Intel said that motherboard manufacturers overclock processors by default and asked them not to do so

Intel officially responded to the compatibility issue of its processors with NVIDIA graphics cards. Igor Wallosek from Igor's Lab website published a message from Intel to motherboard developers, confirming a large part of their responsibility in the situation. It should be noted that there are errors related to video memory and stability issues during shader compilation in games.

The company points out actions taken by motherboard manufacturers who disable thermal protection and power protection to achieve faster processor operation, not following Intel's recommendations. Manufacturers are essentially setting overclocking as standard settings.

Intel noted that this issue may be related to operating conditions that do not meet specifications, leading to prolonged high voltage and frequency during periods of high temperature. Analysis of affected processors shows that in some parts there are changes in the minimum operating voltage, which may be related to operation beyond the working conditions defined by Intel.

Although the root cause has not yet been identified, Intel has noted that most reports of this issue come from users with unlocked systems/overclocking. Intel also noted that boards with 600/700 series chipsets often set BIOS settings to default, disabling heat and power protection designed to limit the impact on the processor during prolonged periods of high voltage and frequency, such as:

• Disabling Current Excursion Protection (CEP)
• Enabling IccMax Unlimited bit
• Disabling Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) and/or Enhanced Thermal Velocity Boost (eTVB)

Additional parameters that may increase system instability risk:

• Disabling C-states
• Using Windows Ultimate Performance mode
• Increasing PL1 and PL2 above recommended Intel values

Intel requests system and motherboard manufacturers to provide end users with a default BIOS profile that matches Intel's recommended parameters.

Intel strongly recommends that default BIOS parameters for customers operate within Intel's recommended parameters.

Furthermore, Intel strongly recommends that motherboard manufacturers introduce warnings for end users regarding the use of any unlocked or overclocking features.

Intel continues to actively investigate this issue to determine the root cause and will provide additional updates when relevant information becomes available.

Intel will publish a public statement on the status of the issue and BIOS settings recommendations in May 2024.

Earlier, some motherboard manufacturers released a BIOS update with the "Basic Intel Profile" setting and other features to prevent the issue.