The house owners of Intel’s best processors have been coping with instability points for months. The primary time a brand new microcode replace rolled out, not solely did we not see a repair, however we additionally noticed performance drops of up to 9%. It’s no surprise that many customers approached the latest BIOS update with warning. Fortunately, based mostly on numerous assessments, it looks like Intel’s doing it proper this time round to this point.
A number of testers and publications took the brand new 0x129 microcode replace out for a spin, and whereas there are actually some cases of efficiency drops, it’s actually nowhere close to as dangerous as a 9% dip on common.
The dangerous information? In case your CPU is already crashing, the brand new replace received’t assist. It was made to stop the problems from cropping up in processors which have but to run into any issues. With that out of the way in which, let’s dig into outcomes achieved by JayzTwoCents, a YouTuber who examined the Core i9-14900K with an MSI motherboard each earlier than and after new BIOS updates.
JayzTwoCents examined the CPU in numerous benchmarks, and most of the time, the outcomes have been near the identical. The up-to-date system scored 38,077 factors within the Cinebench R23 multi-core take a look at, whereas the model operating the 0x123 microcode replace scored 38,006 factors. Single-threaded scores turned out comparable, with 2,336 factors for the non-updated CPU and a couple of,345 factors after the replace.
The earlier BIOS model scores a small lead in Cinebench R24, although, with 2,136 factors versus 2,124 factors within the multi-threaded take a look at. It’s one thing, nevertheless it’s actually round a 0.6% distinction — nothing to jot down dwelling about.
The Geekbench CPU take a look at is analogous, with a small drop for the brand new BIOS (20,169 factors versus 20,003). JayzTwoCents additionally examined the CPU in Handbrake to see whether or not there was any influence on rescaling workloads, and the consequence was throughout the margin of error, with 59 seconds for the 0x123 patch and 60 seconds for the 0x129 patch.
The one actually vital distinction was within the TimeSpy Excessive CPU take a look at, the place the pre-update rating was at 11,941 factors, however the post-update take a look at solely returned 11,264 factors. It’s nothing that you simply’d discover in day-to-day use, nevertheless it now not classifies as “virtually the identical.”
Issues are rather less peachy relating to gaming. Though the CPU averaged about the identical in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, testing in Cyberpunk 2077 revealed a drop in frames per second (fps) — from 236 fps all the way down to 229 fps at most, and from 190 fps to 186 fps on common. Would any of us have the ability to discover if we have been taking part in the sport? No probability, nevertheless it’s nonetheless there.
Whereas much less broadly used, the Core i9-14900K was additionally examined in numerous workloads on Linux by Phoronix, to match the efficiency influence on that working system. At a look, these benchmarks don’t look as nice as what JayzTwoCents was in a position to obtain. The best efficiency loss was within the WireGuard + Linux networking stack stress take a look at, which noticed an 11.8% drop. Total, Python scripting benchmarks didn’t go nicely for the CPU.
The lengthy checklist of benchmarks additionally options a number of efficiency good points, although, and most of the assessments solely resulted in a small, insignificant distinction between 2% and 5%. Phoronix’s Michael Larabel summed it up: “Within the 100+ different benchmarks, there was no measurable efficiency distinction or simply falling throughout the 1% to three% vary that could be system noise and different components.”
After months of silence, it looks like Intel may lastly be about to catch a break. Whereas this BIOS replace won’t save CPUs which might be already crashing — these will must be returned to make the most of the extended five-year warranty period — it’d forestall extra harm in CPUs which might be but to wrestle. If the patch truly helps, a barely noticeable efficiency drop might be a suitable resolution which may help keep Intel afloat.
