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Alder Lake DRM issue fixed for all but three games

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Sadly Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is still on the list.

Intel Core i9 12900K up-close images with the chip exposed
(Image credit: Future)

It’s an unfortunate truth that Intel’s new Alder Lake line of processors had a bit of a rocky launch. Despite the i9 12900K doing very well in their respective reviews, these new chips were hampered by other issues. 

Even before launch we knew that some Digital Rights Management would cause problems. The new architecture of the chip can be read as two separate computers trying to boot the game. This tricks the DRM into flagging the process and shutting it down, which is pretty bad news for a gaming U. Denuvo, the company responsible for the particular DRM even released a fix before release, but it wasn’t widely implemented among games. 

Thus on Alder Lake’s release we published this rather extensive list of games that just didn’t work on Intel’s 12th gen processors. Well good news, Alder Lake fans, because that list is now down to three. 

Your next upgrade

(Image credit: Future)

Best SSD for gaming: get into the game ahead of the rest

Intel updated its if you've got a Gigabyte motherboard.

It’s good to put this chapter in Alder Lake’s history behind, as these are genuinely impressive Us that top our list of AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.

Hope Corrigan
Hope Corrigan
Hardware Writer

Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find her fictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcast right here. No, she’s not kidding.