Intel’s long-awaited microcode update, which should fix (or at least serve as a preventative measure) instability issues with its 13th and 14th generation CPUs, is about to arrive, and Team Blue has assured us that the update won’t bring any nasty side effects in terms of performance.
The patch is now indeed available in beta BIOS builds, notably from Asus, which as Phoronix.com reports has rolled out these beta builds to a wide range of motherboards, and the tech site ran some performance tests (under Linux). So how does that match up to Intel’s own benchmarking? Let’s dive in and find out…
TechSpot noted the latest from Intel proposition about the instability issues. Team Blue performed their own tests on various apps and games to show that the patch did not negatively impact performance.
Intel’s benchmarks show that when using ‘Intel Default Settings’ (i.e. stock settings and certainly no overclocking) any performance difference fell ‘within run-to-run variation’, meaning there was no meaningful impact (or any difference fell within expected margins of error).
This was the case with tests such as 3DMark TimeSpy, Cinebench R24, and Blender 4.2.0. The notable caveat was that “a few subtests showed (moderate) impact” and that included the PugetBench GPU Effects Score.
It was a similar story for gaming tests that fell within the expected run-to-run variance, and these included Cyberpunk 2077, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War: Warhammer III – Mirrors of Madness. There was one exception, however – Hitman 3: Dartmoor – where the game experienced “a bit more impact”.
What did Phoronix.com discover while testing the beta microcode patch with an Intel Core i9-14900K processor in an Asus Prime Z790-P Wi-Fi motherboard?
The good news is that the site’s results largely matched Intel’s findings. Overall, there was barely a noticeable difference, but there were occasionally larger drops in performance on certain tests.
Phoronix.com reports that these 6% to 10% drops are most common in Python scripting and WireGuard (network stress testing).
Analysis: No performance worries – and a word about future CPUs too
In short, the chances of the average user seeing any effect are slim, but it’s still possible that a single application or game will experience some additional performance headwinds from the patch. In that case, the difference might not even realistically be noticeable.
Keep in mind that this is a limited set of tests – one batch run by Intel itself, and one batch on Linux – but it still gives us a pretty good idea of what to expect, and it seems that any fears of a performance hit are unfounded. Of course, this is still a beta version of the microcode update, so some of the wrinkles visible in these test runs may even be ironed out come release.
The finished BIOS builds with the microcode patch should be out soon, as Intel promised they would arrive in mid-August. Mind you, since the beta version has only just been released, it seems likely that the full implementation of the patch will happen later in August – although it should definitely be this month. After all, Intel can’t really hold out, given that people are pretty worried about the health of their CPUs right now.
Another interesting tidbit from Intel’s latest statement reads as follows: “Intel also confirms, based on extensive validation, that all future products will not be affected by this (instability) issue.”
Which we’re assuming means future 13th and 14th generation processors, as well as next-gen CPU lines from Intel. This suggests that the microcode update will be built into Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs in the future, rather than something having changed on the manufacturing side of those existing chips (though it doesn’t rule out the latter possibility, mind you).
As you probably know if you’ve been following this saga, Intel continues to investigate these instability issues and scenarios where they’re triggered, and advises in the statement that it will provide a further update on potential other mitigations in late August. That means there could also be a further microcode update in the pipeline.