The support for AVX-512 instructions in Intel’s Alder Lake processors has been a bit of a stumbling block. The business first stated that the feature would not operate on its new 12th Gen processors but later changed its mind after motherboard vendors discovered several ways to allow the commands.
After a bit of cat and play with motherboard makers who constructed new firmware to enable the functionality, despite Intel’s attempts to disable it, the company has ultimately chosen to go nuclear and altogether disable AVX-512 support later Alder Lake CPUs.
Intel will now blow an internal fuse to physically stop AVX-512 capability at the silicon level, bringing the AVX-512 drama to a close with Alder Lake. AVX-512 is a type of instruction that dramatically improves performance and power efficiency for programmes that can use it, often professional applications.
Because the new x86 hybrid processors have two different microarchitectures that do not support the instructions, Intel first warned the press that AVX-512 would not function on them. As a result, Intel announced that the AVX-512 FMA would be completely disabled. An Intel optimisation guide appeared before the introduction, indicating that the capability was planned for the chips, but Intel said Alder Lake would not support the instructions. The business released a new guide that eliminated references to Alder Lake processors supporting AVX-512.
The instructions were found operating on some motherboards via a toggle built by the motherboard vendors during the Alder Lake launch, presumably against Intel’s desires. Intel first remained silent on the matter; however, it did advise the Taiwanese press that AVX-512 support on Alder Lake will be treated similarly to overclocking — officially unsupported and at your own risk.
The feature’s deactivation was first learned in early January when Intel released fresh microcode (chip firmware) in later BIOS upgrades. That same week, new BIOSes were released that removed the AVX-512 option, effectively banishing the AVX-512 faithful to the realm of no BIOS updates if they wanted to keep using the instructions.
At that moment, it was assumed the problem was resolved. Nonetheless, MSI managed to get past Intel’s AVX-512 ban by creating a BIOS toggle that let users quickly switch between earlier and newer BIOS releases, re-allowing AVX-512 support last month.
Intel, it’s safe to assume, was not pleased with the ongoing ruse, and the firm is now permanently disabling AVX-512 on all newer Alder Lake processors. No amount of BIOS hacking or trickery will enable AVX-512 on any more unique Alder Lake chip. If you insist on running AVX-512 on Alder Lake, you’ll need an older CPU and an older BIOS revision.
If you want AVX-512 capability with Intel’s latest designs, you’ll have to upgrade to the more expensive Xeon CPUs. Meanwhile, AMD is adding AVX-512 support to its Zen 4 processors, which would be an unexpected twist if Intel continues to refuse to support the instructions on consumer hardware.
Intel is also suing motherboard manufacturers for allowing overclocking on the company’s supposedly non-overclockable non-K versions. Intel isn’t happy with those solutions. Therefore we can anticipate Intel’s answer to that “issue” to be released shortly.
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