Intel Publishes First Microcode Update for Raptor Lake Stability Issue, BIOSes Going Out Now

Following Intel’s run of economic woes and Raptor Lake chip stability points, the corporate might use some excellent news on a Friday. And this week they’re delivering simply that, with the primary model of the eagerly awaited microcode repair for desktop Raptor Lake processors – in addition to the primary detailed rationalization of the underlying situation.

The brand new microcode launch, model 0x129, is Intel’s first stab at addressing the elevated voltage situation that has seemingly been the reason for Raptor Lake processor degradation over the previous yr and a half. Intel has been investigating the problem all yr, and after a sluggish begin, in latest weeks has begun making extra vital progress, figuring out what they’re calling an “elevated working voltage” situation in high-TDP desktop Raptor Lake (13^th & 14^th Technology Core) chips. Again in late July the corporate was concentrating on a mid-August launch date for a microcode patch to repair (or moderately, stop) the degradation situation, and simply forward of that deadline, Intel has begun transport the microcode to their motherboard companions.

Even with this new microcode, nonetheless, Intel just isn’t carried out with the steadiness situation. Intel continues to be investigating whether or not it’s doable to enhance the steadiness of already-degraded processors, and the general tone of Intel’s announcement could be very a lot that of a beta software program repair – Intel gained’t be submitting this particular microcode revision for distribution by way of working system updates, for instance. So even when this microcode is profitable in stopping ongoing degradation, plainly Intel hasn’t closed the e-book on the problem totally, and that the corporate is presumably working in the direction of a repair appropriate for wider launch.

Capping At 1.55v: Elevated Voltages Beget Elevated Voltages

So simply what does the 0x129 microcode replace do? In brief, it caps the voltage of affected Raptor Lake desktop chips at a still-toasty (however in spec) 1.55v. As famous in Intel’s earlier bulletins, extreme voltages appear to be at the reason for the problem, so capping voltages at what Intel has decided is the right restrict ought to stop future chip harm.

The corporate’s letter to the neighborhood additionally outlines, for the primary time, simply what’s going on underneath the hood with degraded chips. These chips which have already succumbed to the problem from repeated voltage spikes have deteriorated in such a method that the minimal voltage wanted to function the chip – Vmin – has elevated past Intel’s unique specs. Because of this, these chips are now not getting sufficient voltage to function.

Seasoned overclockers will little question discover that this can be a acquainted story, as this is among the ways in which overclocked processors degrade over time. In these circumstances – because it seems to be with the Raptor Lake situation – extra voltage is required to maintain a chip steady, significantly in workloads the place the voltage to the chip is already sagging.

And whereas all indicators level to this degradation being irreversible (and quite a lot of RMAs in Intel’s future), there’s a ray of hope. If Intel’s evaluation is right that degraded Raptor Lake chips can nonetheless function correctly with the next Vmin voltage, then there may be the potential of saving a minimum of a few of these chips, and bringing them again to stability.

This “Vmin shift,” as Intel is asking it, is the corporate’s subsequent investigative goal. In line with the corporate’s letter, they’re aiming to supply updates by the “finish of August.”

Within the meantime, Intel’s keen motherboard companions have already begun releasing BIOSes with the brand new microcode, with ASUS and MSI even leaping the gun and sending out BIOSes earlier than Intel had an opportunity to correctly announce the microcode. Each distributors are releasing these as beta BIOSes, reflecting the overall early nature of the microcode repair itself. And whereas we anticipate most customers will wish to get this microcode in place ASAP to mitigate additional harm on affected chips, it could be prudent to deal with these beta BIOSes as simply that.

Alongside these strains, as famous earlier, Intel is barely distributing the 0x129 microcode by way of BIOS updates at the moment. This microcode is not going to be coming to different programs by way of working system updates. At this level we nonetheless anticipate distribution by way of OS updates to be the tip recreation for this repair, however for now, Intel isn’t offering a timeline or different steering for when that may occur. So for PC fanatics, a minimum of, a BIOS replace is the one approach to get it for now.

Efficiency Impression: Usually Nil – However Not All the time

Lastly, Intel’s message additionally supplies a little bit of steering on the efficiency affect of the brand new microcode, based mostly on their inner testing. Beforehand the corporate has indicated that they anticipated no vital efficiency affect, and based mostly on their expanded testing, by and huge this stays the case. Nonetheless, there are going to be some workloads that undergo from efficiency regressions because of this.

To this point, Intel has discovered a few workloads the place they’re seeing regressions. This consists of PugetBench GPU Results Rating and, on the gaming aspect of issues, Hitman 3: Dartmoor. In any other case, nearly the whole lot else Intel has examined, together with frequent benchmarks like Cinebench, and main video games, should not displaying efficiency regressions. So the general consequence of the repair just isn’t fairly a spotless restoration, however it’s additionally not resulting in widespread efficiency losses, both.

As for AnandTech, we’ll be digging into this on our personal benchmark suite as time permits. We’ve yet one more CPU launch developing subsequent week, so there’s no scarcity of labor to be carried out within the subsequent few days. (Sorry, Gavin!)

Intel’s Full Assertion