Intel Core i9-13900K and 14900K stability issues run deep, but they’re not just causing crashes on consumer machines. Servers run the very same chips, and these hiccups are costing companies a fortune.
Digging into Oodle’s game telemetry logs, Level1Techs found that the best CPUs from Intel are causing far more errors than AMD. On average, Team Blue is responsible for around 70% of crashes, but can sometimes range as high as 90%. Across 90 days, 1,431 decompression out of 1,584 were down to Intel’s top-end 13th and 14th gen models. By comparison, AMD suffered just four.
Videocardz quotes developers who claim it’s causing up to $100,000 losses in revenue. After all, interruptions to gameplay lead to a significant dip in players that can’t actually play. Speculatively, they could assume it’s the game’s fault and not their own i9-clad system or dodgy servers. Worse yet, this spirals out of control with word-of-mouth, as the title gains a reputation for poor connectivity, hindering growth.
Unfortunately, Intel hasn’t yet found a fix. The problem is far more complicated than a simple BIOS update and might be inherent to the architecture. Beyond advising against using baseline profiles that were once thought to help, the company has been shockingly quiet on the issue, leaving affected users in the dark.
Even the most robust W680 motherboards designed for stability aren’t safe from crashes, leaving precious few options other than converting to AMD. Some have already started to make the move, with reportedly less problematic AMD Ryzen 9 7950X leading the charge. Here’s hoping for greener pastures with the upcoming generation, although the damage is already done at this point.