MSI has surprisingly re-added AVX-512 support to Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake-S processors via the A22 BIOS update for its flagship MEG Z690 Unify-X motherboard. Earlier, Intel had released a microcode update disabling AVX512 across the Alder Lake family. At the time of launch, it was possible to enable the 512-bit instruction support by disabling the efficiency “Gracemont” cores to allow for significant performance boosts in supported applications.
MSI has implemented a work-around that enables the older microcode when switching to the “AVX-512 Trial” option (the one before Intel decided to fully disable the instruction) which means that this is likely a one-off. The chipmaker’s policy on AVX-512 is likely unchanged, and we are unlikely to see a change across most board partners. Expect Raptor Lake-S to follow the same trend.
