In context: Reviewers, CPU owners, and engineers have for the last several months endured stability issues related to several Intel 13th- and 14th-gen processors. Further investigation attributed the issues to the BIOS settings used by many Intel motherboard partners, which use "optimized" settings ignoring Intel's default maximum power limits. This week, Gigabyte and MSI joined Asus in providing additional BIOS versions and configurations aimed at alleviating these issues and adhering to Intel's power specifications.
Gigabyte's latest beta BIOS, announced on Friday, provides a new Intel Baseline feature on its Z790 and B760 series motherboards. According to the announcement, the new beta BIOS is designed to provide enhanced stability by eliminating the high power "optimized" settings thought to induce the instability associated with Intel's 13th- and 14th-generation i7 and i9 CPUs.
The new Gigabyte BIOS, which is available via the applicable motherboard product pages, provides access to the new Intel BaseLine power limit setting under the BIOS' Tweaker tab. According to the update's description, the new BIOS optimizes current excursion protection (CEP) and power settings, provides processor support and optimization for the i9-14900KS, updates the Intel APO (DTT) framework version to 9.0.11405.42569, and adds the Intel BaseLine turbo power limits for the 13th- and 14th-gen K-series CPUs.
On Thursday, MSI provided its own workaround to alleviate the ongoing stability issues. Rather than releasing an updated BIOS, MSI instead provided a how-to guide describing how users can leverage existing BIOS features to restore Intel's recommended power and current limits.
MSI users running Core i9-13900K and Core i9-14900K processors can easily restore Intel-recommended default power limits through the BIOS' OC panel and CPU Cooler Tuning setting. Rather than defaulting to optimized BIOS settings allowing maximum power draw, MSI's Boxed Cooler option limits the CPU to a much more modest 253W. Users can also select the Intel Default option in the MSI BIOS' CPU Lite Load Control. According to MSI, while these lower default settings may increase stability, they could also result in an increase in the processor's voltage.
The updates from Gigabyte and MSI are similar to the firmware updates released by Asus earlier this week. Intel is continuing to work closely with its board partners to further identify the cause of the issue and potential solutions. While reducing power and overall performance may not be ideal, it certainly beats sitting in front of your high-end PC and wondering if it's going to hold out or crash mid-game.