Intel Default Profile will lock PL2 to 188W
Intel wants all LGA-1700 motherboards to support Default Profile, and there is even a deadline.
The 14th Gen Core K-series of unlocked desktop CPUs has been on the market for a few months now, representing a higher clocked version of the Raptor Lake chips known from the 13th Gen Core series. It appears that the finely-tuned clocks on the new series, combined with not necessarily default motherboard settings, have caused problems for many gamers in terms of stability.
Ultimately, it seems that most vendors were eager to support the “Extreme” power profile, which not only has higher Power Limits (PL) but also allows higher current to pass through the CPU. Now, Intel reportedly mandating a new Default/Baseline profile by default, which would lock the CPU’s PL2 (Power Limit 2/Maximum Turbo Power) to 188W. This is a much lower value than the Performance and Extreme profiles, which allow up to 253W.
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.
— Intel
| Intel Power Profiles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | Performance | Extreme | |
| PL1 | |||
| PL2 | |||
| PL4 | |||
| iPL2 | |||
| Iccmax | |||
| Iccmax.app | |||
The PL1 (Power Limit 1/Processor Base Power) will remain the same across all profiles. However, users who were using Extreme power settings will see a visible performance drop, now even more so, because the new Baseline profile will be mandated as the default setting, and users will have to make a clear choice to switch to a higher power profile, it is claimed.
According to Benchlife, motherboard makers have been implementing the “Extreme Profile” ever since the Intel 9th Gen Core (Coffee Lake) series were released. There were no widespread issues related to stability until the 13th/14th Gen Core series were released. Neither did Intel discourage these companies from adding such profiles or making them default out of the box.
Biostar has become the first motherboard vendor to apply the Default profile automatically after new firmware is installed, reports Uniko’s Hardware. This means that users no longer have to go into tuning settings and manually change the profiles. Moreover, those using K-series CPUs on the motherboard will not see a power increase to 253W unless they change these settings on their own.
Intel Default Setting in BIOSTAR Z790 Valkyrie BIOS, Source: Uniko’s Hardware
A formal statement on the current situation surrounding Intel 13/14th Gen Core stability issues and the status of motherboard firmware updates should be expected by the end of this month.
Intel also requests its customers (in this case, motherboard vendors) to implement Intel Default Settings by March 31, 2024. This means that a new wave of motherboard BIOS updates is on its way.
Source: BenchLife, Uniko’s Hardware
