Intel’s Raptor Lake processors run hot out of the box, even if you have a high-end AIO cooler. Temperatures of 100C aren’t uncommon while gaming, often causing throttling and crashes in extreme cases. I faced a similar issue with my Core i9-13900KF, where the PC would crash during gaming (BSODs), throwing a wide range of errors. Initially, the problem was sparse, but since last month it started happening frequently, often causing the “IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL” BSOD.
The BSODs were different every time, but they had one thing in common: memory corruption or invalid memory access. The crash dump didn’t help, as every time a new application was responsible for addressing a kernel-level memory address it shouldn’t.
Removing one application after another led to the crashes being limited to system processes, including the Windows Defender. I changed the motherboard, memory, and GPU to no avail. From what I can tell, the CPU’s PCIe link to the GPU has been compromised, causing errors whenever certain lanes are stressed.
More Core i9-13900K/14900K users have reported similar crashes related to memory corruption or page faults. These BSODs are also reported in gaming workloads, especially Unreal Engine 5 titles. The “VRAM requirement exceeded” crash is the most popular in Korea, where gamers are facing sporadic crashes in UE5 games, including The Finals, Battlefield 2042, Remnant 2, Lords of the Fallen, Hogwarts Legacy, Palworld, Horizon, Overwatch 2, and Lies of P.
According to ZDNet, over 10 customers visit service centers daily in Korea, requesting replacements for their 13th or 14th Gen Core processors. Intel has been forced to acknowledge the issue, assuring customers that it will analyze the problem alongside its partners.
