Recently, we have written several times about problems with instability, manifested most often by game crashes, which are affected by Intel Core processors of the 13th and 14th generations, and which may also be connected to the physical degradation of their chips. There is a lot of alleged information about it, but it is often not clear how substantiated it is and whether it is really related. In recent days, there has been news that in addition to desktop processors, even laptop processors are suffering from the bug.
This information comes from one of the game developers (Alderon Games, the author of Path of Titans) who was apparently very frustrated by the problems with the Raptor Lake processors. Internally, Alderon Games was using them for development as well as game servers (and apparently felt significant damage to that own infrastructure as well due to major stability issues reported by users with the faulty CPUs in question).
The company has previously published a very angry warning about instability and a comment openly calling these processors defective and recommending a switch to AMD processors for gaming servers. Users with a Raptor Lake processor should then receive a warning in the game.
Later, a representative of the Alderon Games company mentioned on Reddit that the company also noticed problems with laptops with 13th and 14th generation Core processors, from various brands – Razer, MSI, Asus. Reports of errors on laptops are apparently both from internal use of the company, where it appeared on several units, and also from users of the game. However, these problems should be rarer with laptop processors, even if they have similar or the same symptoms.
Intel: Mobile CPUs don’t have a problem
Intel has been silent on this problem for a long time, limiting itself to the fact that the company is still looking for the primary cause of its occurrence. However, the company objected to this report, and when information about potential problems in notebooks appeared in the media, it broke this silence (which probably also says enough).
Intel reports that based on its analysis of what it already knows about the problem, the problem only affects desktop 13th and 14th generation Core processors, but not notebook ones.
If Intel is not explicitly confusing it, which is not very likely, then it should be a big relief for everyone who bought a laptop with an Intel processor of these generations. Processors in notebooks are hard-soldered to the board and cannot be easily replaced in case of failure.
Possible instabilities of laptops with Raptor Lake have other unrelated causes
It’s important to point out that Intel isn’t directly disputing that laptops can experience instability. However, according to the company, it is important that the clock problems will not be related to the deeper problem of degradation and instability, which is now being solved with desktop processors, but will have other causes. A certain amount of program crashes and instability have “common” causes, such as unstable or faulty memory and other components, but also software problems of the application, drivers or operating system, overheating, malware and so on. These must therefore be dealt with individually according to the cause of the occurrence within the warranty and support of the equipment manufacturer.
Like software and hardware, in today’s complexity, it is not free from bugs or problems that can randomly appear – and in this case, be wrongly blamed for the problem seen with desktop processors. It must be said that similar “common” signs of instability will also appear on computers with AMD (or ARM…) processors. Of course, what matters is how frequent and widespread they are.
Intel says it is issuing this notice based on the information it has about the issue following its investigation to date of affected desktop processors. So it seems that the search for the causes has already progressed and perhaps a solution will be released soon (whether complete, that is the question). Intel directly states that it has “determined” that the 13th and 14th generation Core mobile processors do not suffer from the same problem.
Based on our in-depth analysis of the reported Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processor instability issues, Intel has determined that mobile products are not exposed to the same issue. The symptoms being reported on 13th/14th Gen mobile systems – including system hangs and crashes – are common symptoms stemming from a broad range of potential software and hardware issues.
This can probably be relatively believed, although strictly speaking it probably cannot be completely ruled out that later – only after further analysis – it will be found that the problem exists after all, perhaps in some other and smaller form. The 13th and 14th generation Core mobile processors (which already have a different marking) are also practically all based on silicon, which actually still belongs to the 12th generation Alder Lake, which, according to the information available so far, is also not affected by the problem, even in desktop.
Schematic of the 6+8 core chip used in the 13th generation U, P and H series Core mobile processors. Shouldn’t have a problem
The situation with HX series processors is potentially unclear
But it is possible that there may be some intersection between these two positions. Alderon Games’ complaint about laptop instability mentions HX category mobile processors. However, these are special – they use desktop silicon and their platform is more like a desktop platform than a mobile processor.
So it’s possible that the mobile Raptor Lake warranty applies to the U, P, and H series processors, but the 13th and 14th generation Core HX series processors may actually be affected by the game crashing and degradation issue. Not necessarily – it can depend on minor differences in low-level firmware, for example.
Resources: Digital TrendsAlderon Games (1, 2)
Source: www.cnews.cz
