Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Over the past few days , there ’s been a firestorm online regarding a statement Intel made on thewave of instability issuesfacing high - end Intel CPUs . The original argument , which was shared withIgor ’s Laband others , appears like Intel wiping its hands sporty of the problem and placing blame on motherboard vender , and several media outlets have ran with that accurate story . That ’s not on the button what ’s going on .

In statements shared with bothTom ’s HardwareandAnandTech , Intel specifically sound out it does n’t intend to “ ascribe rap to Intel ’s cooperator . ” Currently , it seems that some BIOS adjustments can fix the instability problems on high - end Intel central processor , but the investigation with Intel and its motherboard mate is still on-going . Here ’s the statement in full :

Intel’s 14900K CPU socketed in a motherboard.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

“ The lately publicized communications between Intel and its motherboard partners regarding motherboard setting and Intel Core 13th & 14th Gen K - SKU processors is intended to render guidance on Intel recommend default preferences . We are continuing to investigate with our mate the recent user reputation of unstableness in certain workloads on these central processor .

“ This BIOS default mount guidance is meant to better constancy for currently installed processors while Intel continues inquire root movement , not impute blame to Intel ’s partners . Intel go along to work with its partners to develop appropriate mitigation going forward . ”

The place setting in doubt are as follows :

For the selection that varies , Intelpoints to its datasheetsfor 13th - gen and fourteenth - gen central processor .

Although the unstableness problem have been ongoing for months , tensions are rising around the topic now . Over the preceding few calendar week , we ’ve ascertain updates from brands like Asus and Gigabyte offer a profile that fits Intel ’s nonremittal specification , even if it come atupward of a 9 % loss in performance . There are quick fixes usable now , but we wo n’t have a full answer any sentence shortly . Intel says it plans on making a public command on the matter in May .

In the meantime , there ’s been mountain of finger - pointing . Some charge Intel and others blame motherboard manufacturing business , and for a brief second , it seemed Intel fell into the latter ingroup . The realism is that there ’s probably some incrimination in both camps .

utter with motherboard vendors , they differentiate me that tweaking nonremittal circumstance is usual to feel a dulcet spot between stability and peak performance . Every motherboard marketer has a more or less dissimilar definition of what that sweet spot entail , and they do n’t always stick to Intel ’s nonpayment time value for gamy - end , unsecured CPUs .

On the other hand , it ’s hard to imagine Intel does n’t make love that motherboard brands are doing this . After all , how are you going to separate a $ 250 motherboard from a $ 500 one and still stand out from your rival ? Although the unstableness seems to stem from the motherboard , Intel ca n’t wash its hands neat of the outlet when it ’s been ongoing for months without any prescribed counselling .

My main question at the import is what Intel really define as “ default ” mise en scene for its processors . When Intel write performance number , it indorse them up with inside information about the conformation , and it maintainsa page with these settingsgoing back several generations . One point that ’s missing is how the BIOS was configured . Was Intel using its default specifications , or was it running mental testing with the out - of - the - box configuration on the motherboard ?

That ’s an important question as the saga of these imbalance problems continues when there ’s a wide break in operation between Intel ’s defaults and what client get with a new motherboard . I ’ve reached out to Intel with this question , and I ’ll update this narrative when I hear back .

It ’s easy to churn down the recent debacle surrounding as stabilityby saying Intelhas “ just turned off the overclock . ” But with big gaps in performance on expensive , unbarred CPUs , it ’s clear that Intel and its partners need to get on the same varlet about what exactly “ default ” means .