July 2024 Update on Instability Reports on Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen Desktop Processors

[Thomas_Hannaford]

*Update 8/26 clarifying support guidance for Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop tray CPU purchases*

*Update 7/29 regarding customer support process guidance (included below as well): https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/Clarification-Update-on-Intel-Core-13th-14th-Gen-Desktop/m-p/1618462

Based on extensive analysis of Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors returned to us due to instability issues, 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 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 sure all customers who have or are currently experiencing instability symptoms on their 13th and/or 14th Gen desktop processors are supported in the exchange process.

To help streamline the support process, Intel's guidance is as follows:

• For users who purchased 13th/14th Gen-powered desktop systems from OEM/System Integrator - please reach out to your system vendor's customer support team for further assistance.
• For users who purchased boxed 13th/14th Gen desktop processors - please reach out to Intel Customer Support for further assistance.
• For users who purchased tray 13th/14th Gen desktop processors - please reach out to your place of purchase for further assistance.
•  

[ChrisKloß]

Hello Thomas,
so even if I have Tray Version I can contact the customer support from intel directly for my 14900K?

As the other supports sites are sending me back to the selling point.

By the way, your link is not working.

[drasberry]

I have not had any instability issues with a new 14700K media creation workstation, but I don't overclock. 

That said, what I have observed is that when the proc gets pushed to the max in turbo mode under heavy workloads, Intel's algorithms push the max voltage over 3 volts initially, then back speed and voltage down to thermal stability as things heat up. This baby does run hot and thermally throttles within 30 seconds as the fans hit max until max speed/voltage for thermal stability is reached. 

This has been widely discussed in the user community. Some users manually set lower maximum voltages in BIOS to keep things cooler, but Intel's tactic does get maximum stable performance without overclocking.  My 3-fan radiator cooler also has a 4th hat fan over the processor that helps cool the motherboard around the processor too.  I expect the microcode patch changes the turbocharging algorithm to reduce maximum voltages and adjust the temp profile.

I doubt copper oxidation is an issue at all, the chip is pretty much a sealed oxygen free environment. As the die resolutions get smaller, now down as low as 4 nanometers, there is very little space between traces, so arc over voltages drop too.  Excess heat on a trace increases resistance, making arc over to a cooler adjacent trace at lower resistance more likely. 

[SpeedToaster]

How did you measure 3V on  the CPU? Did you use a oscilloscope?

[Mr_FranCk]

Many software like HWinfo64 can easily provide sensor readings...

[SpeedToaster]

I have never seen hwinfo64 shows 3V vcore....

Also since this is a transient load, high voltage may not even show up on hwinfo64 due to polling rate. You could measure voltage using a oscilloscope.

[Mr_FranCk]

Never saw a 3V vcore either and while you could use an oscilloscope to view the voltage curves, good luck with that. 

[drasberry]

My MSI motherboard included a utility that monitors all voltages, temperatures of CPU, RAM, and GPU,  processing speeds and fan speeds.

This is a custom workstation I built myself for professional video editing and media production.  

The i7 14700K Intel turbo mode clocking goes as high a 5600 Mhz from a base speed of 3400 Mhz. Base power rating is125 watts but it can draw up to 253 watts overclocked. 

I use Intel procs because they have effective thermal throttling that reduces voltage and processing speed to prevent damage and data loss from thermal instability.  The automatic turbo mode overclocking in response to workload is effective and minimizes power consumption under low or normal workloads while not restricting maximum performance when needed. So I don't do any custom overclocking. 

I'm not playing games. Stability is more important than marginal gains in speed.

This workstation is 5 times faster at video encoding and decoding than my 9 year old MSI i7 6850 mobile workstation. 

This is the first generation of Intel chips that push maximum turbo modes so aggressively in my experience.  I see it instantly bump voltage to 3-3.1 volts when P-core workload maxes out.  As the fans crank up temps rise to about 109C, it throttles back to about 2.9-2.8v and 90C.

Maybe they took it a little too far. 

[MuriloGoedert]

I have never seen such a high voltage, there may be a problem with your MB software that is showing incorrect voltages, try using HWInfo or Aida64 to check these voltages.

[TPF621]

Good thing I didn’t put my 14700k in my PC yet…

[Rishi314]

I have a Core i7-14700k and an Asus ROG Strix Z790-H motherboard. I went into the BIOS and made some changes. RAM XMP is set to profile 1.

Asus Multicore Enhancement is set to 'Disabled: enforce all limits'. Enhanced TVB is enabled while overclocking TVB is disabled.

Turbo Boost is enabled and I am not overclocking the processor. Temperatures are below 85°C with a 360mm AIO.

Can anyone tell me: What are the risks of my processor crashing and degrading now? How do I know if my processor is already degraded?

If I keep using the computer now before the microcode patch, will there be any CPU damage at all?

(I do not play any video games at all, but I do a lot of Blender modelling, physics simulations, rendering, compositing, etc., and a lot of intense video editing and other productivity tasks.

