Intel CPU Stability Issues: Understanding the Latest Problems and Solutions

The Intel CPU Crisis: What’s Going On and What’s Next

Things Have Not Been Going Well Over at Intel

Intel’s stock price has taken a nosedive, and they’ve announced massive job cuts. It’s always sad to see thousands of people lose their jobs, and it’s also bad news for the industry as a whole. It’s no secret that Intel has been struggling for a while now, and it’s not just their stock price that’s been suffering. Demand for their 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th-generation desktop processors has been weak, and things only got worse with each new generation.

What’s Been Crashing?

Owners of some 13th- and 14th-generation Intel CPUs have been experiencing crashes when performing certain tasks, such as loading games or running game servers. This would sometimes appear as an "out of video memory" issue, despite it being a CPU problem, not a GPU problem. It’s primarily affected high-end K-series parts like the 13900K and 14900K, but other Raptor Lake processors are also vulnerable.

What’s Next?

Let’s be honest, Intel has tried to deflect blame and minimize the problem at every turn. They’ve extended the warranty on their 13th and 14th-gen processors, but the process of getting a replacement CPU is still uncertain. We can’t trust Intel to do the right thing for customers, so we’re not recommending anyone purchase their 13th and 14th-gen processors until the issue is fully rectified.

Our Plans Moving Forward

We’ll continue to benchmark and include 13th and 14th-gen processors in our reviews, using the Intel Extreme profile, but we won’t be recommending them. The next step for us will be to re-test all those Intel CPUs once the microcode fix is released in a week or two (hopefully), and at that point, we’ll have to re-evaluate the situation.

A Lack of Transparency from Intel

Intel has taken way too long to address this issue, and they’ve yet to do so properly. These issues have been known since mid-2023, and Intel announced they were investigating months ago. We think Intel knows exactly what the problem is, but they’re buying time and trying to dodge the problem, hoping it will blow over as people just move on to the next thing.

What We Think

We believe Intel knows exactly what the issue is. CPUs have degraded and will need to be replaced at a huge cost to them, and they’re actively trying to avoid replacing degraded parts. That’s just our opinion, but after all this time, it’s looking more and more likely that this is indeed the case.

Conclusion

The situation is either Intel knows exactly what the problem is and isn’t willing to bear the costs involved to fix it, or Intel really has been searching for answers all this time, which would suggest they don’t understand their own products nearly as well as they should. We think Intel knows exactly what the issue is, and we’ll continue to keep a close eye on the situation and provide updates as necessary.