Intel Gives Motherboard OEMs A Deadline To Enforce 188W PL2 Limit As Defaults

Amid the stability fiasco stemming from flagship Core i9 processors, Intel has been attempting to track down the source of the problem, so far with limited success. It has promised a second statement once the root cause is found.

However – as reported by Benchlife (via Videocardz), the chipmaker is mandating all motherboard vendors to implement a new “Intel Default Settings” profile as the new default power profile on BIOS. This means features that were enabled by default to increase power limits, such as ASUS’s Multi-Core Enhancement (MCE), will now be disabled unless the user turns it on explicitly by accessing the BIOS settings. A deadline is given to all OEMs to implement this feature within this month, as the statement reveals:

Intel requests system and motherboard manufacturers to provide end users with a default BIOS profile that matches Intel recommended settings.

Suggested profile name “Intel Default Settings”.

Intel requests customers to implement the “Intel Default Settings” profile as the BIOS default profile by May 31, 2024.

Once this policy is enforced, all motherboards with the new BIOS version implementing the change will limit the CPU’s maximum PL2 power limit to just 188W. The chipmaker has stuck to the 253W PL2 limit for its flagship processors since the 13th Gen (with the 12th Gen slightly lower), so users can expect performance losses in multi-core performance when the new default profile is applied – which will hand the multi-core crown to the Ryzen 9 7950X officially according to our review, unless Intel figures a safe way to restore its default power limits.

Intel Gives Motherboard OEMs A Deadline To Enforce 188W PL2 Limit As Defaults

Image: Uniko’s Hardware

BIOSTAR is the first motherboard OEM to implement this new change, Uniko’s Hardware reported – the publication has further noted that ASRock’s BIOSes may have even contained traces of the Intel-mandated default power profile in versions dating back to 2023. ASUS and MSI have instead opted for the “wait-and-see” approach, advising users against using the default power profiles unless stability is compromised.

That being said, motherboard OEMs will most likely provide a guide to its users to re-enable the related settings to unlock the power limits again (though Team Blue probably doesn’t like this idea right now), similar to setting up XMP memory overclocking profiles. Based on the number of features the new default profile is set to disable via upcoming BIOS updates (such as TVB/eTVB), the features exclusive to Core i9 processors could be significantly handicapped as a result.

Still, the entire fiasco has highlighted a longstanding issue that has long plagued Intel’s motherboard ecosystem: the chipmaker’s loosely defined power limits and various parameters have allowed motherboard vendors to create Z790 models with vastly different VRM capabilities, with some of them incapable of supporting power-hungry Core i9s due to weak VRMs. Intel is expected to publish further findings later this month, hopefully with fixes announced by then.

Pokdepinion: The situation is starting to get really messy now, isn’t it?