Issues Due To New Architecture

In a community blog post, Intel has announced that its next-generation Lunar Lake & Arrow Lake CPUs won't be affected by instability issues.

As you might know, consumer trust in Intel's CPUs took a major dent ever since the 14th & 13th Gen CPU instability issues gained traction. Since then, Intel has worked towards a solution that has now been rolled out by motherboard manufacturers in the latest BIOS which leverages a new microcode patch.

Future Product Update

Intel confirms that its next generation of processors, codenamed Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake, are not affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue due to the new architectures powering both product families. Intel will ensure future product families are protected against the Vmin Shift Instability issue as well.

Unaffected Products List

Following the recent warranty extension announcement for affected Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors, Intel confirms these currently available processors are not affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue:

Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen Desktop Processor BIOS Updates

While most Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors are not impacted by the Vmin Shift Instability issue, Intel recommends all users continue following guidance:

This patch features minimal and even next-to-zero performance regression while delivering better stability. Although the root cause is still not determined, the 0x129 microcode is a sign of relief for the blue team as crashes in games and instability reports are starting to drop.

We have been told by our sources that there are future microcode patches planned to further elevate the stability across the affected chips but these will mainly apply to optimize the voltage operation since Vmin Shift (Elevated Voltages) is a major contributor to the instability.

Now Intel has offered a new update for future products while also offering a list of unaffected current-generation CPUs which gives us an idea of what to expect from the company. Starting primarily with the "Future Product Update", Intel states that its upcoming Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPUs won't be affected by the same instability issues since they utilize a new architecture & the chipmaker will further ensure that these lineups are protected against Vmin Shift instabilities.

There have also been a lot of discussions regarding which Intel CPUs are affected by instability issues and it looks like its primarily the 14th and 13th Gen K-series SKUs as the majority of Non-K and even HX mobile CPUs aren't affected by the same problems. Furthermore, Intel's entire 12th Gen lineup survived the instability crisis with none of the CPUs showing signs of instability. The same is the case with Xeon processors and Meteor Lake chips.

For those who have an affected CPU, Intel has offered 2 years of additional warranty on 14th & 13th Gen CPUs across boxed, OEM, and Tray chips. This extends the warranty to 5 years and the company has also released a guidance to help users get the proper BIOS for their boards.

This update comes just a week before Intel will be launching its Lunar Lake CPUs (3rd September) while Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPUs will be coming to market in October so a lot of action from Intel is expected within the next few months, covering desktops, laptop and server segments.