[Fixed Crashing!!!] 13th and 14th Gen Intel CPUs

[loljoshie]

Hi everyone,

After countless hours trying to fix the issue of me crashing after 3-5 minutes and trying everything like disabling HAGS in Windows settings (Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling), putting HIGH settings on instead of ULTRA, turning off ray-tracing or setting it to HIGH, capping my FPS to 120 or 60, downloading a previous version of the game from SteamDB in the form of a depot—the list goes on. None of it worked. If you have a 13th or 14th gen Intel CPU, here is how you fix the issue.

My PC Specs:

CPU: Intel i9-14900KF
Memory: DDR5 32 GB
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z790 UD AC
GPU: RTX 4080 SUPER

Identify the Problem:

A fellow Steam user posted articles about instability issues with 13th and 14th gen Intel CPUs, suggesting that the CPUs might not be getting enough power during certain workloads, leading to crashes in games like Hogwarts Legacy.

Articles:

Tom's Hardware: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intel-issues-official-statement-on-core-k-series-crashes-stick-to-intels-official-power-profiles

AnandTech: https://www.anandtech.com/show/21389/intel-issues-official-statement-regarding-14th-and-13th-gen-instability-recommends-intel-default-settings

Check and Update BIOS Settings:

Intel recommends using "Intel Default Settings" as the power profile in BIOS for these CPUs.

I discovered my BIOS did not have this option and was outdated (2023 version).

Update BIOS:

So I visited the official GIGABYTE website and foud the latest BIOS update for my motherboard model (Z790 UD AC in my case).

The latest update (July 2, 2024) added "Intel Default Settings" to the BIOS.

Follow an official guide to update your BIOS.

Here's the guide I used: Corsair Guide:

https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/explorer/diy-builder/how-tos/how-to-update-bios-on-a-gigabyte-motherboard/

Apply New BIOS Settings:

After updating the BIOS and enabling "Intel Default Settings," I also kept HAGS disabled as recommended.

Result: My game has not crashed in over an hour, even with ULTRA settings (though I avoid ray-tracing to be safe).

Additional Notes:

This fix also addressed every now and then crashing in other games like Dying Light 2 and Ghost of Tsushima.

If you have a different motherboard brand (e.g., MSI, ASUS), check for BIOS updates and "Intel Default Settings." Other users have reported these settings being available for some time.

I hope this helps those of you with 13th or 14th gen Intel CPUs who are experiencing similar issues. Feel free to ask if you need any assistance!

[loljoshie]

Originally posted by GlennyPlaysStuff:

I have a feeling that it's the fact you kept HAGS off that's worked, rather than the bios update.

The motherboard manufacturers have only updated the bios to have the defaults line up with Intel's recent update to spec recommended settings....

... but Intel have not officially announced that they know what the cause of the instability is, or what their fix is.

From my research into the topic of 13th 14th gen, it seems like there are actually multiple issues. Some of these may be fixed by the bios settings, but there are still issues that Intel have not announced a root cause or fix yet. Mostly, these bios updates just set power and current limits, and prevent undervolting, as well as seemingly adding a bunch of extra voltage (probably because they require ac_ll=dc_ll, where previously, most boards had much lower ac_ll, thus applying a substantial undervolt).

Using the new default Intel profiles will run your chip even hotter than before, but at least we'll limit power.... it will mean reduced performance, but should in theory improve stability only in instances where too low voltage was the issue.

In order to get performance back to where it was, you'd need to apply a large global voltage offset, or apply offsets to specific points on the vf curve.... and in doing so may then reintroduce instability in instances where too low voltage was the issue.

There are also, apparently, issues with thermal velocity boost (whereby once the temperature trigger point is reached, it reduces the clocks accordingly, but because of a bug, it's not reducing the power or voltage...I can't remember exactly, but it's something along these lines.... however, the recent spec from Intel specifically notes that both tvb and etvb and tvb voltage optimizations should all be enabled.... thus, the new bios versions will not fix any instability relating to this bug.

Along with all this, there may be some kind of instability with the memory controllers on the cpus, meaning that ddr5, especially at speeds above jedec (e.g. xmp) may have issues.

By default, xmp will be disabled anyway, but according to some, even "guaranteed" jedec speeds are not always 100% stable with the memory controllers on these cpus.

So, as I said, the bios update may help with some issues, but are definitely not at a stage where they are going to fix every issue with these cpus.

Personally, I've always set power and current limits since I built this pc, but decided to update the bios anyway.... and just doing that the system ran about 15 degrees hotter, with settings around a 2k point performance loss in something like r23. In game, clocks still generally reached similar to before, except in very cpu intensive things like flight simulator, where I did see lower or rather, less consistent clock speeds.

