The central theses
- The Intel Core i9-14900K is experiencing crashes and blue screens that affect various applications and games such as Counter-Strike and Tekken 8.
- Users have experienced issues with Unity-related crashes in games or rendering errors in video editing software like Davinci Resolve.
- Some solutions include underclocking the CPU. You can also contact Intel for further assistance.
In April of this year, I investigated reports of crashes that came in from owners of an Intel Core i9-14900K. They had stated that they were experiencing crashes and blue screens in multiple applications on multiple computers. I had been investigating for a few months and was able to confirm that this was an issue that Intel was working on and identifying. Games like 8 also highlighted the issue, but users also reported problems with other games and software.
As far as I could tell at the time, the problem affected many different programs. I personally experienced it with Davinci Resolve, where videos were not rendered, Escape from Tarkov where I experienced Unity-related crashes, and I experienced it in Counterattack where my computer would bluescreen when I loaded a map with anti-cheat protection enabled.
When I experienced the latter example, I started following the clues to get to the bottom of the problem. That's how I found out that it was an issue with my Intel Core i9-14900K and that it was occurring on my second device as well. We found a solution that worked reliably on all devices at the time, but since the original publication of this article (April 11, 2024), more information has come to light.
If you're using a 13th or 14th generation Intel CPU, we recommend installing the latest BIOS updates for your motherboard for now, but this may not be enough to fix the problem. Intel says a microcode update for affected CPUs is coming out this month, and that the warranty on affected CPUs will be extended by two years.
The Intel Core i9-14900K almost certainly has a problem
I experienced it for the first time with anti-cheat software
In January I tried to find out the cause of my crashing problems. The crashes in Counterattack was especially frustrating since it's my most played game. I was eventually able to isolate the problem and determined that I was using a third-party anti-cheat, Faceit. I reached out to the company with my log files to diagnose the problem. Their anti-cheat team responded to me saying that another user with the same CPU had the same issue as me and that they believed it was a CPU bug.
Another friend of mine who actively uses the platform had the same issues with his Intel Core i9-13900K, although replacing the motherboard seemed to solve the problem for him. At this point I started to connect the dots. Faceit told me they had also seen users with the 13900K having the same issue, and when I did some research I actually found some users on the Intel forums with the same CPU complaining last year of unexplained crashes in games.
To make matters worse, I later found out that another friend of mine was experiencing the same crashes with a 13900K, and even installing the latest BIOS updates and using Intel default settings did not fix the problem. As it turns out, Tom's Hardware According to sources at Intel, the damage these CPUs suffer is permanent. This is true, because my friend's CPU seemed to be so badly damaged that it crashed even when using Intel's default settings.
For technical explanation: This is what Faceit told me when I sent them the crash dumps of Counterattack:
The crash dumps just don't make much sense. They show an access violation when reading a specific address. The address the current instruction is reading from is perfectly readable in the dump and is different from the one showing the exception.
Intel investigates
I contacted Intel
After receiving the results from Faceit, I reached out to Intel with these log files, the information, and my experience. This was followed by an internal investigation at Intel that has apparently been ongoing for several months. At the time, I was told that Intel was investigating the cause and that it was related to motherboards running the Intel Core i9-14900K running outside of specification, although it appeared that this was not the case. quite reason and that something in the CPU's production process could be the cause. Intel said the main reason was “increased operating voltage.” Thomas Hannaford's full statement can be found below:
“We have discovered that increased operating voltage is causing instability issues on some 13th/14th generation desktop processors. Our analysis of returned processors confirms that the increased operating voltage is caused by a microcode algorithm that is causing incorrect voltage requests to the processor.”
For context, Intel told me at the time that pretty much any motherboard capable of running the Intel Core i9-14900K will run the CPU outside of spec, exceeding its performance limits and technically voiding the warranty. This includes motherboards from Asus and Gigabyte, to name a few, as these motherboards typically overclock the CPU by default unless you disable it. By default, these overclocks are considered “safe” because a user can plug their CPU into the motherboard and it will simply run at a higher clock speed. However, this practice benefits Intel in some ways because these CPUs score higher in benchmarks.
In theory, this would mean that any issues would not necessarily be Intel's fault. However, there is more to it than that, as users have been testing out-of-spec configurations that appear to trigger the same underlying issue. Currently, Intel has not officially announced the issue, but it appears to be related to the Raptor Lake architecture, as it also affects 13th Gen i9 CPUs.
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How to fix crashing issues on your i9
We found a solution a few months ago with the help of Faceit
When I first spoke to Faceit, they helped me find a solution to the problem that got my PC back to normal at the time. Using XTU's advanced tuning, I was able to lower the clock speed of all cores to 5.2GHz. This completely fixed the problem for me, and doing this at boot time takes my PC from unstable to completely usable. Of course, it's annoying to leave extra performance on the table like this, but it factorieswhich is more than I could say before.
Since then, many motherboard manufacturers have released BIOS updates that introduce a new Intel Default Settings option. This setting essentially slows down your CPU in a similar way, but does not require the use of a third-party program and works regardless of the operating system you are using. Intel does not recommend using this setting, but since the alternative is breaking your CPU, you should use it until the company releases its microcode update in mid-August. I am currently using Intel Default Settings on my CPU and have no crashes.
We're watching to see what Intel says next about the situation, but if you have a 13th or 14th gen i9 and are seeing strange behavior, this is likely the cause. We recommend updating your BIOS. You can contact the seller you bought your CPU from or Intel if you have any issues. A friend of mine ended up getting an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D instead. He no longer has crashing issues in any of his applications.
Related
How to use the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility
Intel XTU is the official overclocking app for Intel chips. Here's how to use it.