By Greg Cunningham
Intel has the following statement regarding recent issues of their 13th generation CPUs on their community forum at intel.com. On July 22 2024, Employee Thomas_Hannaford writes:
“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 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. “
Comments on the forum are calling out Intel for not being fully clear as to the full extent of the issue and how they plan to deal with it.
Of note was the questions of weather this issue has caused just instability or also possibly permanent degradation of CPU lifespan. There are also questions being raised about the issue, referenced on YouTube and ReddIt, that say some possible early 13th generation productions had issues with oxidization. A claimed employee corroborated this issue but said it had been corrected in early run production.
Also yet unclear is if any microcode update will degrade the original CPU core frequency to lower rate to be stable, and if this would be measurable in performance? It is also no clear if any specific motherboards have varied issues with affected CPUs.
