Intel's High-End CPU Problem

This isn't really news - in fact, I posted about the problem being
reported back in February - but the story* is gaining more traction
recently.

Specifically, a number of agencies are now writing stories about how
the power-hungry Intel 13900K and 14900K CPUs keep crashing when
revved up to full speed. It's still not entirely clear where the blame
lies; certainly the motherboard manufacturers shoulder some of the
blame for not following Intel's specs closely enough, and OCing the
CPUs past their rated limits. But Intel also deserves some of the
shame, since a) the -K processors are specifically sold as being
overclocking tolerant, and b) the CPU is a disgustingly power-hungry
design. Plus, where did all those mobo manufacturers get the idea that
they could safely OC the CPU to those levels if not from Intel in the
first place?

Anyway, downclocking the CPU 'solves' the problem with minimal
end-user effect. Still, if somebody paid a premium to get one of those
chips, I bet they'd be pissed at having to do so. In fact, the return
rate on these particular CPUs is unusually high. I wonder why?



I, of course, have specific interest in the story since I was one of
those affected by the problem. I purposefully bought a 13900K CPU, not
because I wanted to overclock it, but I wanted that overhead as a
'safety net'. In essence, I paid the premium specifically to avoid
issues like this. With a -K processor, I thought, even if there were
power issues just like this, I wouldn't have to worry about it because
- since I was running at stock - it wouldn't affect me.

In general, I've had good luck with Intel chips anyway. I really like
AMD CPUs - they're often the better design - but there have been
compatibility issues and Intel was the 'safe' choice. Sure, it might
not have been the 'best' or 'fastest', but a 13900K was still 'fast
enough' and - I thought - was more likely to be problem free.

And, in truth, for the first six months it /was/ trouble-free. But
after a while, I started seeing odd issues. The most noticeable was
that any ZIP files created by 7Zip ended up corrupt. But there were
weird random crashes too and - ultimately - my computer stopped
booting entirely. All the standard tests indicated everything was
running normally, but Windows just wouldn't finish loading. It was
only after I drastically disabled every single overclocking option in
the BIOS (all set on by default; thanks ASUS) /and/ rate-limited the
CPU to 5400MHz (from stock 5500MHz) that I got my PC back. The only
way I can tell it's running slower is if I look at the clock-rates;
functionally it's the same performance. But my 'safe choice' no longer
seems so safe.

So I'm glad that this story is getting more attention. Hell, maybe
it'll even lead to a full recall of the CPU and I can get a new one
from Intel for free (it wouldn't be the first time; Intel replaced the
CPU for anyone who had an original Pentium CPU with the FDIV bug). I
wouldn't turn my nose up at that either!

But come time for me to build my next PC, I'm not sure that Intel will
be my 'safe' and 'problem free' choice anymore.



* read some of the articles here:
https://www.pcgamesn.com/intel/cpu-instability-games-unreal-engine
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-core-i9-cpu-crashes-returns/