Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Intel says its Alder Lake gaming CPU issues have been fixed

Zak Islam
By

The DRM-based issues that caused certain video games to crash or fail to load on a system with an Alder Lake processor have now been fixed by Intel.

The company confirmed it resolved the DRM problems for affected games running on 12th-gen Intel Core CPUs for both Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Intel Alder Lake pin layout.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

In an update on its website, Intel said the fix came to fruition by working with both Microsoft and game publishers. As a result, all the games that were not playable on Intel’s latest processors due to the DRM complications have been fixed via game patches or operating system updates.

Recommended Videos

With this in mind, Intel advises those that still encounter issues on an older version of Windows to run the latest version of Windows Update. Previously, Gigabyte and MSI provided tools to address the issue, while Intel supplied a scroll lock workaround.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

Intel’s Alder Lake processors were released to outstanding reviews, with the chips becoming some of the best CPUs for gaming on the market. The DRM issues that have now been patched were thus a concerning problem at the time for gamers who were unable to play certain video games on their newly built or upgraded system.

These difficulties initially impacted over 90 games during Alder Lake’s October launch last year. The cause behind games not working properly or failing to boot at all is attributed to Alder Lake’s hybrid architecture. Intel’s 12th-gen chips utilize both Golden Cove high-performance cores and Gracemont power-efficient cores.

However, gaming digital rights management (DRM) software was recognizing the efficient-cores as another system. The most popular DRM application, Denuvo, would therefore cause games to crash during the launch process or gameplay. Users were also subjected to their games unexpectedly shutting down.

DRM software essentially ensures a game cannot be pirated by verifying the title is being played by the consumer who initially bought it on their own system.

Aside from the Alder Lake issues, the anti-piracy software hasn’t exactly been largely welcomed by the gaming community and even by some developers. Denuvo can potentially cause performance issues for certain video games. For example, Resident Evil Village was affected by stuttering problems. Furthermore, leading developers such as Square Enix, Capcom, and Bethesda have all removed Denuvo from several popular titles.

Elsewhere, Intel’s upcoming Arc Alchemist graphics cards have seemingly been delayed beyond their initially scheduled launch period during the first quarter of 2022.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Zak Islam
Zak Islam
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Zak Islam was a freelance writer at Digital Trends covering the latest news in the technology world, particularly the…
It’s the end of an era for Intel
Intel Core i5-14600K processor inside its socket.

There's a major change happening with Intel's processors. The latest 14th-gen chips, previously known as the Raptor Lake Refresh, are available for sale, and you can read our Intel Core i9-14900K and Core i5-14600K reviews to see how they perform. They mark the last time Intel will use its Core i-series branding, as well.

Intel has gone through branding adjustments over its decades of business, but it established the Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 brands in 2008 with the release of the Nehalem architecture. That's the branding the company has stuck with for 15 years, updating the range with a Core i9 badge to note the most powerful chips in 2018.

Read more
Intel’s Raptor Lake refresh prices have leaked, and hikes are on the way
An Intel processor over a dark blue background.

We're most likely just a couple of weeks away from the release date for the Intel Raptor Lake refresh, and while Intel itself hasn't said much about it, interesting tidbits of information leak out pretty frequently. Today, we got a good look at what might be the pricing of almost the entire lineup. And it looks like price increases are coming, however minor they may be.

We expected that a price hike was likely for the Raptor Lake refresh, and that's exactly what seems to be happening. As per a tip sent to VideoCardz, the majority of the 14th-Gen lineup appeared briefly at a Canadian retailer known as Canada Computers. While the CPUs weren't listed, they could be found by searching for the product names, and that gives an idea of what to expect. Keep in mind that these prices are in Canadian dollars.

Read more
Intel Meteor Lake is coming to desktop, but there’s a big catch
Intel announcing the Meteor Lake release date on Intel Innovation.

It's been a real roller coaster ride with Intel Meteor Lake. First, it was coming to desktops, then it wasn't, then it was, and now ... it isn't, but it is. If you're as confused as we are, don't worry -- Intel has set things straight and we now know that Meteor Lake chips will be available in desktops, but they won't become some of the best processors for desktop PCs, all because they're not socketed.

Intel spoke about the future of its 14th-Gen Meteor Lake chips in a statement made to ComputerBase, revealing that, yes, Intel Meteor Lake will come to desktop PCs, but only all-in-one (AIO) computers like the Intel NUC or small form-factor PCs. It won't be available in socketed form, which means that you won't be able to install it in a future LGA1851 motherboard. In short, Meteor Lake chips are laptop CPUs, through and through.

Read more