- A Firefox engineer has flagged up an obvious subject with Intel Raptor Lake
- These CPUs are reportedly crashing extra in the summertime warmth in Europe
- There is a higher prevalence of crashes in locations the place temperatures have spiked as a result of heatwaves, and the 14700K CPU is struggling specifically
Intel‘s Raptor Lake (and Raptor Lake Refresh) thirteenth and 14th-gen processors are fighting the heatwave in Europe, which is seemingly inflicting these CPUs to crash extra ceaselessly with a standard net browser.
Tom’s {Hardware} studies that Gabriele Svelto, a senior workers engineer on Mozilla’s Firefox browser, flagged up the difficulty on Mastodon, observing that: “In case you have an Intel Raptor Lake system and also you’re within the northern hemisphere, chances are high that your machine is crashing extra typically due to the summer time warmth.”
To make clear, these are browser crashes – versus full system lock-ups – and Svelto provides that he is obtained this information due to Firefox crash studies coming from Raptor Lake PCs, that are tied to particular nations within the EU. There is a higher prevalence of crashes in locations the place temperatures have markedly spiked throughout the summer time.
The problem is so unhealthy that we’re instructed that the extent of crashes has turn into overwhelming, which means Mozilla needed to take motion to disable the bot submitting these studies.
Svelto notes: “Raptor Lake techniques have recognized timing/voltage points that worsen with temperature. Issues are so unhealthy right now that we needed to disable a bot that was submitting crash studies robotically as a result of it was virtually solely discovering crashes from folks with affected techniques.”
One other Mastodon consumer makes the idea that that is associated to the recognized degradation points that hit thirteenth and 14th-gen Intel CPUs, with the warmth exacerbating the issue. Svelto replies to agree that sure, that is true, whereas including a caveat, saying: “Sure, although a few of these bugs are very repeatable and predictable which is puzzling. They is perhaps timing-related and even real constant CPU bugs (we have seen a good bit of these too).”
Because the Mastodon thread progresses, the engineer means that Intel’s most up-to-date microcode replace, codenamed ‘0x12F’ for Raptor Lake (and Raptor Lake Refresh), really made issues worse, at the least by way of what Firefox is seeing right here.
Svelto notes: “Particularly microcode 0x12C had lowered the incidence of a variety of bugs, however they’ve come again in full power when Intel launched model 0x12F.”
The 0x12F patch was pushed out in Could 2025, a great whereas after the earlier updates, as a repair for a extra area of interest state of affairs the place points occurred with PCs that had been left on constantly (for days at a time, working mild workloads). Svelto is subsequently suggesting that whereas this patch improved issues for these outlying situations, it made issues worse for people.
In response to the engineer, these crashing points with Raptor Lake chips are taking place probably the most with Intel Core i7-14700K fashions.
Evaluation: Scorching sizzling warmth
Clearly, we must be cautious round pinning the blame right here, although. Seemingly, one thing has gone considerably awry if Mozilla wanted to disable a system as a result of it was changing into overloaded with crash studies.
This actually suggests Firefox is pointing to a chip-related downside – even when the trigger may very well be (theoretically) partly all the way down to buggy conduct with the browser, it is nonetheless solely manifesting with sure Intel silicon (to an apparently profound degree, correlating with hotter areas in Europe).
Cooling could play a job right here, too, after all, by way of the CPU coolers getting used. The rationale the 14700K could also be exhibiting up much more in these crashes may very well be as a result of it is a extra mainstream speedy chip, presumably coupled with a much less efficient cooling answer in consequence. Whereas these working the even quicker high canine 14900K (or certainly 13900K) have most likely invested in an costly cooler to go together with the processor, and thus it could be much less vulnerable to overheating points as temperatures climb, so there aren’t as many crashes recorded. There will not be almost as many 14900K chips on the market, both, as a result of their extra expensive nature.
What can be fascinating to see is that if different software program builders are noticing the same type of sample with their merchandise crashing (browsers, or in any other case) – and now this report has been aired, others could have trigger to research crash logs additional, maybe.
In fact, one other issue to look at would be the efficiency of Raptor Lake CPUs if temperatures proceed to rise (over the summer time in Europe, or elsewhere – or certainly extra broadly as the subsequent couple of years roll on).
Even earlier than this, my fear has at all times been what underlying degradation the instability points could have brought on with thirteenth and 14th-gen processors. As we all know, these chips had been working in PCs for a while in a problematic state, with the microcode fixes utilized being preventative in nature – not a treatment, which means they do not reverse any injury that was already accomplished. So, there may very well be undetectable deterioration below the hood of the chip that solely manifests a lot later in its lifespan – a course of presumably sped up by the processor working too sizzling, maybe?
Now, the excellent news – as these affected little doubt recall – is that Intel did up the guarantee protection for these CPUs to 5 years. Nevertheless, as I’ve identified prior to now, what if within the sixth yr, your Raptor Lake CPU begins happening the plughole by way of recurring instability points? You are out of luck in that case, which does not appear very reasonable – it is not unreasonable to count on a processor, the engine of a PC, to last more than half a decade.
In fact, we will not go leaping to any unfavorable conclusions but, however this example is actually price monitoring.
