Almost all the games with Alder Lake DRM issues have now been patched

[midian182]

Why it matters: If you’re thinking about or have already made the upgrade to one of Intel’s latest Alder Lake CPUs, here’s some excellent news: the number of games that don’t run on the processors without using a workaround is now down to just a couple.

Intel early last month revealed a list of games that didn't boot on PCs with Alder Lake chips due to the DRM software (Denuvo) incorrectly recognizing Alder Lake’s efficient-cores (E-cores) as another system. There were initially 90 games that ran into issues with the 12th-gen CPUs, including a couple of modern titles, but that’s now down to just three, according to Intel. However, this writer can confirm that at least one of them appears to have been fixed.

Intel now lists Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Fernbus Simulator, and Madden 22 as the three games that still require patches to work with its hybrid processors, but I have been enjoying AC: Valhalla on my new Core i7-12700K (Windows 11) system since the weekend—it runs like a dream, by the way—and without using the workaround, so it seems that Intel hasn’t updated the list yet.

Alder Lake offers some excellent gaming performance

If you’re having issues with these games, Alder Lake owners can enable Legacy Game Compatibility Mode (where available) in their PC’s BIOS, which will place the E-cores in a standby mode while playing games. Alternatively, Gigabyte Z690 board owners can download a tool that allows them to switch the E-cores on and off easily through the utility's UI.

Here’s how to enable Legacy Game Compatibility mode:

1. Power-up system and enter system BIOS setup.

2. Switch Legacy Game Compatibility Mode to ON (one-time only) in BIOS.

3. Save BIOS setup changes and exit.

4. Boot to OS.

5. Toggle Keyboard Scroll Lock key ON.

6. Launch affected game title.

7. Toggle Keyboard Scroll Lock key OFF after ending game title.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/92528-almost-all-games-didnt-work-alder-lake-have.html

 

[Dimitriid]

That's good for games that people already own but personally and going forward, I am going to do everything I can to just avoid any game that ships with Denuvo. Even if it's removed later, even if it's a "good" implementation of Denuvo that doesn't gets in the way or causes day one issues, I just don't want to give money to companies to constantly being abused as a consumer anymore and I know I can still have a good time with just other indie games even if I skip almost all AAA games coming out.

 

[hahahanoobs]

This was fixed in a month with simple patches and collaboration?

Hm. Imagine that. Good thing no one freaked out...

 

[yRaz]

What is the point of efficiency cores on a desktop? In a laptop, it makes sense, but after seeing benchmarks of 12th gen parts it seems that speed increase is due to cache size, not number of e-cores.

Look, good for intel for taking back the performance crown but "efficiency cores" have no place in a dedicated gaming or workstation system. Which, lets be frank, people aren't buying i9's or i7's to browse facebook when. I would say it makes sense in i3's or i5's but after a moment it occurred to me that efficiency cores are an even larger waste of silicon on smaller chips with even less surface area.

The more I think about it the less sense it makes. Then you add in compatibility problems, which hardcoding that into windows 11 reduced ryzen performance.

 

[HardReset]

What is the point of efficiency cores on a desktop? In a laptop, it makes sense, but after seeing benchmarks of 12th gen parts it seems that speed increase is due to cache size, not number of e-cores.

Look, good for intel for taking back the performance crown but "efficiency cores" have no place in a dedicated gaming or workstation system. Which, lets be frank, people aren't buying i9's or i7's to browse facebook when. I would say it makes sense in i3's or i5's but after a moment it occurred to me that efficiency cores are an even larger waste of silicon on smaller chips with even less surface area.

The more I think about it the less sense it makes. Then you add in compatibility problems, which hardcoding that into windows 11 reduced ryzen performance.

Because Intel needed somehow lower power consumption. Alder Lake is way too power hungry even with 8P+8E cores. Version with 16P cores would be hot as hell. AMD has huge advantage on power consumption even when comparing server chip (Zen3 5900X, 5950X etc) vs desktop chips (Alder Lake 12700K/12900K etc).

Efficiency cores are right now Intel's only way to compete even some way on multi threading. Of course, AMD is still miles ahead.

