The issue with Raptor Lake crashes continues to plague Intel. Just a few days ago, reports emerged that instability issues exist not only in mainstream consumer desktop PCs but also in data center servers powered by desktop Core i9 CPUs in LGA 1700 workstation motherboards. Now Alderon Games reports that Raptor Lake crashes impact Intel's 13th and 14th-Gen processors in laptops as well.
"Yes we have several laptops that have failed with the same crashes. It's just slightly more rare then the desktop CPU faults," the dev posted.
Matt's response all but nullifies any theories that Raptor Lake instability might be a desktop or LGA1700 socket-specific problem. Alderon Games claimed several days ago that virtually 100% of its Raptor Lake [desktop] chips were crashing, so the fact that Raptor Lake laptop crashing is only "slightly more rare" reveals how truly problematic the issue is on all platforms.
Unfortunately, Matt didn't disclose which processor models are affected the most in Intel's 13th- and 14th-Gen mobile lineup, but it's logical to expect the issues could affect Intel's flagship Core i9 HX series processors. The current trend on the desktop is that the most powerful (and power-hungry) Raptor Lake (and Raptor Lake Refresh) chips are the most sensitive to instability, so there's no reason (for now) to expect this behavior to be any different on mobile.
Intel has still not provided an "end all be all" fix to rectify Raptor Lake instability. Intel has tried patching this problem with microcode updates featuring stricter power limit regulations, enforcing safety mechanisms such as CEP in BIOS, and fixing bugs with eTVB, but none of them have been able to fully rectify the continued crashes.
The biggest issue with Raptor Lake instability is the randomness of the crashes; some chips might only crash in certain conditions while others crash in various other ways. As a result, attempted fixes have also seen the same results with some fixes, such as disabling E-cores only working on some chips. Worse, the increasing number of reports could indicate that many Raptor Lake chips are degrading, even when operating below official spec, which makes any sort of fix only a temporary solution.
Instability issues on mobile isn't very surprising. The fact that data center servers boasting W680 chipset motherboards are also suffering from the same issues suggests Intel's problem is not purely related to power consumption. That is not to say Intel's power limit changes (and especially safety mechanism enforcement) are not helping limit stability in some form, but it's obvious that power parameters aren't the only issue causing mayhem on Intel's Raptor Lake processors.
