Intel customer scores Core i9-14900K as a replacement for degraded Core i9-13900K — another received a $599 check for a fully working Core i9-13900K

Greg7579 said:

I built with the 14900K nine months ago and have had no stability issues. I have done some CPU intensive tasks though and one time my Corsair iQUE acted up and my fans didn't switch on and my CPU was running very hot for a while (7 minutes or so) before I noticed it. ASUS Dark Pro Motherboard.
Is there any way to testy the CPU to see if there has been any damage? One gets paranoid after reading so many of these reports of damaged 13 and 14900K CPUs. I did download and run the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool and the CPU passed all the tests.

Your CPU came with some voltage headroom where you could undervolt. If you knew what your minimum stable voltage was before the software deal you could see if that is unchanged. If unchanged then there doesn't seem to be any degradation damage.
If you didn't know your minimum stable voltage and it might have changed, but is still fine at your stock? settings then it may or may not have been damaged but there is probably no easy way to know and probably no consequence.

I'm guessing not a lot happened because these chips do thermal throttle.

Edit: If you did know your minimum stable voltage and that did increase under very similar conditions than there probably was some degradation. But if your chip still tests fine, just is 10-15mv worse than before then that is a loss, but probably not enough to return over since it is still good at stock.

Personally think the check for release day price is a good offer to make right, it then leaves the consumer with a 90% build to go find another CPU for.

As a side note to this issue, was or is the final resolution supposed to be making sure you are running on a "stock undervolt"? In other words, making sure that you aren't overclocking nor that the motherboard is using a custom profile?

I really hate this happened in that it just made an entire two generations a gamble to upgrade to out of 12th gen. As an aside, it really should jank the value of these moving forward so the situation will probably turn into finding higher end CPU for well less than traditional worth at the chance that they are faulty.

"So neglect becomes our ally."

I've been working in warranty for years and this is nothing new to me.

In cases where Intel does not have a replacement available they offer a like for like or better processor. This can be in the form of a higher clocked model in the same range, for example a customer returns a 13500 and they offer a 13600 or 13700. In the case of high end models like the 13900's, besides maybe a slightly different model (K,KS,KF,F etc) there is not a lot of room for replacements so they will jump to the 14900 equivalent. As a side note, in years gone by with socket changes I have also seen Intel offer the equivalent in the new socket which we've often had to reject as it wasn't an option for the customer.

In cases where there is no possible replacement or the replacement offered is not accepted, Intel will process as a refund.

rluker5 said:

These errors to the benefit and loss to the consumer are probably due to individual employees handling the returns and their circumstances.

If you have been getting trolled all day you may be overly skeptical of a customers claim and if you are lazy or overworked you might not have time to verify that a chip is broke.

So long as the errors are very uncommon I don't see an issue.

These are not "errors" in the way the return is processed. Very few companies these days test their products when they are returned as it's simply not economically viable to pay workers to do this. There are also plenty of instances where manufacturers don't even want the faulty item back (just photo proof of destruction) and they'll send a replacement. There are even some don't even want that and it will just send a replacement but I digress. Back to the topic....

Intel's warranty return process works like this. During the initial contact you have to provide photo evidence of the CPU showing the serial number/ QR code in order for Intel to verify not only the exact CPU model but also that it is a legimate retail CPU that is still under warranty. Once that is done they do basic troubleshooting to confirm the fault then the return is approved and the CPU sent back.

When Intel receive the CPU, the only thing they do is check to confirm the received product matches what was applied for and check for physical damage. There is no army of workers checking these CPU's individually for the fault reported, once confirmed received in good order it's passed to the replacement team to process. In all my years sending CPU's (and Intel NUC's, SSD's, RAID Cards, Motherboards etc I should add) I have never had a single item rejected once returned to Intel, they just get replaced.

I had a busted I5-8500 many years ago, this was during cpu shortage, I was forced a refund although all I wanted was a replacement. I ended up getting a cheap 8100 online while I waited for the shortage to end then replaced that with a 9900KF.

Greg7579 said:

I built with the 14900K nine months ago and have had no stability issues. I have done some CPU intensive tasks though and one time my Corsair iQUE acted up and my fans didn't switch on and my CPU was running very hot for a while (7 minutes or so) before I noticed it. ASUS Dark Pro Motherboard.
Is there any way to testy the CPU to see if there has been any damage? One gets paranoid after reading so many of these reports of damaged 13 and 14900K CPUs. I did download and run the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool and the CPU passed all the tests.

You could only test some UE5 games or get the install Nvidia driver 10 times in a row to see if it have problem to a point stock voltage isn't stable anymore.

Flamin Joe said:

I've been working in warranty for years and this is nothing new to me.

In cases where Intel does not have a replacement available they offer a like for like or better processor. This can be in the form of a higher clocked model in the same range, for example a customer returns a 13500 and they offer a 13600 or 13700. In the case of high end models like the 13900's, besides maybe a slightly different model (K,KS,KF,F etc) there is not a lot of room for replacements so they will jump to the 14900 equivalent. As a side note, in years gone by with socket changes I have also seen Intel offer the equivalent in the new socket which we've often had to reject as it wasn't an option for the customer.

In cases where there is no possible replacement or the replacement offered is not accepted, Intel will process as a refund.


These are not "errors" in the way the return is processed. Very few companies these days test their products when they are returned as it's simply not economically viable to pay workers to do this. There are also plenty of instances where manufacturers don't even want the faulty item back (just photo proof of destruction) and they'll send a replacement. There are even some don't even want that and it will just send a replacement but I digress. Back to the topic....

Intel's warranty return process works like this. During the initial contact you have to provide photo evidence of the CPU showing the serial number/ QR code in order for Intel to verify not only the exact CPU model but also that it is a legimate retail CPU that is still under warranty. Once that is done they do basic troubleshooting to confirm the fault then the return is approved and the CPU sent back.

When Intel receive the CPU, the only thing they do is check to confirm the received product matches what was applied for and check for physical damage. There is no army of workers checking these CPU's individually for the fault reported, once confirmed received in good order it's passed to the replacement team to process. In all my years sending CPU's (and Intel NUC's, SSD's, RAID Cards, Motherboards etc I should add) I have never had a single item rejected once returned to Intel, they just get replaced.

For the testing thing it depends on regional dealers, in Asia, quite some countries are fully handled by dealers and intel will reject RMA directly (for 13th and 14th gen since there are too many cases they started handle direct RMA), they will need to bring the CPU to their service center and run some test and have an error appear before proceeding RMA.

But as always RMA was on/off a lottery, and when the issue is so widespread it tend to go worse, as the employees will get overworked and frustrated to a point of bad attitude, and when replacement shortage is severe one tend to be way more picky to slow down their daily work.