Intel just admitted it has no way to check if your gaming CPU has been damaged

Right now, there isn’t a foolproof way to check if your Intel gaming CPU has been damaged by the Vmin Shift Instability issues that have plagued Intel’s Raptor Lake processors. Intel has confirmed that it doesn’t have a reliable tool available to test CPUs that might have been damaged following the voltage instability problems that have popped up over the last year.

This is bad news, both for Intel and consumers who own the company’s 13th and 14th-gen Core CPUs, simply adding to the pressure the company has faced this year. The chip maker only recently issued a permanent Intel CPU fix for undamaged Raptor Lake processors, after many of the best gaming CPU designs made by the company were found to be causing stability problems in games based on the Unreal Engine.

In comments made to Tom’s Hardware, Intel confirmed that it “continues to investigate the possibility of a detection tool” for damage. However, Intel also states that it “will issue an update if one becomes available.”

Without a reliable tool to diagnose these CPUs, RMAs could become an expensive headache for the company over the next few years. It hasn’t actively recalled these processors, but it has issued an extended two-year warranty on top of the existing three years that initially covered 13th and 14th-gen CPUs, such as the Intel Core i9 14900K.

The bigger concern, however, is that customers with a Raptor Lake CPU might not even realize that there’s damage. That could lead to a sudden failure further down the line, leaving customers without a working PC for weeks or months during the RMA process, especially if replacement stock becomes tight. We’ve already seen Raptor Lake RMA shortages occur in the last few months, too.

For now, if you’ve got what you believe is an undamaged 13th or 14th-gen Intel CPU, the advice is clear: update your BIOS using the latest and hopefully final microcode update, and make sure you’re using Intel’s recommended power settings. If you have any instability at all, it’s wise to get your RMA request in now and seek a replacement, rather than wait for it to fail.

There’s one shred of good news for overclockers who are prepared to take risks, though. While the company still recommends using the Intel default settings for power on 13th and 14th-gen CPUs after the microcode updates, it says that users can increase PL1 and PL2 power limits beyond this without voiding the warranty, although other settings (such as the ICCMax value) shouldn’t be changed.

Thankfully, the chip maker has issued assurances that the latest Intel Arrow Lake CPUs are immune from the Vmin Shift Instability problems. With the latest Arrow Lake launch rumors pointing at a release in a few weeks, you might not have to wait long before you can switch to an Intel processor that lacks this fault, but you’ll need a new Z890 motherboard to go with it.

If a new upgrade or PC build is on the cards, you might want to check out our guide on how to build a gaming PC next for a quick refresh on the steps you’ll need to follow. Installing the CPU is the easy bit, but keeping your cables tidy is a whole other matter.