ASUS fix for Intel Core i9 CPU crashing problem is tested - now we know how much it affects FPS

Intel's 14th-gen and 13th-gen Core i9 CPUs have been hit by issues with crashing when running some PC games, and while a cure of sorts has been pushed out by one motherboard vendor, namely ASUS, we now know the extent of the catch with this fix.

2

High-end Core i9 CPUs are hit by this flaw (Image Credit: Intel)

You're unlikely to have missed this one, but just in case, the crashes for the mentioned top-end processors seem to be worse with games that use the Unreal Engine - but whatever the case, they're a definite pain, and at this point, widely reported.

Cue ASUS with a band aid that arrived in the form of a firmware update for its Intel Z790, B760, and H770 motherboards, which came packing a new 'Intel Baseline Profile.'

This replaces the ASUS default settings on these motherboards with Intel's defaults, the latter taming the power usage considerably in comparison - but as some early adopters noted, there's a catch. By notching back the power, the price of the additional stability provided is lesser performance levels.

What's the frame rate drop, then?

But the key question is - how much less are you getting in terms of oomph from your Core i9 CPU? And now we have an answer thanks to some testing carried out by German tech site Hardwareluxx, specifically by the editor, Andreas Schilling (who you may have seen floating about making comments on X quite regularly).

The not-so-great news is that on average a sizeable performance impact is experienced - to the tune of around 8% to 9%, at least going by this round of testing.

Admittedly, we need to see some figures from different rigs, too, and indeed the performance difference was found to vary quite considerably depending on the game or app workload. For example, Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 1080p resolution dropped around 9 frames per second (down from 357 to 348 fps).

That said, even that difference won't be noticeable in terms of real-world performance, and there are some games where there's barely any difference anyway. (Multi-threaded workloads are hit worse).

Certainly losing a small chunk of fps is far preferable to crashing all the time with some games, no one's going to argue about that. And then there's also the reported issues with degradation around these performance glitches - with affected Core i9 CPUs apparently getting worse as time goes on for crashing, according to some reports.

We can't draw any real conclusions here about what the root cause is - or perhaps multiple causes - until Intel completes its investigation into what's going on under the hood here.

However, the suggestion from many has been that motherboard settings are to blame, and this firmware update from ASUS does little to contradict that. It's not an admission of fault, mind, as it could be seen from the angle of the motherboard vendor playing it safe for the time being, while Intel conducts its analysis and troubleshooting. We'll hopefully hear the results of the latter before too long.

Read more: AMD Zen 5 CPUs may not debut until late in 2024 - could Intel's Arrow Lake even arrive first?