Tuesday, July 23rd 2024
Intel Statement on 13th and 14th Gen Core Instability: Faulty Microcode Causes Excessive Voltages, Fix Out Soon
Long-term reliability issues continue to plague Intel's 13th Gen and 14th Gen Core desktop processors based on the "Raptor Lake" microarchitecture, with users complaining that their processors have become unstable with heavy processing workloads, such as games. This includes the chips that have minor levels of performance tuning or overclocking. Intel had earlier isolated many of these stability issues to faulty CPU core frequency boosting algorithms, which it addressed through updates to the processor microcode that it got motherboard- and prebuilt manufacturers to distribute as UEFI firmware updates. The company has now come out with new findings of what could be causing these issues.
In a statement Intel posted on its website on Monday (22/07), the company said that it has been investigating the processors returned to it by users under warranty claims (which it has been replacing under the terms of its warranty). It has found that faulty processor microcode has been causing the processors to operate under excessive core voltages, leading to their structural degradation over time. "We have determined that elevated operating voltage is causing instability issues in some 13th/14th Gen desktop processors. Our analysis of returned processors confirms that the elevated operating voltage is stemming from a microcode algorithm resulting in incorrect voltage requests to the processor."
Modern processor power management runs on an intricate clockwork of collaboration between software, firmware, and hardware, with the software constantly telling the hardware what levels of performance it wants, and the hardware managing its power- and thermal budgets by rapidly altering the power and clock speeds of the various components, such as CPU cores, caches, fabric, and other on-die components. A faulty collaboration between any of the three key components could break this clockwork, as has happened in this case.
Intel is releasing yet another microcode update to its 13th- and 14th Gen Core processors, which will address not just the faulty boosting algorithm issue the company unearthed in June, but also the faulty voltage management the company discovered now. This new microcode should be released some time around mid-August to partners (motherboard manufacturers and PC OEMs), who will then need to validate it on their machines, before passing it along to end-users as UEFI firmware updates.
Meanwhile, an interesting issue has come to light, which that some of Intel's processors built on the Intel 7 node are experiencing chemical oxidation of the die as they age. Intel responded to this, stating that it had discovered the oxidation manufacturing issues in 2023, and addressed it. The company also stated that die oxidation is not related to the stability issues it is embattled with.
Sources:
Intel Community, Intel (Reddit)
In a statement Intel posted on its website on Monday (22/07), the company said that it has been investigating the processors returned to it by users under warranty claims (which it has been replacing under the terms of its warranty). It has found that faulty processor microcode has been causing the processors to operate under excessive core voltages, leading to their structural degradation over time. "We have determined that elevated operating voltage is causing instability issues in some 13th/14th Gen desktop processors. Our analysis of returned processors confirms that the elevated operating voltage is stemming from a microcode algorithm resulting in incorrect voltage requests to the processor."
Intel is releasing yet another microcode update to its 13th- and 14th Gen Core processors, which will address not just the faulty boosting algorithm issue the company unearthed in June, but also the faulty voltage management the company discovered now. This new microcode should be released some time around mid-August to partners (motherboard manufacturers and PC OEMs), who will then need to validate it on their machines, before passing it along to end-users as UEFI firmware updates.
Intel is delivering a microcode patch which addresses the root cause of exposure to elevated voltages. We are continuing validation to ensure that scenarios of instability reported to Intel regarding its Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors are addressed. Intel is currently targeting mid-August for patch release to partners following full validation. Intel is committed to making this right with our customers, and we continue asking any customers currently experiencing instability issues on their Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors reach out to Intel Customer Support for further assistance, the company stated.It's important to note here, that the microcode update won't fix the issues on processors already experiencing instability, but prevent it on chips that aren't. The instability is caused by irreversible physical degradation of the chip. These chips will, of course, be covered under warranty.
Meanwhile, an interesting issue has come to light, which that some of Intel's processors built on the Intel 7 node are experiencing chemical oxidation of the die as they age. Intel responded to this, stating that it had discovered the oxidation manufacturing issues in 2023, and addressed it. The company also stated that die oxidation is not related to the stability issues it is embattled with.
We can confirm that the via Oxidation manufacturing issue affected some early Intel Core 13th Gen desktop processors. However, the issue was root caused and addressed with manufacturing improvements and screens in 2023. We have also looked at it from the instability reports on Intel Core 13th Gen desktop processors and the analysis to-date has determined that only a small number of instability reports can be connected to the manufacturing issue, the company stated.If you feel your chip might be affected, you can file for an RMA.
216 Comments on Intel Statement on 13th and 14th Gen Core Instability: Faulty Microcode Causes Excessive Voltages, Fix Out Soon
X3D cpus are voltage limited so overvolting them serve no purpose, especially if they are already winning.
intel/comments/1e9mf04
This thing is far from solved.
Interesting how history repeats itself.
The culprit was mostly just board makers trying to out do each other, AMD responsible for not gate keeping enough.
FYI the issue with VSOC has nothing to do with Vcore or much to do with performance at all.
The memory settings AMD used in their benchmarks nor just about every review (DDR5 6000) did not require high Vsoc.
Some boards wanted to claim DDR5 6600 support and cranked up the Vsoc hoping for the best. You put the same ram and same CPUs in different boards can result in vastly different Vsoc.
The stock Vsoc of Raphael is only around 1V. The 1.4V+ that Asus fed into the IOD resulted in well over double the SOC power.
The new limit of 1.3V Vsoc still gives you around a 200% margin over stock, that seems pretty reasonable.
The stock V/F curve of 13/14th gen on the other hand is programe by Intel at the factory, and this is killing chips running at stock without any OC.
As for that voltage issue Intel now seems to blame, from what I can tell, they don't as much talk about the voltage going into the chip, but how said power is distributed internally. Which apparently is in a way resulting in these defects.
When I run intel for personal use, its being done with conservative V/F values. I'm not going to gain any significant performance by torture testing these chips anyway.
The sad part of this whole story to me is the fact most users will never know about this issue, and also aren't tech savvy enough to get into voltage tuning to prevent any longer term damages.
This, despite a possible microcode update, stands quite exposed to a regulatory problem Intel will have to face in court.
Also FYI anandtech tested different AGESA and bios versions on Asrock boards, and it seems they kept out of the Vsoc (VDDCR SOC) insanity.
AGESA 1.0.0.5c to 1.0.0.7 Firmware Testing: Temps, Voltages, Currents, and Power - Voltage Lockdown: Investigating AMD's Recent AM5 AGESA Updates on ASRock's X670E Taichi (anandtech.com)
Thank you.
Get the discussion derailed and hopefully shield Intel from further discussion/critisim.
What is not at fault is that Intel have a major design problem and have stayed radio silent until called out on it while knowing there is a fault.
To put it as simply as these are crashing is also belittling the problem. These are crashing and degrading.
You want to see the extent of the problem look here.
Still interesting how things are repeating themselves.
Add statements from the CEO such as ‘geostability’ when it come to manufacturing and Intel looks like a scam company. Theranos esque comes to mind.
www.axios.com/2021/10/18/intel-semiconductor-chips-national-security
Intel should be boycotted and denied government funding until they spin off their fabs and forced to concentrate on actually making stable high quality products.
Don't worry, it's only a small problem.