Although Intel recognized the root cause of failures among 13th and 14th Generation Core 'Raptor Lake' processors in late July — its microcode made the CPU demand elevated voltage levels beyond safe limits — the company never delivered a precise diagnosis. It has now outlined an issue known as Vmin Shift Instability, which can occur under four circumstances.
The problem stems from a clock tree circuit in the IA core that is prone to failure under high voltage and temperature, causing a shift in the clock duty cycle and leading to system instability. Intel has pinpointed four key operating conditions that trigger this issue and implemented mitigations through various microcode updates.
