According to a recently published help guide, spotted by the X/Twitter user @harukaze5719, NVIDIA has addressed reported stability problems users are experiencing with Intel's latest 13th and 14th generation Raptor Lake Core processors, especially the high-performance overclockable K-series models. In a recent statement, NVIDIA recommended that owners of the affected Intel CPUs consult directly with Intel if they encounter issues such as system instability, video memory errors, game crashes, or failures to launch certain applications. The problems seem particularly prevalent when running demanding workloads like gaming on Unreal Engine 5 titles or during shader compilation tasks that heavily utilize the processor and graphics capabilities. Intel has established a dedicated website to provide support for these CPU instability cases. However, the chipmaker still needs to issue a broad public statement and provide a definitive resolution.

The instability is often attributed to the very high frequencies and performance the K-series Raptor Lake chips are designed to achieve, which are among the fastest processors in Intel's lineup. While some community suggestions like undervolting or downclocking the CPUs may help mitigate issues in the short term, it remains unclear if permanent fixes will require BIOS updates from motherboard manufacturers or game patches.

Update: As the community has pointed out, motherboard makers often run the CPU outside of Intel's default spec, specifically causing overvolting through modifying or removing power limits, which could introduce instabilities into the system. Running the CPU at Intel-defined specification must be assured with a BIOS check to see if the CPU is running at specified targets. Intel programs the voltage curve into the CPU, and when motherboard makers remove any voltage/power limits, the CPU takes freedom in utilizing the available headroom, possibly causing system instability. We advise everyone to check the power limit setting in the BIOS for the health of their own system.

The Professional Gamers League (PGL) showcased its newly upgraded tournament rig specification prior to the kick-off of their (still ongoing) CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 esports event. As reported, over a week ago, competitors have been treated to modern systems decked out with AMD's popular gaming-oriented Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards, while BenQ's ZOWIE XL2566K 24.5" 360 Hz gaming monitor delivers a superfast visual feed. A hefty chunk of change has been spent on new hardware, but expensive cutting-edge tech can falter. Virtus.pro team member—Jame—experienced a major software crash during a match against rival group, G2.

PCGamesN noted that this frustrating incident ended the affected team's chance to grab a substantial cash reward. Their report put a spotlight on this unfortunate moment: "in the second round of a best of three, Virtus Pro were a few rounds away from qualifying for the playoffs, only for their aspirations to be squashed through no fault of their own...Jame experiences a graphics card driver crash that irrecoverably steers the round in G2's favor, culminating in Virtus Pro losing the match 11-13. Virtus Pro would then go on to lose the subsequent tie-break match as the round was not replayed. In effect, the graphics card driver crash partly cost the team their chance at winning an eventual $1.25 million prize pool." PGL revealed, via a social media post, that officials are doing some detective work: "we wish to clarify the situation involving Jame during the second map, Inferno, in the series against G2. A technical malfunction occurred due to an NVIDIA driver crash, resulting in a game crash. We are continuing our investigation into the matter." The new tournament rigs were "meticulously optimized" and tested in the weeks leading up to CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024—it is believed that the driver crash was a random anomaly. PGL and NVIDIA are currently working on a way to "identify and fix the issue."

To all Dragon's Dogma 2 players. We would like to update you on the status of the following items, about which we have received numerous comments from the community. To all those looking forward to this game, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

Regarding Frame Rate
A large amount of CPU usage is allocated to each character and calculating the impact of their physical presence in various areas. In certain situations where numerous characters appear simultaneously, the CPU usage can be very high and may affect the frame rate. We are aware that in such situations, settings that reduce GPU load may currently have a limited effect; however, we are looking into ways to improve performance in the future.

Systems running on older hardware could be excluded from upcoming public versions of Windows 11—the recently released preview/insider build (26052) has introduced all sorts of new features including "Sudo for Windows", an improved regedit, and hidden beneath the surface, an AI-flavored Super Resolution settings menu. Early partakers of version 24H2 are running into instruction set-related problems—Windows operating expert, Bob Pony, was one of the unlucky candidates. Microsoft's preview code seems to require a specific instruction set to reach operational status—Pony documented his frustrations on social media: "Using the command line argument "/product server" for setup.exe, BYPASSES the system requirement checks for the Windows 11 24H2 setup program. But unfortunately, after setup completes then reboots into the next stage. It'll be indefinitely stuck on the Windows logo boot screen."

