Nvidia has officially acknowledged that gaming on systems powered by certain Intel Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors may encounter challenges. These processors from the 13th and 14th generations are both built on a 10 nm process.
Intel released its 13th generation Raptor Lake Core processors in late 2022, featuring the Raptor Cove and Gracemont microarchitectures. The subsequent 14th generation, known as Raptor Lake Refresh, was launched in October and offers slightly enhanced performance using similar technologies. Recent reports have surfaced regarding issues with gaming on computers equipped with CPUs from these two latest Intel generations, prompting Nvidia to issue a statement.
In the patch notes for Nvidia's 552.12 GeForce Game Ready Driver released on April 4, the company advised users of systems powered by unlocked Intel 13th and 14th generation desktop CPUs to refer to two sources if they encounter stability issues, video memory errors, or crashes during gameplay. Intel processors with K suffixes are popular among gamers and enthusiasts for their ability to be overclocked for higher clock speeds.
One recommended source is an official Intel support thread on the company's community forum addressing reported stability issues with unlocked Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors. The second source mentioned by Nvidia is a statement from RAD Game Tools, a video game software company owned by Epic Games. According to the statement, crashes and decompression failures in games built with Epic Games' Unreal Engine could be linked to Intel Core i9-13900K and Core i9-14900K processors, known for their gaming prowess.
Issues Identified with Unlocked Intel 13th/14th Gen CPUs by Nvidia
- Stability issues
- Video memory errors
- Crashes
Users of Intel GPUs have faced gaming difficulties in the past. For instance, Starfield was unplayable on current-generation Intel Arc graphics cards at its launch last September. Subsequent driver updates addressed these issues and other bugs, with one promising a significant performance boost in Bethesda Game Studios' popular action RPG.
Speculations suggest that Intel's mobile-centric Lunar Lake CPUs will debut by the end of 2024 alongside the company's 15th generation Arrow Lake processors. Leaks from reputable hardware sources indicate that Lunar Lake chips could be 50% faster than their Meteor Lake predecessors, with only a slight increase in power consumption. These upcoming CPUs are expected to incorporate Battlemage graphics solutions, part of Intel's second generation of Arc GPUs.