[HN Gopher] July 2024 Update on Instability Reports on Intel Cor...
___________________________________________________________________
July 2024 Update on Instability Reports on Intel Core 13th/14th Gen
Desktop CPUs
Author : acrispino
Score : 60 points
Date : 2024-07-22 20:55 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (community.intel.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (community.intel.com)
| firebaze wrote:
| Nice that Intel acknowledges there are problems with that CPU
| generation. If I read this right, the CPUs have been supplied
| with a too-high voltage across the board, with some tolerating
| the higher voltages for longer, others not so much.
|
| Curious to see how this develops in terms of fixing defective
| silicon.
| tux3 wrote:
| Remains to be seen how the microcode patch affects performance,
| and how these CPUs that have been affected by over-voltage to the
| point of instability will have aged in 6 months, or a few years
| from now.
|
| More voltage generally improves stability, because there is more
| slack to close timing. Instability with high voltage suggests
| dangerous levels. A software patch can lower the voltage from
| this point on, but it can't take back any accumulated fatigue.
| loufe wrote:
| Intel cannot afford to be anything but outstanding in terms of
| customer experience right now. They are getting assaulted on all
| fronts and need to do a lot to improve their image to stay
| competitive.
| wnevets wrote:
| Are the CPUs that we that received elevated operating voltage
| permanently damaged?
| Pet_Ant wrote:
| This is the most pressing question. If it was just a microcode
| issue a cooloff and power cycle ought to at least reset things
| but according to Wendel from Level 1 Tech, that doesn't seem to
| always be the case.
| NBJack wrote:
| I was concerned this would happen to them, given how much power
| was being pushed through their chips to keep them competitive. I
| get the impression their innovation has either truly slowed down,
| or AMD thought enough 'moves' ahead with their
| tech/marketing/patents to paint them into a corner.
|
| I don't think Intel is done though, at least not yet.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| There was recently[1] some talk about how the 13th/14th gen
| mobile chips also had similar issues, though Intel insisted it's
| something else.
|
| Will be interesting to see how that pans out.
|
| [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41026123
| tardy_one wrote:
| For server CPUs there's not a similar problem or they realize
| server purchasers may be less willing to tolerate it? I'm not
| all that thrilled with the prospect of buying Intels especially
| when wondering about waiting to 5 year out replacement compared
| to a few generations ago, but AMD server choices can be a bit
| limited and I'm not really sure how to evaluate if there may be
| increasing surprises more across the board.
| christkv wrote:
| The amount of current their chips pull on full boost is pretty
| crazy. It would definitively not surprise me if some could get
| damaged by extensive boosting.
| brynet wrote:
| Curious why Intel announced this on their community forums,
| rather than somewhere more official.
| samtheprogram wrote:
| Optics / stock price
| Covzire wrote:
| Just want to say, I'm incredibly happy with my 7800X3D. It runs
| ~70C max like Intel chips used to and with a $35 air cooler and
| it's on average the fastest chip for gaming workloads right now.
| fefe23 wrote:
| So on one hand they are saying it's voltage (i.e. something
| external, not their fault, bad mainboard manufacturers!).
|
| On the other hand they are saying they will fix it in microcode.
| How is that even possible?
|
| Are they saying that their CPUs are signaling the mainboards to
| give them too much voltage?
|
| Can someone make sense of this? It reminds me of Steve Jobs' You
| Are Holding It Wrong moment.
| TazeTSchnitzel wrote:
| After watching https://youtube.com/watch?v=gTeubeCIwRw and some
| related content, I personally don't believe it's an issue fixable
| with microcode. I guess we'll see.
| acrispino wrote:
| An Intel employee is posting on reddit:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/1e9mf04/intel_core_1...
|
| A recent YouTube video by GamersNexus speculated the cause of
| instability might be a manufacturing issue. The employee's
| response follows.
|
| _Questions about manufacturing or Via Oxidation as reported by
| Tech outlets:_
|
| _Short answer: We can confirm there was a via Oxidation
| manufacturing issue (addressed back in 2023) but it is not
| related to the instability issue._
|
| _Long answer: We can confirm that the via Oxidation
| manufacturing issue affected some early Intel Core 13th Gen
| desktop processors. However, the issue was root caused and
| addressed with manufacturing improvements and screens in 2023. We
| have also looked at it from the instability reports on Intel Core
| 13th Gen desktop processors and the analysis to-date has
| determined that only a small number of instability reports can be
| connected to the manufacturing issue._
|
| _For the Instability issue, we are delivering a microcode patch
| which addresses exposure to elevated voltages which is a key
| element of the Instability issue. We are currently validating the
| microcode patch to ensure the instability issues for 13th /14th
| Gen are addressed_
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-07-22 23:01 UTC)