Image Source: Intel
An increased minimum voltage affects the stability of the processor even in standby mode. Intel observed random voltage spikes when Raptor Lake chips came out of low-power mode to perform background operations before entering low-power mode again.
It is reported that the new microcode will limit VID requests (nominal core voltage) above 1.55 V to eliminate problems associated with excessive voltage. This change will not significantly affect the performance of the processors. At the same time, Intel in its internal reports states that further analysis and monitoring of chip behavior is needed to ensure whether a future microcode update can completely eliminate all instability problems for the above reasons.
«Intel is seeing significant increases in minimum operating voltage (Vmin) on several processor cores returned by customers. The behavior [of these chips] is similar to the result when the equipment is subjected to increased voltage and temperature during reliability testing [of processors]. Factors associated with high Vmin include high voltage, high operating frequency, and high temperature. Even under idle conditions and at relatively low operating temperatures, sporadic voltage increases are observed as the processor exits a low-power state to service background operations before returning to a low-power state. At high enough voltages, these short-term events can accumulate over time, causing Vmin to increase. Internal analysis indicates that it is necessary to reduce the maximum operating voltage requested by the processor to reduce or eliminate the accumulated voltage impact that contributes to the increase in Vmin. Although Intel has confirmed that higher voltage directly impacts Vmin, the company is continuing an internal investigation to fully understand the root cause and address other potential contributors to this issue.”