Intel’s crashing 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs: all the news and updates

Many months ago, gamers began experiencing strange crashes with their 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core i9 CPUs — but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Intel has now extended its warranty by two full years on 24 different 13th Gen and 14th Gen desktop chips, including Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9 models, after discovering that many CPUs based on its Raptor Lake architecture are susceptible to permanent damage. They were being fed too much voltage, and some have irreversibly degraded. Intel has not yet said if laptop chips are failing the same way.

As of August 2024, there is currently no fix for an Intel CPU that’s crashing like this — you need to exchange it, and that’s what the extended two-year warranty is for. But you can apply motherboard BIOS updates that may prevent damage to begin with, and Intel is explicitly addressing the excessive voltage issue in August updates for its partners’ motherboards.

There are many open questions, like how many customers are affected, why Intel isn’t recalling these chips, why it didn’t claw back existing inventory ahead of its August patch, how it will proactively warn customers, how lenient it might be when dealing with customers who want an exchange, and which other issues might be contributing to these chips’ instability. (Intel has suggested the voltage is a primary cause, but not the only one.)

The Verge is keeping track of the answers, and other news, in updates to the StoryStream you’ll find below. We’re also keeping track of which PC makers will honor Intel’s extended warranty in this story.