Intel’s motherboard manufacturing partners have begun releasing BIOS updates to address instability in Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors known as Vmin Shift Instability. Intel itself revealed the final source of the problem and its consequences last week, and also announced the release of new microcode 0x12B, which should fix it.
Image source: MSI
As previously established, motherboards supplied voltage to Intel processors above safe limits. The new microcode 0x12B is said to correct this situation and generally solve the problem of unstable operation of the 13th and 14th generation Core processors. Asus, ASRock and MSI have already begun promptly releasing new BIOS versions based on the new Intel microcode, although only a few days have passed since Intel’s latest statements, and the company itself said that the necessary updates may “have to wait a few more weeks.”
Image source: ASUS
According to Tom’s Hardware, which analyzed the release of new BIOS versions by motherboard manufacturers, all models of Asus Z790 motherboards seem to have received “Intel microcode update 0x12B to address the problem of excessive voltage during idle or light activity” designed to eliminate processor instability. However, these BIOS versions are released in beta release format.
The manufacturer has not yet released new BIOS versions for boards based on Intel B760 and Z690 chipsets. The latest updates for these board models are based on microcode 0x129, which was released back in August when Intel tried to fix the instability of its processors last time.
ASRock has also released new BIOS versions based on 0x12B microcode for Z790 motherboards. The update is available for board models Taichi, Riptide, Steel Legend and others. There are no new BIOS versions for motherboards based on the junior B760 chipset and the previous generation Z690 chipset. It follows from this that manufacturers are trying to release updates for their flagship solutions as quickly as possible, and then for everyone else.
MSI has released new BIOS versions so far only for selected models of boards based on the Z790 chipset. New firmware also has a “beta” status. There are no updates yet for boards based on the B760 chipset, nor for boards based on Intel 600 series chipsets.
Gigabyte, as well as Biostar, did not release new BIOS firmware at the time of publication of this text.