MSI vs Intel Core i9 Stability Fix recommendations - get more stable performance

If you've got an Intel Core i9 processor (especially a Core i9-14900K or 13900K) then you might have noticed some stuttering and stability issues. This includes games losing frame rates, being unstable or crashing a lot.

If you've seen the error message that you're out of video memory and your game has crashed as a result (especially with Unreal Engine games) then this could be caused by settings in your BIOS. MSI (like others) has settings in the BIOS which are meant to boost more performance by drawing more power and putting your CPU under more load. This can make your system faster, but it can also potentially cause instability.

Igor's lab got a statement direct from Intel about this:

And this update direct from Intel

Following that various motherboard manufacturers released BIOS updates and settings changes for motherboards to counter the problem.

To fix your stability problems with your Intel Core i9 processor if you are using an MSI motherboard, follow these steps:
1. Download the latest BIOS for your motherboard by visiting the MSI website
2. Update and install the new BIOS
3. Select "Intel Default settings" from the cooler selection options
4. Alternatively access this from OC settings and CPU Cooler tuning
5. Turn XMP back on
6. Reboot your PC

NOTE - you might see a drop in performance, but you should see an improvement in stability.

Not this is MSI's new recommendations. Previously it was:

HOWEVER. Intel has released a statement saying this isn't best:

"Intel is not recommending motherboard manufacturers to use ‘baseline’ power delivery settings on boards capable of higher values.

Intel’s recommended ‘Intel Default Settings’ are a combination of thermal and power delivery features along with a selection of possible power delivery profiles based on motherboard capabilities."

Instead you should use the settings mentioned in this video.

Disclosure: Shopping links within the description of this video generate a commission at no extra cost to you. These are added for your convenience but other retailers are available. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Products:
Products featured may also have been sent for free for review/testing purposes. Often these have to be returned by me, but not always. I endeavour to avoid bias in my videos wherever possible and try to give honest, subjective opinions. Unless otherwise stated, the videos are not sponsored financially.

Specs of the build: (note this includes affiliate links that earn me a commission at no extra cost to you)

Related videos

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:24 Intel recommendations
03:08 Updating your motherboard BIOS
06:05 M-Flash
08:18 MSI benchmarks
08:57 Intel recommendations
09:27 Intel benchmarks
10:02 Intel Recommended BIOS tweaks

😍Special Thanks😍
to my YouTube members:
SirSpawnsALot, Meatykeyboard, Rawrr483, Space Cannons, Mike S, Jason Morgan, Starastin, McFarty, Kraken Tortoise, Gaming Nomad, Jay Shank 007, Beaster Bunny, Spandau Guy, Steve Patterson, Chris Thompson, D Shaddix, Hao Vo, Scott Chappelle, Sotong, AuF5guy, Friendly Fire, Elbert McCormick, Fazu Battlecaster, Dureren12,
ONENONLYCASPER, April Nelson, aDam aDamin, MMBGAMING51, toxicslushpuppy, ZekkRagnos, Mark Ward, Steve Oswald and you?

[khoifoto]

Thank you. This is exactly what I need. my 13900K starts to crash and freeze even with esport titles like League of legends, Dota, Counter strikes. Following your video, the stability is much better!

[huldress]

My i9-13900k has been relatively stable, no crashes (Except one time on City Skylines 2) and I undervolted it awhile back to 0.06v. Recently, tried playing a new game demo in unreal engine and got the out of video memory error, never had it with any other games like Overwatch, Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077, etc. Gosh I'm so scared of updating BIOS nonetheless messing around in it, but I have a pro-Z790P motherboard and this is the closest video I've found that's similar to my motherboard's BIOs without confusing me too much. Thank you so much for this video!

[peterneururer]

This Video Safed my life !

I9-14900KF on a msi z790 pro wifi ddr 5
RTX4090


Crashes over crashes.

100 celsius and back to windows


After months of searching finally i found this and now i have 60 celsius while playing and everything ist Fine ! No more crashes😢 thank you !

[cheekster]

Thanks, as always, for this advice my friend.

[brancidpc]

Hello, I recently put together my Gaming PC where I also have an i9 14900K and by coincidence I also have the same motherboard msi mpg z790 carbon wifi. My games often crashed, I read a lot of reddit articles where everyone wrote something different and lengthy solutions and I didn't know what to do anymore... Fortunately, I came across your video while searching :) I set the bios exactly according to you and the games don't crash anymore, they go even smoother and the processor has better temperatures. So I would like to thank you very much for helping me solve my problem.

[jimmymook]

great vid, helped me a lot. many thanks.

