Think Intel’s Upcoming 14th & 13th Gen Microcode Will Resolve Instability Issues? Well Think Again, Leaked Report Suggests Intel Yet To Identify Root Cause

More factors were revealed to be among the root causes of the instability issues in Intel's 13th and 14th Gen desktop CPUs.

The CPU instability problem in Intel 13th and 14th gen processors-based systems has become so widespread that Intel finally took its time to investigate and post about the issue on Reddit. However, what was thought to be the root cause of such instabilities may not be the actual root cause or at least the 'only' root cause for the problems faced by such systems. As reported by Igor's Lab, there are more contributing factors to this problem as seen in the leaked communications as opposed to what Intel posted on Reddit.

We have seen users complain about sudden crashes and freezes in their systems that let the motherboard manufacturers roll out new BIOS versions. However, the core problem is yet to be resolved, and even though Intel took its time to write a summary on Reddit, it has very little to no substantial information about the root cause. Nor did it offer any measures to prevent such instabilities.

In the original Reddit post, Intel acknowledged the occurrence of the problem and said that the 'Elevated Operating Voltage' is causing such instabilities on 13th and 14th-generation desktop processors. It is working on a microcode patch, which supposedly will fix the microcode algorithm resulting in 'incorrect voltage requests' to the processor. That said, it also acknowledged the 'Oxidation' manufacturing issue but said it isn't the main culprit behind the instabilities since it was already addressed back in 2023.

Igor's Lab, however, revealed some internal communication that explains the problem in somewhat more detail. Weirdly, Intel didn't include this information in the Reddit post but it seems that one of the root causes for instability is the "unsafe minimum operating voltage" or Vmin on multiple cores as found on the returned CPUs from the customers.

– 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—

via Igor's Lab

Intel observed a 'significant' increase in Vmin, which was escalated by factors like elevated voltage, high frequency, and elevated temperatures. With time, these short-duration events accumulated as a result of high voltage, resulting in higher Vmin than usual. The problem of elevated voltages has been observed even in idle conditions when the processor resumes its background operations before entering back to the low power state again.

Intel is currently validating the microcode update for limiting the VID requests that reach above 1.55V. The update is targeted to be released in mid-August which will then be rolled out by board partners such as ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock, and the rest but Intel has planned further analysis to monitor if this mitigates all instability issues.

News Source: Igor's Lab