Thank you.

[MuriloGoedert]

Aqui está uma versão corrigida do seu texto:

---

Hi Hishi,

Two months ago, I bought the same CPU and experienced some instability issues. I'm using a 240mm AIO, and under high stress, it reaches around 89°C max.

In the first two weeks of usage, I experienced some BSODs during high stress and gaming. The temperature was around 98°C with my old 120mm AIO, so I purchased a better one (240mm), but that didn't solve the instability issue. After exhaustive search, I figured out that my problem was related to the XMP profile I had selected. I'm using XMP Profile 1, which applies the following timings (attachment). After setting this profile, I haven't had any BSODs, except for one day when I was playing 7 Days to Die and my PC froze. However, after rebooting, the problem never occurred again.

The precaution I took was to undervolt the vcore by -0.064 offset since Intel mentioned that the issue might be related to high voltage.

I've kept the PL1 and PL2 limits at 253W for optimal performance.

Recently, my motherboard (Gigabyte B760M AORUS ELITE) released a new BIOS version (f17e) that implements some microcode changes. I updated it and haven't had any issues since.

Now, I'm waiting for the new microcode/BIOS version and hope that my CPU hasn't degraded.

I'm seriously considering switching to AMD now. I've been an Intel customer for about 12 years, with over 8 CPUs purchased.

My Specs:

i7 14700KF

2x24GB Corsair Dominator Titanium 7200MHz, DDR5, CL36

Gigabyte RTX 4070 WINDFORCE OC

MB Gigabyte B760M Aorus Pro AX

SSD Hiksemi Future, 2048GB, M.2 2280

AIO Deepcool LD240, ARGB, 240mm

[Rishi314]

Thank you so much for your response, Murilo.

So I understand that if I see too many BSODs or if the PC freezes or crashes, I know that something is wrong. I haven't experienced any such issues yet.

I hope you have disabled all Gigabyte enhanced multicore performance settings in the BIOS.

I'll try undervolting the vcore by -0.064V and making sure that the power limits are set to 253W as you mentioned.

I hope that my processor, if it hasn't already, doesn't crash, and hope the same for yours.

Thank you

[Zoltán]

.

[Fatihsy]

Hello, my i7 14700k processor started crashing games all the time.

[MuriloGoedert]

Hello Fatihsy,

Read my reply to Hishi, hope this helps you:

https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/July-2024-Update-on-Instability-Reports-on-Intel-Core-13th-and/m-p/1620502/highlight/true#M75613

[ferhat06]

merhaba Türkiye'den yazıyorum 14700k intel işlemci kullanıyorum daha önceki işlemcim 12700k ondan çok memnun kalmıştım daha iyisi olması için 14700k aldım ve benim çilem başladı öncelikle ana kart değiştirdim ısınma sorunu bitmedi hava akışı yüksek kasa aldım ısınma sorunu bitmedi dd5 yaptım sistemi hepsini değiştirdim ısınma sorunu bitmedi 420 mm radyatör aldım ısınma sorunu bitmedi 14700k beni çok üzdü artık intel işlemciye olan güvenim azaldı lütfen bana sorunu çözülmüş 14700k işlemci gönderin artık bendeki bu işlemciyi değiştirmek istiyorum lütfen......! acil yardım

[aGiie]

My i7 14700k also crashes games, causes computer restarts with or without BSOD. I contacted support for an exchange, how long does the entire RMA process take? How long do you have to wait for the first response?

[Dhruv_M]

Does this affect 13th/14th gen laptop processors as well?

[pressed_for_time]

No.

[Dan0987]

Very likely.

Yes we have several laptops that have failed with the same crashes. It's just slightly more rare then the desktop CPU faults.

Update (7/20/2024): The laptops crash in the exact same way as the desktop parts including workloads under Unreal Engine, decompression, ycruncher or similar. Laptop chips we have seen failing include but not limited to 13900HX etc.

Intel seems to be down playing the issues here most likely due to the expensive costs related to BGA rework and possible harm to OEMs and Partners.

We have seen these crashes on Razer, MSI, Asus Laptops and similar used by developers in our studio to work on the game.

The crash reporting data for my game shows a huge amount of laptops that could be having issues.

---

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1e13ipy/comment/lcyythb/

[pressed_for_time]

This refers to one gaming studio and one game.

And no other gaming studios are reporting the same issues with gaming laptops. A gaming laptop is typically a 13700HX or 13900HX with a version of one of the NVIDIA RTX mobile chipsets such as RTX 4070 or RTX 4090. The HX processors do not reach the frequencies of the desktop parts and have significantly lower PL1 and PL2. The mobile RTX4070/4090 are somewhat less powerful than the discrete equivalents.

Why it is just this one studio and one game is open to conjecture. The game was originally written on one platform and eventually ended up on Unreal Engine 5. Loads of games have been written using UE5, if mobile laptops were a factor the internet would be awash with complaints and it isn't.

Given all this there is no basis for the comment 'very likely'.