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In brief: After announcing an upcoming patch to resolve instability issues affecting 13th- and 14th-generation desktop CPUs, Intel has now listed the specific processors covered under its new extended warranty. Furthermore, pre-built PC manufacturers have been contacted to determine which ones plan to honor Intel's commitment.
Intel has confirmed that its recently announced two-year warranty extension for 13th- and 14th-generation Core processors covers i5 K, KF, and above models. The company can only guarantee the extension for boxed units purchased separately. Users experiencing crashes in pre-built systems must contact the manufacturer's customer support.
According to The Verge, Asus, HP, Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest, Maingear, and iBuypower will begin guaranteeing five-year warranties for Intel Raptor Lake CPUs in their products, adding the processor manufacturer's extra two years to the existing three-year policy. Dell and Alienware only said they would work with Intel to cover all costs. Corsair and Origin PC promise four years, while Puget Systems guarantees only three years. Confirmation from Acer, Lenovo, MSI, NZXT, and CyberPowerPC is forthcoming.
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Intel's new policy is a response to increased reports of crashes and high failure rates for Raptor Lake CPUs. Users and companies reported instability related to running games and intense productivity applications. Some companies said significant percentages of their Intel desktop, workstation, and server CPUs failed, prompting a switch to AMD.
A microcode patch coming later this month aims to address the problem, which Intel said originates from incorrect voltage value requests. Owners of the impacted models who haven't encountered crashes yet should use the BIOS to engage official baseline voltages to lower the risk until the company deploys the patch. Unfortunately, units already exhibiting instability must be replaced.
Users with EVGA motherboards should remain extra vigilant. Because the company has released no BIOS updates for its Z690 and Z790 boards since 2023, many doubt whether it will release Intel's microcode fix, potentially leaving owners with defective CPUs.
Intel released a list of covered processors on its official forums this week. Additionally, Weibo user "Little Pigeon" (via VideoCardz) reported on a recent meeting between Intel and Asus in China where Chipzilla provided further details.
The company promised that the patch wouldn't impact turbo performance or overclocking. Looking forward, Intel also claimed that its upcoming Arrow Lake CPUs would provide considerable performance improvements while drawing 100 fewer watts of power.
Furthermore, the company's sophomore generation of dedicated graphics cards, codenamed Battlemage, is still on track for a 2024 launch. Recent rumors suggest that its competitors – AMD's RDNA 4 and Nvidia's Blackwell – might not emerge until CES 2025 or later.
Image credit: VideoCardz/Weibo