Surprising Findings Intel and AMD Processor Failure Rates Reported by PugetSystems

TapTechNews August 5th news, high-performance custom PC manufacturer PugetSystems released a survey report on the failure rate of Intel and AMD processors, and the result was unexpected. The system failure rate of those using the 13th and 14th generation Intel processors was slightly higher than 2%, while the system failure rate of those equipped with AMD Ryzen 5000 and 7000 series chips was slightly higher than 4%.

This result was unexpected, especially in the current situation where the stability problem of Intel processors occurs frequently. In contrast, some game developers have reported that the failure rate of Intel processors in their environment is as high as 50% to 100%.

Another interesting detail is that Puget found that the failure rate of the 11th generation Intel Core processor was the highest among the recent generations of processors, exceeding 7%. There are few reports about the problems of the 11th generation Intel Core processor, so it is not clear whether Intel has solved these problems and the reasons.

Like all data not directly provided by non-chip manufacturers, TapTechNews suggests that a reserved attitude should also be taken towards Puget's data. Unfortunately, the chip manufacturers will not publicly disclose such information, so any publicly available failure rate data is worthy of careful examination. It should be noted that this information does not represent the failure rate of other companies, especially considering Puget's system tuning strategy.

Puget said that since 2017, they have not trusted the default settings of the motherboard, so each system they build uses Puget's own BIOS settings, which follow the conservative Intel and AMD guidelines, thus avoiding the excessive voltage and power settings that are common on enthusiast motherboards. The company said that this may be one of the reasons why the failure rate of its Intel 13th and 14th generation processors is lower than that of other manufacturers in the industry.

The company also provided further segmented data indicating whether the failure occurred in the factory or at the user end, and said that since the 11th generation processor, they have not seen such a high failure rate at the user end. Jon Bach, president of PugetSystems, said: All these failures occurred after 6 months, which means we expect the failure rate to remain at a relatively high level even after Intel releases the microcode patch. The company pointed out that these user-end failures are about 5 to 7 per month and are difficult to classify as a major problem.

When looking at the comparison data of Intel and Ryzen, the relatively small sample size and the imbalance of shipments should be taken into account. Although the failure rate of AMD Ryzen 5000 and 7000 series chips is higher, it should also be noted that these chips were released in 2020 and 2022 respectively, while the 13th and 14th generation Intel chips were released in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Puget also pointed out that the failure rate of Intel may increase in the future. Bach said: From this perspective, the failure rate of Intel Core 13th and 14th generation processors is indeed relatively high, but it has not reached a disastrous level. What is more worrying is the reliability of these processors in the future rather than the failure rate we currently see. If the failure rate of the 14th generation processor does increase over time, then this may eventually become a bigger problem, and we will pay close attention to this situation.

Intel recently announced that it has found the root cause of these problems and is releasing an update patch to prevent the degradation of processors in the future. Unfortunately, the damaged or currently damaged processors cannot be repaired, and Intel has also announced a two-year processor warranty extension measure.

Despite the relatively low failure rate, PugetSystems still attaches great importance to user concerns and promises to internally test Intel's microcode update and apply it to products as soon as it is verified. In addition, the company will also extend the warranty period for affected users to three years.

PugetSystems emphasized that they will not currently change the processor recommendation for the customer workflow, but will continue to pay attention to the problem and take corresponding measures.