Intel deliberately weakens its own CPUs

Actually, we know from Intel that they meticulously tinker with faster and more powerful processors. However, it has now come to light that the chip expert has apparently made its Alder Lake processors slower on purpose. This happened by removing the so-called AVX-512 extension. The consequence? Some applications are now said to suffer from performance degradation.

Microcode update puts the brakes on

Intel’s inexpensive processors are particularly affected by the slowed performance. The cause is a firmware update of the Z690 motherboard. This ensures that the performance-increasing AVX-512 extension is disabled without further ado. Actually, this should not be used on conventional Intel CPUs. Instead, it was originally designed for processors that have to provide a lot of performance due to their use in server structures. Although conventional users shouldn’t notice the limited performance of the Intel CPU, it’s still a case of driving with the handbrake on.

Use is possible, but pointless

In theory, it is possible to use the corresponding part of the motherboard in Intel’s normal consumer CPUs. However, the prerequisite for this is that you adjust the processor’s performance so that it only works via its performance cores. Interestingly, this is always the case with entry-level CPUs, such as a Core i5. The affected performance cores are not even activated ex-factory in powerful offshoots, such as the Core i9-12900K. To do this afterwards, you first have to deactivate the so-called efficiency cores. Now it is no longer possible in any of the processors. Unless you still have a microcode revision number 12.

However, the sense and purpose of the whole thing can be argued with confidence. After all, the powerful parts of the processor were never used anyway. Especially when playing games and also conventional applications, the lack of AVX-512 doesn’t have any effects. Nevertheless, some users report that there is a measurable drop in performance with microcode revision number 18. Considering that this is an artificial degradation on the part of the manufacturer, this is really a shame. Intel won’t be able to collect any friends in the fan base with this. Considering the increasing strength of the AMD competition, the timing could hardly be worse.