TL;DR: Intel promised to repair its Raptor Lake stability points with a microcode replace however mentioned it may take weeks for motherboard makers to implement the repair. Nevertheless, it is solely been a couple of days since that announcement, and we’re already starting to see it develop into out there with some producers.
Mere days after Intel introduced the brand new 0x12B microcode as a correct repair to the Vmin Shift Instability subject, motherboard producers have began integrating the replace into their firmware releases. There’s nonetheless some work to do, as OEMs have denoted many of those updates as “beta” releases.
Throughout its in depth investigation relating to crash-prone Thirteenth- and 14th-Gen Core desktop processors, Intel found the Vmin Shift Instability subject to be the reason for the quite a few stability complaints. Briefly, suitable motherboards had been feeding extreme voltage ranges to the CPUs, making your entire system unreliable and, in some circumstances, completely damaging the processors.
The brand new 0x12B microcode replace encompasses beforehand launched updates (0x125, 0x129), addressing the voltage subject in Raptor Lake chips and hopefully avoiding everlasting harm to the {hardware}. The unhealthy information is that the replace is not going to work on CPUs already experiencing the Vmin Shift Instability. The excellent news is that finish customers have already begun receiving replacements below Intel’s guarantee program.
Tom’s {Hardware} notes that firms have already applied the 0x12B microcode replace into their newest firmware. Asus has began offering new “BIOS” beta variations for its Z790 motherboards, stating that Intel’s microcode 0x12B will deal with elevated voltage requests throughout idle or mild exercise. The replace ought to assist mitigate Vmin Shift instability points.
The brand new microcode continues to be unavailable for Asus LGA1700 boards utilizing the B760 and Z690 chipsets, as the newest firmware updates solely embrace Intel’s microcode 0x129. The Taiwanese producer has determined to first convey the 0x12B replace to its high performers. Nevertheless, we will count on the brand new microcode to ultimately work its means into different fashions after validation.
ASRock can also be beginning to ship new firmware releases containing the Vmin Shift instability repair, with the primary batch of updates specializing in its Z790 motherboards. MSI is the one different OEM implementing the microcode, however just for a couple of of its Z790 motherboards. In the meantime, Gigabyte, Aorus, and different third-party producers nonetheless lack the all-important repair of their merchandise.