 

[yRaz]

Because Intel needed somehow lower power consumption. Alder Lake is way too power hungry even with 8P+8E cores. Version with 16P cores would be hot as hell. AMD has huge advantage on power consumption even when comparing server chip (Zen3 5900X, 5950X etc) vs desktop chips (Alder Lake 12700K/12900K etc).

Efficiency cores are right now Intel's only way to compete even some way on multi threading. Of course, AMD is still miles ahead.

No they aren't. I want to know a single consumer application that needs 8 or more cores. And even if you need lots of cores, Intels E Cores are useless for multithreaded applications. They make zero sense outside of a mobile environment and even there, that's still questionable. Add that onto the compatibility problems the Ecores have with current software and you have an entire different dumpster fire

 

[HardReset]

No they aren't. I want to know a single consumer application that needs 8 or more cores. And even if you need lots of cores, Intels E Cores are useless for multithreaded applications. They make zero sense outside of a mobile environment and even there, that's still questionable. Add that onto the compatibility problems the Ecores have with current software and you have an entire different dumpster fire

Football Manager 2021 for start. It's even game.

Efficiency cores made it possible to make over 16 thread CPU without making chip too hot. It also makes Intel bit more competitive on server side. AMD is still miles ahead but not that many miles.

Other than that, Efficiency cores are pretty much disaster.

 

[maroon1]

What is the point of efficiency cores on a desktop? In a laptop, it makes sense, but after seeing benchmarks of 12th gen parts it seems that speed increase is due to cache size, not number of e-cores.

You probably looking at gaming benchmark only

E cores boost productivity and multi-threading performance. 3d rendering application benefit greatly from more cores

Look, good for intel for taking back the performance crown but "efficiency cores" have no place in a dedicated gaming or workstation system. Which, lets be frank, people aren't buying i9's or i7's to browse facebook when. I would say it makes sense in i3's or i5's but after a moment it occurred to me that efficiency cores are an even larger waste of silicon on smaller chips with even less surface area.

Do you know that 8 E cores has same area as 2 P cores ?? But 8 E cores perform better in multi-threaded application that scales well with cores

Basically, i9 12900K (or 8P + 8E) has same die size as 10 P cores.... I don't see how this waste of silicon when it takes small area and it is enough to make Alder Lake competitive with AMD in multi-threading. Intel was behind AMD in multi-threaded since Ryzen came out.... But now it is more competitive.

The more I think about it the less sense it makes. Then you add in compatibility problems, which hardcoding that into windows 11 reduced ryzen performance.

Compatibility problems ??? As of today, there is only two games that has issue.

And there was already an easy workaround that make those games run on Alder Lake (putting E cores on standby)

So it is barely a problem

......which hardcoding that into windows 11 reduced ryzen performance

WRONG
https://www.techspot.com/article/2350-windows-11-benchmark-ryzen/

Ryzen perform slightly better in gaming on windows 11 than windows 10...... and around same performance in non-gaming application

 

[yRaz]

You probably looking at gaming benchmark only

E cores boost productivity and multi-threading performance. 3d rendering application benefit greatly from more cores




Do you know that 8 E cores has same area as 2 P cores ?? But 8 E cores perform better in multi-threaded application that scales well with cores

Basically, i9 12900K (or 8P + 8E) has same die size as 10 P cores.... I don't see how this waste of silicon when it takes small area and it is enough to make Alder Lake competitive with AMD in multi-threading. Intel was behind AMD in multi-threaded since Ryzen came out.... But now it is more competitive.




Compatibility problems ??? As of today, there is only two games that has issue.

And there was already an easy workaround that make those games run on Alder Lake (putting E cores on standby)

So it is barely a problem



WRONG
https://www.techspot.com/article/2350-windows-11-benchmark-ryzen/

Ryzen perform slightly better in gaming on windows 11 than windows 10...... and around same performance in non-gaming application

Okay, well I'm not really a gamer, but I'd rather have 2p cores than 8e cores. There are also benchmarks that show that it's more of a cache issue than thread issue. I really want to see the justification for e cores instead of cache since benchmarks show how Alder lake's performance is cache limited, not core limited. Hardware Unboxed recently did a great video about it, I'm surprised that they haven't been posted here on techspot yet. Also, is this post-fix for thread allocation?