Amidst reports of the 13th and 14th Generation processor instability extending to mobile chips, Intel has sent a statement to Tom's Hardware to clarify the situation. While there has been instability feedback on some mobile SKUs, the cause of the instability differs from their desktop counterparts.
"Intel is aware of a small number of instability reports on Intel Core 13th/14th Gen mobile processors.
"Based on our in-depth analysis of the reported Intel Core 13/14 Gen desktop processor instability issues, Intel has determined that mobile products are not exposed to the same issue. The symptoms being reported on 13/14 Gen mobile systems – including system hangs and crashes – are common symptoms stemming from a broad range of potential software and hardware issues.
"As always, if users are experiencing issues with their Intel-powered laptops we encourage them to reach out to the system manufacturer for further assistance." — Intel representative to Tom's Hardware.
Alderon Games was one of the few companies that shared its statistics about Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh Core i9 crash rates. The founder, Matthew Cassells, recently stated that although the company's laptops with mobile variants crashed less frequently than the desktop chips, the issue still existed on laptops.
Cassells responded to Intel's statement in a Reddit thread:
"The laptops crash in the exact same way as the desktop parts including workloads under Unreal Engine, decompression, ycruncher or similar. Laptop chips we have seen failing include but not limited to 13900HX etc.," Cassells said.
"Intel seems to be down playing the issues here most likely due to the expensive costs related to BGA rework and possible harm to OEMs and Partners," he continued. "We have seen these crashes on Razer, MSI, Asus Laptops and similar used by developers in our studio to work on the game. The crash reporting data for my game shows a huge amount of laptops that could be having issues."
The Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh HX series share die configurations similar to those of their desktop counterparts. Therefore, it's normal to think that some of the HX-series SKUs would suffer the same fate as the Core i9 desktop models. However, instability could be rarer because the mobile chips have stricter TDP guidelines and don't require as much voltage as the desktop processors. However, Intel has now disputed that speculation.
Things certainly aren't looking good for Intel right now. Months of investigation have yet to bear fruit as the chipmaker still hasn't narrowed down the exact cause of the instability on Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh Core i9 processors. Instead, consumers have only received stopgap solutions, such as using a more toned-down power profile on less capable motherboards.
We're only months from the launch of Intel's Core Ultra 200 (codenamed Arrow Lake). The recent instability fiasco has unquestionably dented Intel's reputation and likely impacted consumers' trust in Intel processors. Meanwhile, AMD's latest Ryzen 9000 (codenamed Granite Ridge) processors, powered by Zen 5 execution cores, will soon hit the market - months ahead of Arrow Lake. The whole Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh instability issues couldn't have emerged at a worse time.
