Intel CPU owners affected by a recently highlighted problem whereby some PC games are crashing, take note that Asus has offered up a solution for this issue – and hopefully other motherboard makers will follow suit.
To recap, this is a bug that affects Intel’s higher-end (Core i9) 14th-gen and 13th-gen processors, and causes some games to crash, particularly those built with the Unreal Engine.
Tom’s Hardware spotted the move by Asus to release a new BIOS for its Z790, B760, and H770 motherboards, one that introduces a new ‘Intel Baseline Profile’ option.
This is a fresh bunch of settings that aligns with Intel’s recommended default choices for these motherboards, as opposed to the previous defaults put in place by Asus.
The Intel settings involve toning down power usage, and therefore the hope is that this will cure these nasty crashes that have been plaguing some PC gamers – fingers crossed at any rate.
Asus describes the BIOS as follows: “The update introduces the Intel Baseline Profile option, allowing users to revert to Intel factory default settings for basic functionality, lower power limits, and improving stability in certain games.”
Analysis: A fix – but with a price to pay
Tom’s mentions this BIOS update being a beta release, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. If it was a beta, there’d be a bit more trepidation around installing it – but as far as we can tell, it’s a full release.
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Most likely there’ll be a fair rush to install this update for those PC gamers who’ve encountered these problems and have an Asus motherboard that runs the mentioned chipsets – and the good news is we’ve seen some tentative reports (on Reddit) that the new BIOS does the trick. We’ve also seen some indications that it dials back performance a fair bit, too – though that’s clearly better than crashing all the time with certain games.
Unfortunately, we’re still awaiting the results of Intel’s investigation into these crashes, to pinpoint the root cause of the issues – or causes, maybe, as we’re guessing this is a thorny one.
The finger of blame has been pointed at motherboard settings causing these glitches with Team Blue’s 14th-gen and 13th-gen CPUs, and this BIOS release adjusting the settings to Intel’s defaults would appear to back up that idea. Although equally this could be Asus taking a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach for now, as a temporary cure for the problems, with the full story behind the scenes maybe being down to multiple different factors.
We won’t really know until we hear from Intel, and as noted in the meantime, we may well see other motherboard manufacturers applying a similar ‘baseline’ profile for settings to help avoid these crashes.