ASUS inadvertently acknowledged that default BIOS settings on its Intel Z790 motherboards deviate from Intel’s baseline specifications, resulting in stability issues on Raptor Lake CPUs.
We recently discussed the surge of complaints from consumers in Korea regarding unstable Intel Core CPUs when trying to play Tekken 8, prompting an investigation. These “stability issues” have persistently affected specific unlocked 13th and 14th generation Core processors from Intel.
As we’ve previously mentioned, the problem likely stems from motherboard manufacturers pushing boundaries, disregarding Intel’s default power plan, and instead applying their own power curve in default configurations.
Intel Raptor Lake CPUs encountered issues related to Oodle Data compression failures in games utilizing the Unreal Engine 5. RAD, a division of Epic Games, highlighted that this primarily impacted the Intel Core i9 13900K / 14900K, as well as the i7-13700K and 14700K processors.
These processors possess the unique capability to bypass any restrictions on the CPU’s power limits, disregarding Intel’s PL2 state of 253W and instead pushing a lot more current through the CPU to maximize frequencies, enhancing performance at the cost of higher temperatures and power consumption, depending on whether the motherboard permitted this feature for unlocked CPUs.
Motherboard manufacturers like ASUS are known for pushing boundaries to optimize CPU performance compared to their competitors. This often involves applying higher voltages on your CPU than other boards.
However, this practice led to ASUS motherboards causing severe damage to AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D processors, resulting in a public relations crisis for AMD. Consequently, AMD had to intervene and enforce revised guidelines for BIOS settings among board vendors that they must adhere to.
In this situation, AMD and ASUS were both to blame. AMD is responsible for simply not regulating motherboard vendors, they basically gave the lighter to ASUS who in turn burned the house down.
Products made using silicon are inherently governed by the laws of thermodynamics. As transistor density increases, these components become more susceptible and delicate in the face of factors like voltages, current, and temperature.
There aren’t any silicon-based products, whether it’s NAND flash, CPU, or GPU, designed to function at temperatures as high as 100 degrees Celsius. Every product has its specified limitations from the factory.
If you were to operate these products beyond their specifications by increasing voltages and or current for a sustained amount of time you would be accelerating their degradation and compromise their longevity.
Running an Intel Core 13th/14th Generation CPU beyond specification, with an unlimited power limit, significantly elevates its power consumption and raises temperatures to even more unsafe levels.
Consequently, these CPUs degrade extremely quickly, rendering their high frequencies unsustainable. Epic Games’ noted that the only solution is to underclock the CPU and revert to Intel’s baseline power profile.
ASUS has swiftly released a BIOS update for its motherboards, integrating Intel’s baseline power profile to enhance gaming stability. However, this adjustment also leads to a reduction in performance.
In essence, ASUS is acknowledging that the default BIOS settings on their Z790 motherboards did not adhere to Intel’s guidelines. Instead, they were imposing their own power limits, enabling prolonged high-power usage beyond Intel’s specifications to boost the performance of Intel Core CPUs on their motherboards.
HXL reports that the updated profile alters ASUS’ settings as follows: MultiCore Enhancements will enforce all limits, SVID Behavior will utilize the Intel fail-safe option, and IA CEP and SA CEP (Current Excursion Protection) will be enabled.
The implementation of the new settings is expected to affect the performance of high-end CPUs such as the Core i9-14900KS. For example, in the Cinebench R23 multicore test, the Core i9-14900KS, Intel’s flagship desktop CPU, is estimated to experience a performance decrease from 40,998 points to 35,851 points, representing a decline of 12.6%.
ASUS and other motherboard manufacturers have essentially been utilizing overclocking profiles as their default baseline. They do this primarily for marketing purposes, as it garners positive press coverage and superior benchmarks. Despite criticism for their excessive power consumption, ASUS motherboards are highly regarded for delivering maximum performance.
It raises the question of whether tech tubers and journalist publications will revise their performance benchmarks for 13th and 14th Generation Intel Core CPUs to better reflect the performance figures aligned with Intel’s baseline settings?
The answer is undoubtedly no, as both Intel and previously AMD have granted motherboard vendors considerable flexibility to adjust settings to their liking. With a significant decrease in synthetic multi-threaded performance, the Intel Core i9-14900KS now lags behind AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X on Cinebench R23.
Previously, it had outperformed the Ryzen 9 7950X before ASUS implemented Intel’s baseline option.
Companies like ASUS are intentionally prioritizing benchmarks and marketing over the longevity of your CPU, which conveniently benefits Intel. This longstanding issue seems to be overlooked by notable figures in the industry until it’s already too late.
Now, unsuspecting individuals who’ve been misled by falsified benchmarks and have invested in a top-of-the-line 6GHz CPU find themselves with no choice but to underclock their CPU, or rather, revert it to Intel’s definition of “stock” just to play their video games as their CPU has already undergone degradation.
If motherboard vendors shipped their products with Intel’s stock settings as the default, this issue wouldn’t arise. However, this would likely result in hindered performance for Intel CPUs, albeit with significant gains in power efficiency for the blue brand.
Intel’s silence while allowing motherboard manufacturers to push boundaries only shows they merely care about better benchmark numbers for their CPUs, while these companies compete to achieve higher scores in reviews.
This practice needs to cease, as the power requirements from 12th to 13th and 14th generation Core processors have escalated excessively in pursuit of marginal gains in synthetic benchmarks, despite minimal impact on gaming performance.