I've actually ended up using the non Intel profile and manually tuning ac_ll again. Cpu runs cooler and apart from hogwarts, everything else runs fine.

So yeah, the 13th 14th gen issues are.... complex.

But having said all this.... there's also more than likely an issue with the game in the latest updates, as both the recent versions have seen a large number of players experiencing crashes.... and simply rolling back the game to an older version completely fixes them....so clearly, something about the game was changed recently, and it's causing issues.

Currently, I believe, the best and easiest fix for this specific game crashing is to look for the thread on this board detailing how to roll back to the previous version. For me, and others, this has stopped the crashes, and stopped the stutters. Game runs great for me now.

Unfortunately, like I said I tried the rollback depot and it didn't work whatsoever,, and I've had my HAGS off this entire time so I know for a fact that it was my BIOS update and it also addressed my texture pop in issues for render distance and fixed Dying Light 2 crashing every now and then.

I know that Intel didn't officially say this is 100% fix but they recommend changing your BIOS power profile to Intel Default Settings which is exactly what I did and I haven't had any issues whatsoever anymore. Not to mention I had a BIOS from 2023 and didn't have all the recent updates. That's how I know it was the BIOS in my case, but you are right and it's not a solution for everyone, but majority of 13th and 14th gen Intel CPU's users will have this fixed if it was the same case as mine not having Intel Default Settings enabled.

[Jimbouzouf]

I just had a very similar experience. Updated my Bios of my Asrock mb and just played 4 hours without a crash. Which never happened before.

[Gaz]

I9 13900KF here, you can always download and install the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility if you dont want to mess around with bios updates/settings. In the utility just lower performance core ratio from 55x. Ive found 52x works nicely with Hogwarts even after the recent patch. Zero crashes and running like a dream on my 4090 in 4k w/ RT.

[patrick68794]

Originally posted by GlennyPlaysStuff:

I have a feeling that it's the fact you kept HAGS off that's worked, rather than the bios update.

The motherboard manufacturers have only updated the bios to have the defaults line up with Intel's recent update to spec recommended settings....

... but Intel have not officially announced that they know what the cause of the instability is, or what their fix is.

From my research into the topic of 13th 14th gen, it seems like there are actually multiple issues. Some of these may be fixed by the bios settings, but there are still issues that Intel have not announced a root cause or fix yet. Mostly, these bios updates just set power and current limits, and prevent undervolting, as well as seemingly adding a bunch of extra voltage (probably because they require ac_ll=dc_ll, where previously, most boards had much lower ac_ll, thus applying a substantial undervolt).

Using the new default Intel profiles will run your chip even hotter than before, but at least we'll limit power.... it will mean reduced performance, but should in theory improve stability only in instances where too low voltage was the issue.

In order to get performance back to where it was, you'd need to apply a large global voltage offset, or apply offsets to specific points on the vf curve.... and in doing so may then reintroduce instability in instances where too low voltage was the issue.

There are also, apparently, issues with thermal velocity boost (whereby once the temperature trigger point is reached, it reduces the clocks accordingly, but because of a bug, it's not reducing the power or voltage...I can't remember exactly, but it's something along these lines.... however, the recent spec from Intel specifically notes that both tvb and etvb and tvb voltage optimizations should all be enabled.... thus, the new bios versions will not fix any instability relating to this bug.

Along with all this, there may be some kind of instability with the memory controllers on the cpus, meaning that ddr5, especially at speeds above jedec (e.g. xmp) may have issues.

By default, xmp will be disabled anyway, but according to some, even "guaranteed" jedec speeds are not always 100% stable with the memory controllers on these cpus.

So, as I said, the bios update may help with some issues, but are definitely not at a stage where they are going to fix every issue with these cpus.

Personally, I've always set power and current limits since I built this pc, but decided to update the bios anyway.... and just doing that the system ran about 15 degrees hotter, with settings around a 2k point performance loss in something like r23. In game, clocks still generally reached similar to before, except in very cpu intensive things like flight simulator, where I did see lower or rather, less consistent clock speeds.

I've actually ended up using the non Intel profile and manually tuning ac_ll again. Cpu runs cooler and apart from hogwarts, everything else runs fine.

So yeah, the 13th 14th gen issues are.... complex.

But having said all this.... there's also more than likely an issue with the game in the latest updates, as both the recent versions have seen a large number of players experiencing crashes.... and simply rolling back the game to an older version completely fixes them....so clearly, something about the game was changed recently, and it's causing issues.

