Is Anyone Playing Games On A i9 13900k/kf or i9 14900k/kf Without the Microcode update?

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MagnusFarseer

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My specs.

i7 12700kf (Speed optimizer on in Intel extreme tuning utility)​

Veetroo V240 White CPU Liquid Cooler​

Corsair T500 Masterbox White​

Gigabyte AERO G Z790 Motherboard​

Western Digital Black SN850x 2TB​

16gb DDR5 4800mhz/5200mhz Kingston ram (was on 5200mhz mode)​

White AsRock Taichi 7900XTX​


Battlefield 2042
BF 2042 Driver version 24.6.1 On Orbital 128
80-100fps in most area but when it rained 70-80fps
BF 2042 24.5.1 Attica Harbour 64
80-100 FPS in most areas
Discarded 128
83-110 FPS in most areas
Hourglass 128
81-98 FPS in most areas



Post Upgrade

i9 13900k (Speed optimizer on in Intel extreme tuning utility)​

SAMA SM360 White Adjustable Liquid Cooler LCD Display​

Corsair T500 Masterbox White​

AsRock Steel Legend Z790​

Western Digital Black SN850x 2TB​

G.SKILL Trident Z5 Royal RGB 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 6400MHz CL32 Silver​

White AsRock Taichi 7900XTX​

Sound Blaster AE-5 Plus (Have not tried it yet, using MOBO Nahmic audio supported software sound first)

ASUS ROG HELIX GPU anti-sag holder

I played 1 game of Battlefield 2042 but I joined near the end of the match, I got a almost constant 95-108FPS, sometimes it went to 92 FPS on the map Spearhead. So it seems like I have gained a 10-15fps performance boost, pretty good considering most games are highly GPU intensive on 4k resolution and above. The ram is on 4800mhz mode though so it is not on it's maximum yet.

No crash at all, I might play for 4 hours right now without the microcode update. I usually play this game for 4-5 hours in one session.

Is anyone here who doesn't have a defective 13900k/14900k still playing games without the microcode update? Supposedly 40-50% of all CPU's are defective. I am gonna go take a risk now and play for 4 hours without the microcode update.
 
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get the firmware update. the chip shipped with too aggressive of a power/clock target to hit benchmark targets and degrades over time. some code paths, especially shader compilation, seem to really stress the cores. it's not going to die over 4 hours but over thousands of accumulated hours you will see some loss of performance.
 
bwang said:
get the firmware update. the chip shipped with too aggressive of a power/clock target to hit benchmark targets and degrades over time. some code paths, especially shader compilation, seem to really stress the cores. it's not going to die over 4 hours but over thousands of accumulated hours you will see some loss of performance.
Click to expand...

I thought it might have crashed playing for 4 hours but it didn't after playing for 2.8 hours, I didn't play for 4-5 hours since it is so early in the morning and I should sleep.


https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/Z790 Steel Legend WiFi/index.asp#BIOS I assume the recent version has everything in it that the previous versions have right? Or do I have to download all of them? I currently have version 11.02.
 
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Just download the latest version of your manufacturers bios and you should be good to go.
 
Welp. My 14900k will no longer hold/boot with XMP on. Guess she, or my mobo, is givining up the ghost :cry:
I at least wanted it to last till both Zen 5 and Arrow Lake came out. (Copper IHS so RMA aint gonna happen)
 
Its on the 129 microcode. Can't even run normal memory speed in Gear 1. Guess I might become a CAMM2 early adopter now.
 
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I went from Bios 1661 to 1662 to 1663 last night on my Asus Tuf Z790 Plus wifi I ran one game and one benchmarch Intel XTU.
The upgrade process was the smoothest with 1663 but the Bios on the Asus website says it's for non K cpus I read something about an update later on in the year for K series.
I fired up one game Flintlock and didn't have an issue. The 1662 was the Beta version so I was kinda willing to update when Asus updated that.
 
Comixbooks said:
I went from Bios 1661 to 1662 to 1663 last night on my Asus Tuf Z790 Plus wifi I ran one game and one benchmarch Intel XTU.
The upgrade process was the smoothest with 1663 but the Bios on the Asus website says it's for non K cpus I read something about an update later on in the year for K series.
I fired up one game Flintlock and didn't have an issue. The 1662 was the Beta version so I was kinda willing to update when Asus updated that.
Click to expand...
BIOS 1663 has microcode 0129, which fixes the elevated VMIN/voltage issue, for all affected CPUs.

The bit about non-K cpus is likely for running them at their stock power limit. Instead of automatically increasing their power limit. Now you have to do that yourself.
 
I haven't updated microcode yet because my stupid MSI mobo resets all settings during update - including OC profiles.
But I run manual settings with ~1.23V v-core so I am ~0.37 volts away from dangerous voltages - or in other words not affected by all this drama.

If you don't do manual OC with manual fixed voltage you have to update the BIOS.
Unless you want to constantly worry CPU is degrading and should any game crash worry its already degraded. I see no point to expose yourself to this nonsense - even if you can RMA it when it actually degrades why deliberately break the CPU and in such bad fashion?
 
XoR_ said:
I haven't updated microcode yet because my stupid MSI mobo resets all settings during update - including OC profiles.
But I run manual settings with ~1.23V v-core so I am ~0.37 volts away from dangerous voltages - or in other words not affected by all this drama.
Click to expand...
I always take detailed pics of my bios settings, with my phone. Before I update the bios.

My Asrock AM5 board actually makes you disable RAM overclocks or XMP, before you can update the bios.
Probably to prevent a bad OC from corrupting the BIOS.
 
XoR_ said:
I haven't updated microcode yet because my stupid MSI mobo resets all settings during update - including OC profiles.
But I run manual settings with ~1.23V v-core so I am ~0.37 volts away from dangerous voltages - or in other words not affected by all this drama.

If you don't do manual OC with manual fixed voltage you have to update the BIOS.
Unless you want to constantly worry CPU is degrading and should any game crash worry its already degraded. I see no point to expose yourself to this nonsense - even if you can RMA it when it actually degrades why deliberately break the CPU and in such bad fashion?
Click to expand...

Yea it's a giant PITA to suddenly have apps/games crashing out of nowhere and then have to deal with an RMA.

And most/all boards completely wipe settings when flashed. Pretty much have to as it can lead to issues otherwise. Same reason why you never should load an old profile even if you can, for example from a saved profile on a USB drive.

I ended up running fixed voltage as I don't think I'll ever trust adaptive on this platform again.
 
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