Game dev adds in-game crash warning for 13th and 14th Gen Intel CPUs — link provides affected owners instructions to mitigate crashes

Alderon Games in-game warning
Alderon Games in-game warning (Image credit: HXL/X)

Alderon Games was one of the first publishers to share the extensive frustration Intel's Raptor Lake instability has caused. Game crashes were so bad that it forced the game development studio to announce it would be putting in-game notifications in its title, Path of Titans, to warn its customers about the problem. A post by HXL on X has revealed this is the case. Path of Titans now notifies users about Raptor Lake instability when the game crashes on a Raptor Lake or Raptor Lake Refresh machine.

When Path of Titans crashes, an error screen dubbed "Problematic CPU Detected" will pop up saying, "The game has crashed. We have detected you have the following CPU: [queue whatever 13th or 14th-gen CPU the user has], This CPU has problems with Unreal Engine 5 games which can result in crashes. Do you want to open a link with information on how to potentially fix these crashes?"

Path of Titans now clearly reveals to gamers the exact problems with Raptor Lake instability. Specifically, it details the CPU's issues in Unreal Engine 5, which has been one of the most sensitive engines to Raptor Lake's instability issues. Alderon Games also points gamers towards a link that can help reduce their instability issues.

Alderon Games has been one of the most highly impacted game development studios of Intel's 13th and 14th Gen instability catastrophe. The game publisher is the only company that has reported a virtual 100% crash rate among its Raptor Lake machines. Instability issues have plagued every aspect of its business, from its development PCs to its gaming servers. It also revealed that thousands of customer-owned Raptor Lake gaming PCs have crashed in Path of Titans.

Intel is closer than ever to finally knocking out this instability problem for good. The chipmaker announced a few days ago that it discovered the root cause of the crashing issues surrounding elevated voltages that can cause irreversible degradation to Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors. Intel will provide a new microcode update by mid-August to fix this voltage problem and prevent undamaged parts from degrading beyond repair. Intel has officially said this, but there are contrasting reports that elevated voltages are just one root cause affecting the instability phenomena. 

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • hotaru251
    "all publicity is good publicity" poor poor intel....
    Reply
  • ThatMouse
    It's one thing to make a mistake, but it's another to hold back information and lie about it to your customers.
    Reply
  • The Beav
    No link to the fixes or am I blind?
    Reply
  • Ryrynz
    The Beav said:
    No link to the fixes or am I blind?
    Bro, there are no "fixes" yet.. You can mitigate it through by reducing speeds and undervolting. Not sure what rock you been under but the supossed fix is out mid August.
    Reply
  • Tbonius
    He was referring to the link that the game gives you in the pop up.
    Reply
  • ThisIsMe
    Man they sure are hard up about this. Just wining and complaining with no stated effort on troubleshooting. They have released no helpful information at all. Just found a common detail and created assumptions based on correlation to blame all crashes with their game that happens on an Intel processor on this mysterious problem that is now the cause for all crashes with no further questions asked.

    Would be funny if they discover all they need to do is revert back to using a version of Unreal engine before March/April and it works just fine.
    Reply
  • CelicaGT
    ThisIsMe said:
    Man they sure are hard up about this. Just wining and complaining with no stated effort on troubleshooting. They have released no helpful information at all. Just found a common detail and created assumptions based on correlation to blame all crashes with their game that happens on an Intel processor on this mysterious problem that is now the cause for all crashes with no further questions asked.

    Would be funny if they discover all they need to do is revert back to using a version of Unreal engine before March/April and it works just fine.
    Imagine having ones head so far up ones.....

    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/intel-has-finally-tracked-down-the-problem-making-13th-and-14th-gen-cpus-crash/
    Reply
  • ThisIsMe
    CelicaGT said:
    Imagine having ones head so far up ones.....

    Haha… I know right? Imagine…

    Anyway, my comment was strictly regarding this developer that’s clearly riding the hype wave (along with everyone else who wants to blame any game crash on a single underlying problem). That doesn’t mean there isn’t a known underlying problem for some or most of the crashes. Intel has stated that they’ve found something, but they sure seem hesitant to call it a sure fix. And it clearly isn’t affecting all (100%) of Intel CPUs or you wouldn’t just be hearing/reading about it.

    Links to articles simply parroting every other tech news outlet that have been reposting Intel’s statements with some pizazz thrown in aren’t an excuse for this developer’s clearly self-serving behavior.
    Reply
  • CelicaGT
    ThisIsMe said:
    Haha… I know right? Imagine…

    Anyway, my comment was strictly regarding this developer that’s clearly riding the hype wave (along with everyone else who wants to blame any game crash on a single underlying problem). That doesn’t mean there isn’t a known underlying problem for some or most of the crashes. Intel has stated that they’ve found something, but they sure seem hesitant to call it a sure fix. And it clearly isn’t affecting all (100%) of Intel CPUs or you wouldn’t just be hearing/reading about it.

    Links to articles simply parroting every other tech news outlet that have been reposting Intel’s statements with some pizazz thrown in aren’t an excuse for this developer’s clearly self-serving behavior.
    Fair point, this particular dev is making a lot of noise. I won't argue the point of "Any attention is good attention" but don't forget some of us have skin in the game. Myself it's borderline whatever. I didn't spend enough disposable income to be more than strongly annoyed about this. But put yourself in the shoes of those who scrimped and saved real, needed monies to purchase a system on the bleeding edge just to have this happen. It may not mean much to you or me, but to them it's a big &%$*ing deal. Be courteous please. Real people are at the other end of your frivolous comments. I say this as someone who enjoys some good internet snark.
    Reply
  • Mattzun
    Assuming they are checking that the crash is one of the errors associated with defective CPUs, the replace your CPU error message seems helpful
    Most people just want to game and aren’t following tech news.

    NVidia should really do the same thing for out of memory errors on 4080/4090.
    They already have their blame intel web page.
    Reply