Intel’s 13th & 14th Gen CPU “Gaming Stability” Is Being Investigated As 10+ Chips Being Returned In Korea Each Day

Intel has actively started investigating issues currently facing its 13th & 14th Gen CPUs such as gaming stability which affects thousands of gamers.

Being a victim of stability issues on Intel's 13th & 14th Gen CPUs myself, I would say that it isn't unexpected that gamers are fed up with Intel's latest parts. While the issues came to the limelight recently, the earliest reports of gaming instability on Intel's 13th Gen CPUs go back to 2022 when these chips were initially launched.

A few months after these chips had launched, the first issues were highlighted on gaming forums and Steam Discussion pages but there wasn't any conclusive evidence available at the time as to what caused the issues.

I built a new gaming PC for myself back when the 4090 launched. I upgraded from a 12900K to a 13900K & everything ran well besides the high temperatures that were within the TjMax limit but hit 95C using a high end AIO cooler.

A few months later. I started having the same issues https://t.co/ASMgCRrFu8

— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) February 21, 2024

With the launch of the 14th Gen CPUs, the issues became more prominent on higher-end SKUs & which led the tech community to see if the issue was actually on the software side or hardware side. Within a few days, it became clear that it was a mix of both, the 13th and 14th Gen CPUs being pushed beyond their limits and default BIOS's by motherboard makers which were pushing the chips even harder.

The Intel 13th and 14th Gen Core i9 CPUs are some of the most insane chips we have seen to date. They have the highest clocks and the higher power consumption of all processors released to date plus they run hot. We have seen on several occasions that Intel has modified the clock speeds for these chips on their official web page, adjusting them to showcase what can be considered more realistic clock speeds since these chips are being hammered so hard that they eventually throttle & lead to lower clock speeds than what is advertised.

So I was randomly checking out customer reviews of Intel i9-14900K/KF CPUs and wow looks like a lot of people have either received faulty chips, or their chips are degrading at an alarming rate. This is really not good... pic.twitter.com/RJ0hSu3nA9

— Sebastian Castellanos (@Sebasti66855537) April 6, 2024

Plus, the excessive voltages and power being pumped into these CPUs will lead to severe silicon degradation over time unless you have like a high-end chiller next to you to keep the chip within its thermal/power spec.

While downclocking & undervolting is the way to go to achieve stability to play games, not everyone can tune his chip and not everyone who bought the Core i9-13900K or Core i9-14900K CPU can tune their PCs and just got what they seemed was the best choice of gaming CPU for them. Unfortunately, that's far from true knowing what I have been through. You don't pay full price for a chip that can hardly run games without leading into some sort of crash or BSOD or can hardly maintain its default specs.

One of the most common issues that occurs with Intel's 13th & 14th Gen CPUs is the "Out of Video Memory" message across a range of games, typically those running on Unreal Engine. While this message may make it seem like a GPU side of an issue, it is not (believe me!). If you're running an Intel Core i9-13900K or 14900K and getting this message, the only way to avoid it is to adjust the power limits on your motherboard and downclock/undervolt your chip for maximum stability.

These issues have led South Korean gamers to return their PCs or get them exchanged with an alternative such as AMD Ryzen. In Korea, three main dealers are responsible for distribution & warranty claims for Intel CPUs that are used in desktop PCs. While two of these dealers declined to comment, one dealer shared more information and reported that more than 10 gamers are returning an Intel 13th & 14th Gen CPU or PC every day and citing similar concerns with gaming stability.

With all this talk of Raptor Lake instability, I'll share my experience. I had a 14900K in a B760 board, and tested a 4090 on it. After the tests were complete, I turned off the computer. Since then, the motherboard posts a VGA light error even without the GPU installed.

— Albert Thomas, Cooling Reviewer (@ultrawide219) April 7, 2024

In a response to ZDNet Korea, Intel stated that it was aware of the issue and currently investigating it but it might be too little too late if gamers have already started to make returns. According to the tech outlet, Intel had the following to state:

“Intel is aware of reports regarding Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen unlocked desktop processors experiencing issues with certain workloads. We’re engaged with our partners and are conducting analysis of the reported issues.”

Intel Rep to ZDNET Korea

In our Core i9-14900KS review, we once again faced similar issues that we had highlighted and that's a chip that simply pushes the envelope so much that stability is the least concern for itself. It's a hardcore chip for tuners and that's about it. For gamers, it's best to stick with Core i5 or Core i7 models for now or go the AMD Ryzen route until Intel can fix its stability issues with the higher-end Core i9. Once again, these chips cost over 500 USD and are often marketed as "The Best Gaming CPUs" but with a gaming experience this bad, it is hard to recommend one at all.