Intel forces motherboard manufacturers to disable AVX-512 support on all Alder Lake processors via upcoming BIOS
During our review of Intel Alder Lake desktop processors, we found that AVX-512 support remained unchanged and could be easily activated, although this set of instructions must be disabled via the nearby BIOS.
Intel Alder Lake desktop processors will lose their AVX-512 instructions with the BIOS of the next big motherboard maker
Although Intel Alder Lake processors do not officially support AVX-512 instructions, they can be activated by disabling active “Gracemont” cores and leaving “Golden Cove” performance cores turned on. It provides slightly better performance and higher efficiency than standard AVX2 instructions. While electronic cores have their own advantages in a number of workloads, the AVX-512 instructions also seem to result in higher efficiency.
But all of that is about to change Igor lab Intel reports that motherboard manufacturers have removed AVX-512 support for Alder Lake processors with an upcoming BIOS update. Not surprisingly, this move came a few days before Intel plans to launch it A variety other than K Alder Lake which will only include most P core models (Core i5 and Core i3 will be non-hybrids).
Intel AVX-512 performance versus AVX2 performance on Alder Lake processors. (Image credit: Igor Lab)
These chips have the potential to be a hot item for startup servers and stations where their AVX-512 features can be used. Intel doesn’t want this to happen, and as such, they are trying their best to remove support from the instruction set from the equation. There’s more, however, and Igors Lab explains that the AVX2 standard guidelines have a very strict thermal throttle feature on all hybrid chips recognized within HWiNFO as “IA: Max Turbo Limit – Yes”.
Intel Alder Lake AVX512 and AVX2 support/restrictions on HWiNFO (Image credit: Igor Lab):
Thermal lock causes limited clock speeds and the stated reason is to avoid the degradation of electron migration within the new chips. There are now some systems that can beat the maximum chip clocks of 5.2GHz because of these throttles, as many computers won’t have adequate cooling to beat these high clocks.
Fortunately, there are actually ways to get around these two drawbacks in the AVX, the AVX2 throttle and the removal of the AVX-512. For example, Asus has implemented a patch in their BIOS versions for “Maximus” motherboards that disables AVX2 refresh. The only important thing here is that the clock must already be set in the BIOS at boot time. Another change with the operating system software will be detected again in the Intel Perception Network.
Fortunately, there are actually ways to get around these two drawbacks in the AVX, the AVX2 throttle and the removal of the AVX-512. For example, Asus has implemented a patch in their BIOS versions for “Maximus” motherboards that disables AVX2 refresh. The only important thing here is that the clock must already be set in the BIOS at boot time. Another change with the operating system software will be detected again in the Intel Perception Network.
You can now stick with your current BIOS and keep the AVX-512 instructions, but the latest stock of motherboards can be expected to run out of BIOS stock. Also, you’ll definitely need a better BIOS than the one available at launch to get good stability and DDR5 compatibility for your Alder Lake processors, but upgrading means breaking away from the instruction set. So this is a really strange move by Intel, and if they were so angry about this feature in consumer processors, they shouldn’t have had it in the first place.
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