Future Intel CPU products won’t be affected by the instability problems that have been plaguing the company’s 14th-gen processors, according to the company. Intel is planning to launch its new Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake CPUs over the next few months, and it looks as though the company is keen to distance these new chips from the game crashes and stability issues that have affected its current CPUs.
Assuming these new Intel CPUs can also compete well with the latest lineup of AMD Zen 5 CPUs, including the forthcoming AMD Ryzen 9000X3D range, then Intel could have some contenders for the best gaming CPU in its hands if there are no stability issues. Intel’s 14th-gen CPUs have been causing a lot of problems for games based on the Unreal Engine, with games throwing up an error message saying the system is out of VRAM, even when the GPU has plenty of VRAM to spare.
Intel has recently put the root cause of this problem down to a microcode error that caused extreme voltage fluctuations and also resulted in CPUs degrading over time. Intel refers to this as the “Vmin Shift Instability” issue, and in a recent blog post, specified that its “next generation of processors, codenamed Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake, are not affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue due to the new architectures powering both product families.”
Intel also made a commitment to other CPU architectures in the future pipeline, saying it “will ensure future product families are protected against the Vmin Shift Instability issue as well.”
The post also specifically names CPUs that are unaffected by the issue, which include all of Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake processors, such as the Core i5 12400F, as well as all the non-K CPUs in its 13th and 14th-gen lineups. Owners of high-end laptops based on 14th-gen CPUs, such as the latest Razer Blade 16, will also be pleased to know that none of these mobile CPUs are affected either, including the HX models.
If you have a K-series 13th-gen or 14th-gen CPU, such as the Core i9 14900K, however, Intel has reiterated that it recommends updating your motherboard to the latest BIOS, which will update the microcode. The company also recommends setting your CPU to use the Intel Default Settings in the BIOS. You’ll be able to find this update on the support page for your motherboard on the manufacturer’s website, and you need to look for the latest BIOS that updates the microcode to version 0x129 in the BIOS description.
If you’ve not done this before, check out our guide on how to flash your BIOS, where we take you through the whole process from start to finish. For more information about what’s to come with Intel’s new CPUs, you can also read our Intel Arrow Lake guide, where we share everything we know about the new chips so far.