Intel has finally identified and addressed the underlying causes of instability issues affecting its 13th- and 14th-gen processors. The company has rolled out a second microcode update to resolve these issues once and for all.
The root cause of the problem lies in a clock tree circuit within the IA core that becomes prone to failure when subjected to high voltage and temperature conditions. This failure causes a shift in the clock duty cycle, resulting in system instability.
Intel has identified four key operating scenarios that trigger this issue:
The mitigations are being rolled into a new 0x12B microcode update that encompasses previous patches. Motherboard makers are working to integrate 0x12B via upcoming BIOS updates. The rollout could take weeks.
This microcode update can only prevent the Vmin shift instability from occurring and cannot fix CPUs that are already affected by the issue. Those will need to be replaced by Intel under the warranty extension program.
Intel assures that there will be no significant performance impact from the 0x12B patch. The company also reiterated that its mobile CPUs and upcoming Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake desktop parts are unaffected by this flaw.