Shortly after launch, it was reported that the new Intel 12th Gen Core Alder Lake CPUs were having difficulties with certain software titles recognizing the newest hybrid processor platform. DRM, or Digital Rights Management, protection software installed in a large majority of games on the market, would not recognize the Efficient (E-) cores on the Intel Alder Lake CPUs as part of the processor. Instead, the games recognized those E-cores as a separate system.
Intel’s Alder Lake series is now DRM problem-free thanks to patches and updates for listed games
The effect of the malfunctioning issues would activate the game’s DRM protection, resulting in games halting during gameplay or preventing from starting through the game’s launcher.
Motherboard manufacturers worked with Intel to provide quick solutions through workarounds to bypass any issues and be able to allow players to access and play their games. One solution was based on the concept of core parking, while the other process made use of the “Legacy Game Compatibility Mode” located in the system’s BIOS. It may have been a slight annoyance to some gamers, but definitely, a suitable means for all so that the games could still be played, especially on a brand new, reportedly more powerful, and efficient CPU as Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs were being advertised.
It has been confirmed by Intel that the affected software problems have been eliminated and that Intel is not currently aware of current DRM issues at this time.
Intel has resolved the DRM issue on 12th Gen intel® Core™ Processors that caused games to crash or not load in Windows 11* and/or Windows® 10 by working with game publishers and Microsoft. At this time, all games originally identified as having this DRM issue have been fixed through game patches or OS updates.
If you experience issues on an older Windows OS, run the latest version of Windows Update to resolve the issue. Along with game patches, the most recent updates for Windows 11 and Windows 10 have resolved a majority of the DRM issues.
— Intel
Intel does let their consumers know that if their games are experiencing the same problems that had arisen, to contact Intel so that patches can be created to fix the problems efficiently.
Source: Intel, @davideneco25320 (on Twitter)