Currently, I believe, the best and easiest fix for this specific game crashing is to look for the thread on this board detailing how to roll back to the previous version. For me, and others, this has stopped the crashes, and stopped the stutters. Game runs great for me now.

Multiple developers are acknowledging stability issues with hybrid architecture Intel CPUs (13th and 14th gen in particular) and have recommended players follow the same steps as these tech sites are recommending in addition to also manually lowering max boost clocks with XTU. There are certainly issues with this game and HAGS but it is undeniable that new hybrid Intel CPUs are inherently broken and causing all sorts of issues at this point.

[patrick68794]

Originally posted by GlennyPlaysStuff:

And no one is saying that there aren't any issues with some 13th 14th gen cpus.

But that isn't to say that EVERY problem is related to these issues.

Even a couple threads below this one there's another reply from someone with a 9th gen cpu who is getting the same crashes.....so should we now backtrack and say that all 9th gen cpus are the problem too? Or does it make more sense to realise that something was changed with THIS GAME in the recent update which is causing the game to crash in certain scenarios?

For the general health of ANY cpu, for sure, keeping temps, power, voltage, current and clock speeds all under control and within specified limits is GOOD advice.... I'm not denying that.

But it seems like many people have just watched a few videos recently on this topic and now declare "steve says all 13th and 14th gen cpus are broken, so that must be the problem to all crashes in all games"....completely missing the fact that, first, it's not ALL cpus that are affected, second, there may be OTHER issues with games that are causing crashes.

By all means, update to the latest bios, set everything at defaults, maybe this will fix certain issues.... but we should also realise that, if on the exact same hardware, an older version of the game works perfectly fine, then they release an update and suddenly these boards are flooded with people reporting crashes.... they maybe, just maybe, it's not ALL Intel's issue.... maybe THEY changed something which is breaking their game?

You're trying way too hard to defend Intel lol

[Tex [SRB]]

I know one thing for sure:
The more complicated fixing the problem is, the more will quit in obstacles.
I have no time to research or follow countless steps to fix the issue with my 14th-generation processor. It is their job to fix it!
I have 64 GB of RAM, a Rrog-Strix 4090, and a 14900k processor, and I cannot play around 70% of the games I have on Steam because they either don't start or constantly crash.

[Tex [SRB]]

I disabled hags-still nothing. Before this PC (around six months ago), I had an I7, 32 GB RAM, and 1070ti, and almost zero game problems: Every single one worked fine.

I need to figure out how to fix this. Some say it is a graphics card, but most say it is a CPU.
I can't even open the Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility because "of a system incompatibility." Really!???

Sometimes, I feel like an idiot for replacing the old PC.

[BronX]

save problem...
i9 13900k, RTX4090, DDR5-6400 128GB..
every 5 mins crashed....

[TribalSage]

So with the new patch 13th and 14th gen CPUs crashing is still occuring? Has anyone with either of those mentioned they haven't experienced crashing since the patch?


My PC has a 12th gen CPU and worked for me without needing to disable HAGS. Currently playing on Ultra in 4K. I don't have RT enabled and I haven't tried to.

OS: Windows 11 Home 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
RAM: 16 GB DDR4
Storage: 1TB SSD

[patrick68794]

Originally posted by TribalSage:

So with the new patch 13th and 14th gen CPUs crashing is still occuring? Has anyone with either of those mentioned they haven't experienced crashing since the patch?


My PC has a 12th gen CPU and worked for me without needing to disable HAGS. Currently playing on Ultra in 4K. I don't have RT enabled and I haven't tried to.

OS: Windows 11 Home 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
RAM: 16 GB DDR4
Storage: 1TB SSD

Avalanche will not be able to fix the crashes caused by Intel's CPUs. It's a hardware problem. Multiple developers are now on record stating that they have known stability issues and are causing crashes across numerous games

[Tex [SRB]]

So, it is not the 40xx gpu's, luckily?

[OutR@gE]

Originally posted by Tex SRB:

So, it is not the 40xx gpu's, luckily?

No, there is also issues with 40 series cards in this title but it's the game and not a hardware issue. Disable Hags is the work around till patched.

[Tex [SRB]]

Did they both (Nvidia and Intel) promised to fix the issue?

[Kambien]

If you have the optimal motherboard for your 13th / 14th gen CPU run a BIOS update.

[Tex [SRB]]

Originally posted by Kambien:

If you have the optimal motherboard for your 13th / 14th gen CPU run a BIOS update.

Can you believe me? I don't know how.
I hope it is simple.