He continued to narrow in on the source of blame: "Windows 11 Version 24H2 Build 26058's setup (if ran in a live Windows Install) now checks for a CPU instruction: PopCnt." The Register provided some history/context on the SSE4 set: "POPCNT/PopCnt counts the number of bits in a machine word that have been set (or different from zero.) You might see it in cryptography and it has been lurking in CPU architectures for years, pre-dating Intel and AMD's implementation by decades." It is believed that Microsoft has deployed PopCnt as part of its push into AI-augmented software features, although a segment of online discussion proposes that an engineer has "accidentally enabled" newer CPU instruction sets. Tom's Hardware marked a line in the sand: "PopCnt has been supported since the Intel Nehalem and AMD Phenom II (microarchitecture) era—14 years ago—so compatibility won't be an issue for any modern systems. The only users that will be affected are enthusiasts running modified versions of Windows 11 on 15+ year-old chips like Core 2 Duos or Athlon 64." Bob Pony's long-serving Core 2 Quad Q9650 processor—a late summer 2008 product—was deemed unworthy by the preview build's setup process.

During launch-weekend, Payday 3 had a peak of concurrent players (CCU) across all platforms of 218,250, and a peak of 1,347,510 unique players (DAU). Starbreeze Nebula currently has 3,794,172 registered users. Payday 3 matchmaking infrastructure has not performed as tested and expected. Matchmaking software encountered an unforeseen error, which made it unable to handle the massive influx of players. The issue caused an unrecoverable situation for Starbreeze's third-party matchmaking partner.

A new version of the matchmaking server software was gradually deployed across all regions leading to improved performance. However, a software update made by the partner during late Sunday again introduced instability to the matchmaking infrastructure. The partner continues to work to improve and stabilize Payday 3's online systems.

A member of the amusingly named and low populated r/4090Burning subreddit has reported a strange incident where the PSU side of his 12VHPWR connector had melted. Shiftyeyes67k shared his equipment's plight two days ago and included two photos with his story: "Started noticing a smell coming from my PSU (be quiet! Dark Power 13 1000 W) recently that smelled like burnt plastic. Decided to swap it out and noticed that the 12VHPWR cable was burned...From everything I've read this generally happens to the connector on the GPU side so I'm wondering if anyone has seen this yet?" His feedback shows that the relatively new connection standard has ongoing reliability issues, even though most 16-pin connector problem cases have affected beastly GPUs such as NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090.

The be quiet! Dark Power 13 1000 W PSU has native support for the 16-pin cable standard, and no type of adapter was used in Shiftyeyes67k's example. Tom's Hardware reported on this sole incident recently, and a be quiet! representative responded to the article's content (updated today): "This is a unique case and we already have reached out to the customer to learn more." The company statement continues: "As our brand is known for highest quality standards, we treat this seriously and have initiated an investigation." be quiet! recommends that any customers experiencing similar issues should contact their support team directly. Tom's Hardware has attempted to get a comment from NVIDIA about the latest problem, but "an Nvidia spokesperson said we may not hear back for a few days due to a company closure."

Microsoft Surface Pro X owners are reporting that their hybrid detachable tablet computer's in-built (front and rear) camera systems have stopped working - user feedback has been popping up on Reddit and the Microsoft Support forum this week. Unfortunate users of the flagship Arm-driven device have attempted to restore normal operation via driver reinstalls, but to no avail. Windows simply displays an error message that states "0xA00F4271<MediaCaptureFailedEvent> (0x80004005)" when the Surface's camera application is launched. A reddit user (Wapitiii) posits that an expired security certificate is the route cause for this issue, which seems to affect all Pro X units.

A couple of crafty Surface Pro X owners have resorted to rolling back their system clocks to May 22 (2023), which seems to restore the camera app's functionality, but this workaround could have potential downsides with online authentication and security checks. A redditor has been in touch with a "support representative, and they confirmed it is a known issue that Microsoft is currently working on." They have suggested another placeholder measure: "The only way to fix it immediately is if you do a full system reset which deletes all applications and files. He said doing a reset that retains user files does not fix the problem. He advised waiting a few days to see if Microsoft puts out a fix versus doing a full reset unless the cameras are needed immediately." The company is currently engaged in its own Build developers conference, where (ironically) announcements have been made about improvements intended for business devices (such as the Surface Pro X) - hopefully Microsoft's engineers can get onto solving this problem, once festivities are concluded.