Intel CPU owners affected by a recently highlighted issue causing some PC games to crash note that Asus has offered a fix for this problem – and hopefully other motherboard makers will follow suit.
To summarize, this is a bug that affects Intel’s more expensive (Core i9) 14th and 13th generation processors, and causes some games to crash, especially those built with the Unreal Engine.
Tom’s hardware saw Asus’ move to release a new BIOS for its Z790, B760 and H770 motherboards, one that introduces a new ‘Intel Baseline Profile’ option.
This is a new set of settings that align with Intel’s recommended default choices for these motherboards, as opposed to the previous defaults put in place by Asus.
The Intel settings help reduce power consumption, so the hope is that this will fix the annoying crashes that some PC gamers are experiencing – fingers crossed, anyway.
Asus describes the BIOS as follows: “The update introduces the Intel Baseline Profile option, which allows users to return to Intel factory default settings for basic functionality, lower power limits, and improving stability in certain games.”
Analysis: a solution – but with a price to pay
Tom mentions that this BIOS update is a beta version, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. If it was a beta version there would be a bit more anxiety about installing it, but as far as we know it’s a full release.
Most likely, there will be quite a rush to install this update for PC gamers who have encountered these issues and have an Asus motherboard with the mentioned chipsets – and the good news is that we have seen some preliminary reports (on Reddit) that the new BIOS will work. We’ve also seen some indications of significant performance drops, although that’s clearly better than crashing all the time in certain games.
Unfortunately, we’re still waiting for the results of Intel’s investigation into these crashes to determine the root cause of the problems – or perhaps the causes, as we suspect this is a thorny issue.
The finger is being pointed at the motherboard settings causing these glitches on Team Blue’s 14th and 13th generation CPUs, and this BIOS release, which tweaks the settings to match Intel’s defaults, seems to support that idea. Although this could equally mean that Asus is taking a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach for the time being, as a temporary solution to the problems, with the full story behind the scenes perhaps due to several different factors.
We won’t really know until we hear from Intel, and as noted in the meantime, we may see other motherboard manufacturers adopt a similar “baseline” profile for settings to help prevent these crashes.