Intel Publishes First Microcode Replace for Raptor Lake Stability Subject, BIOSes Going Out Now

Following Intel’s run of economic woes and Raptor Lake chip stability points, the corporate may 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 clarification 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 12 months and a half. Intel has been investigating the difficulty all 12 months, and after a sluggish begin, in latest weeks has begun making extra important progress, figuring out what they’re calling an “elevated working voltage” situation in high-TDP desktop Raptor Lake (13^th & 14^th Era Core) chips. Again in late July the corporate was targeting a mid-August release date for a microcode patch to repair (or fairly, 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 performed with the soundness situation. Intel continues to be investigating whether or not it’s potential to enhance the soundness of already-degraded processors, and the general tone of Intel’s announcement may be very a lot that of a beta software program repair – Intel received’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, evidently Intel hasn’t closed the guide on the difficulty solely, 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? Briefly, 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 difficulty, so capping voltages at what Intel has decided is the right restrict ought to stop future chip harm.

The company’s letter to the community 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 difficulty from repeated voltage spikes have deteriorated in such a manner that the minimal voltage wanted to function the chip – Vmin – has elevated past Intel’s unique specs. Consequently, these chips are now not getting sufficient voltage to function.

Seasoned overclockers will little doubt discover that this can be a acquainted story, as this is without doubt one of 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 secure, significantly in workloads the place the voltage to the chip is already sagging.

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

This “Vmin shift,” as Intel is looking it, is the corporate’s subsequent investigative goal. In response to the corporate’s letter, they’re aiming to offer 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 final 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 won’t 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 top sport for this repair, however for now, Intel isn’t offering a timeline or different steering for when which may occur. So for PC fans, a minimum of, a BIOS replace is the one solution to get it for now.

Efficiency Influence: Usually Nil – However Not All the time

Lastly, Intel’s message additionally offers a little bit of steering on the efficiency impression of the brand new microcode, based mostly on their inside testing. Beforehand the corporate has indicated that they anticipated no important efficiency impression, and based mostly on their expanded testing, by and huge this stays the case. Nevertheless, there are going to be some workloads that endure from efficiency regressions consequently.

Up to now, 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, just about every little thing else Intel has examined, together with frequent benchmarks like Cinebench, and main video games, will not be displaying efficiency regressions. So the general consequence of the repair just isn’t fairly a spotless restoration, nevertheless 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 got one more CPU launch coming up next week, so there’s no scarcity of labor to be performed within the subsequent few days. (Sorry, Gavin!)

Intel’s Full Assertion