Intel Sued Over Raptor Lake Voltage Instability

Intel faces a class-action lawsuit alleging its 13th and 14th generation desktop processors from 2022 and 2023 are defective, causing system instability and frequent crashes. The suit claims that Intel knew of the issue but continued marketing the processors anyway. The Register reports: The plaintiff, Mark Vanvalkenburgh of Orchard Park, New York, purchased an Intel Core i7-13700K from Best Buy in January 2023, according to the complaint [PDF]. "After purchasing the product, Plaintiff learned that the processor was defective, unstable, and crashing at high rates," the complaint claims. "The processor caused issues in his computer, including random screen blackouts and random computer restarts. These issues were not resolved even after he attempted to install a patch issued by Intel for its 13th Generation processors."

The potential class-action lawsuit cites various media reports and social media posts dating back to December 2022 that describe problems with Intel's 13th and 14th generation processors, known as Raptor Lake. These reports document unexplained failures and system instability, as well as a higher-than-expected rate of product returns. "By late 2022 or early 2023, Intel knew of the defect," the complaint says. "Intel's Products undergo pre-release and post-release testing. Through these tests, Intel became aware of the defect in the processors." And because Intel continued making marketing claims touting the speed and performance of its products, with no mention of any defect, the complaint alleges that Intel committed fraud by omission, breached implied warranty, and violated New York General Business Law.

Imma sue you over my CPU

[Press2ToContinue]

No need to seek redress from the manufacturer through the normal routes when you can sue them for an ass-load of money!!!

Money! Money, Money!

Wait a minute, he sounds like a Republican!!

Re:

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

These "plaintiffs" are stooges for class action attorneys. They'll end up with a $2.00 coupon and the lawyers will walk away with millions of dollars from Intel. Was their time dealing with the the case and this law firm really worth the payoff?

Re:

[Xenx]

My understanding was that usually the originating plaintiffs tend to get a larger portion of the damages, and all the rest get the scraps.

I hope not

[HighPerformanceCoder]

Recently my 3 year old 11th gen NUC died, dead as a doorstopper, and so I replaced it with a 13th gen NUC. According to my benchmarks, the new machine is about 10% faster on my workloads than the old machine - disappointing evidence of the death of Moore's law.

So far, I've not seen any instability - perhaps I'm already benefiting from mitigations integrated into the Linux kernel.

Re: I hope not

[viperidaenz]

I think itâ(TM)s the higher performance variants of Raptor lake. Apparently Intel overvolted an internal bus to run at higher peak clock speeds to compete with amd.

Turned out to be bad for reliability

Re:

[Xenx]

Intel has reaffirmed that mobile processors are not affected by the issue, which should include the NUC. I've heard people say they've had affected CPUs, but with issues this broad it's hard to tell if it's just coincidence or not. Given that mobile CPUs are designed with different/lower power scenarios from desktop, I would tend to believe they're not affected. Even if that is not the case, if it has the relevant microcode updates it should likely be fine.

JayzTwoCents

[michaelmalak]

JayzTwoCents says Intel made the mistake of blindly trusting motherboard manufacturers to control voltage to the processor to balance performance against heat generated and power consumed. It simply created a race between motherboard manufacturers to peg the voltage to "maximize" the performance (that's like running your car at 7krpm continuously for years to maximize performance). Intel has now chosen to take a stronger role in motherboard design in the next generation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r4guqlrZSo [youtube.com].

Re:

[twinirondrives]

That's x86's problems over the years. But im suspecting some dodgy I/O heap friendly service with a buried firmware set of instructions that ransomware finds invaluable..... Just a suspicion mind you.