[arlissyoung]

After being out of the PC community / gaming PC community for a number of years I was flooded when I started back. People have become overly possessed and have lost complete control with RGB and hitting bench marks that mean nothing at all and at best will only give a very small percent of performance gains. We are talking 3 t0 5 % better over all and hitting some make believe number for a very unstable system is beyond me and completely unnecessary, other than saying I did and it will not ever amount to any thing other than that. If you can game and have fun and enjoy it doesn't matter what numbers you are getting as long as the game runs well and smooth. To spend way more money for a 3 to 5 % gain that well make very little difference overall. Yes putting together a nice gaming system can be a lot of fun and enjoyment but soon ends when it's unstable and crashing for such a small gain. Then being obsessed with a blinking / strobing / flashing rig means nothing. If people are obsessed with it then that only means a cash cow / bank roll for the manufacturers. All can say at this point in time in the PC gaming world is this can't end soon enough for me.

[oMarvixo]

What i did:

1: Update Msi motherboard bios (MSI Z790 Tomahawk Wifi DDR5)

2: use the extreme pl1 and 2 and add a 56s and 400a

3: under cpu lite load i choose intel default instead of mode 6 before the bios update

Its a little undervolting but keep almost the same performance

The chip runs cooler it runs now on 85c room temperature 24c
So in the winter it will be cooler

Also its very stable

Keep in mind every chip is different

The cb23 score are 38684 multi core

So yeah im happy

Also if i use the intel defaults it will be waaaay less performance and a cinebench score of 28342 thats to low so i tweaked some things

I hope i can help some people with this settings 👍🏻

[azntactical]

With the MSI B760M Mortar WIFI II, they provided box cooler option before this whole thing went out of hand. I ended up eventually going to the box cooler power option and still got the same performance with lower temps. I was always thermal throttling down to 4.9-5.0ghz and hitting between 90-100C on the P-Cores when set to tower or water cooled option. Now, I am hitting between 85-90C with same speeds with my current 184mm radiator setup. I have had my 14900k for a few months now. I don't do gaming as the pc build was more for video editing and rendering for YouTube.

[flumbz]

I had water cooler setting but manually specified 253/253 for my pl1&2 on my 13900k not experienced any major spikes as of yet but going to apply the fix today, not had any instability prior to the fix either, so I think I’ve been lucky so far.

[gilbertlaxale]

If you want stability, better use motherboard with H610 chipset. No overclocking will be applied, thus garantee maximum stability. If you want highest speed, then use motherboard with z690/790 chipset and either fry your CPU to death or learn how to undervolt your CPU.

[MRshrir]

z690 EDGE DDR4 Board latest bios is only 11th of april,

[grkc]

Hey this might be a stupid question but why is my Vcore so low in my Bios?

My 14900k shows 0.887V for example, while yours shows 1.024.

I am using a Z790 msi motherboard also with mostly default settings

[temax]

Thanks for the video! Unfortunately there is no "Intel Default settings" or anything like it in my MSI Raider GE78HX 13VH´s BIOS.

[goldman]

overall, a strange situation with my processor. In settings 253/253/400 I definitely overheat while playing and the computer often turns off. The second settings are 253/253/304, my processor clock is 5.6 and at these settings it is unstable, it drops and increases during games. The only settings that give me the lowest temperatures, but sometimes it throws me out of the game but not from the computer, are unlimited power settings at 4000w 😆i9-14900k here with msi z790 pro p

[nonaurbizniz]

Glad I skipped the newest gen intel and settled on a cheap 11900k. Super overclock ability and stable as can be. It's still more cpu than I need and no silly efficiency core bs.

[TsDviper]

Prawn, these settings made my system run like complete dog shit. No offense! I run almost the same exact setup you have (z790 carbon wifi and 14900k/4090). Spent all weekend trying to figure out what the hell happened. Latest bios, ME firmware, windows etc, every game I played ran like crap with fps drops. Had to restore all settings and select Tower Cooling, then manually set the power to 253/253/307 and XMP. Nothing else, whatever those intel recommended settings are they are crap! (at least for me).

I play Apex Legends/Overwatch 2/Mortal Kombat 1, all were stuttering and running terrible! Apex Legends finally feels smooth again, but it still has a weird issue where I won't get my 240 fps until I have the game open for a minute or two. MSI NEEDS to figure this out asap IMO.

[MrDutche]

I just set p core limit to 53 on my 13700k. Runs at 1.22v under load and scores slightly worse single core and same multi core in cinebench. Peaks at 225w and 82° on the hottest core on air. This should limit the voltage spiking for single core boost as well. Much easier than doing all this until the microcode update comes from Intel.

[thedjantz]

Thanks for the info in this video, do you think this bios issue would cause problems with audio and DJ software? I have just purchased an msi katana 15 i9 and I have lots of audio glitches with software I use on my old i7 laptop with no problems. Any advice would be great before retuning this laptop. Many thanks.

[iBattleMike]

At 6:35 you said after the BIOS update I should see that pop up. I never did. I instead had to go back into bios and select to use the Intel default settings like you show later. I hope I did this correctly.
Ive been having BSOD issues since mid April. Running I9 13900KF and 4090. Motherboard is MSI Z690 WiFi (perhaps my z690 doesn't have the same feature you have?)