It is already known that Intel processors of the 13th and 14th generations (Raptor Lake) have problems with stability particularly in games. However, youtuber Level1Techs found that the phenomenon is also common in data centers
The Linux enthusiast obtained crash data from thousands of servers running Intel Raptor Lake Core i9 K-series processors. He found that approximately 50% of the Raptor Lake servers have stability issues, despite the fact that each of them is running server-class motherboards with LGA1700 sockets from Asus or Supermicro.
The stability issues with these servers have become so widespread that they are affecting the way server vendors do business with their customers. Level1Techs highlights one server vendor that charges over $1000 for its Core i9-14900K-based servers compared to its Ryzen 9 7950X-based servers, just for on-site labor and repairs ($139 vs. $1280 for 7950X and 14900K). This additional service fee is included in the price of the server itself.
The same server vendor told Level1Tech that the number of tech support cases related to system crashes and stability issues is extremely high on Raptor Lake. To make matters worse, updating the BIOS, disabling the E-core, and even physically replacing the chip doesn’t guarantee that these issues will go away. This makes Raptor Lake systems a nightmare for server vendors.
«…We’ve been lucky with 12900KS and always had good luck with Xeon… something is wrong with 13900K and 14900K. We’ve already replaced many 13900K customers with 14900K [CPUs] and the problems don’t seem to have completely gone away… we’ve been steering customers to 7950X systems instead, which are almost always faster».
This discovery confirms that the stability issues with Intel’s Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh are more complex than thought. The server motherboards used by these processors are entirely focused on stability and keeping the chips within specs, with no overclocking capability. The fact that Intel’s 13th and 14th generation processors are still failing indicates that the problem is with them, not with third-party hardware.
Intel has tried to fix the Raptor Lake issues with several solutions, including introducing a base profile with safer power targets and updating the microcode to fix the eTVB bug that caused some Raptor Lake models to overclock. However, all of these attempts were completely unsuccessful. As far as we know, Intel is still investigating the main stability issues with Raptor Lake.
As a reminder, in April 2024, it became widely known that Intel Core i9 13 and 14 K-series chips had a problem with the joint operation of the chips. Motherboard manufacturers added Intel recommended settings mode to the BIOS. However, the processor manufacturer called this mode incorrect and suggested the correct parameters. As you can see, these and subsequent efforts by Intel and its partners have improved the performance of the processors, but have not led to a final solution. The latest information suggests that the problem is most likely with the processors themselves.
Source: Tom`s Hardware