Gigabyte Saves New Intel CPUs in Games Using Denuvo

Gigabyte has released a patch for Intel Alder Lake processors. It eliminates problems with DRM systems in games in exchange for disabling some innovative features - unfortunately, it's available only for owners of boards from Gigabyte for now.

Some time ago we mentioned that Intel Alder Lake processors do not like the presence of Denuvo DRM in games. Responsibility for the inability to run some titles and subpar performance (in relation to pure power) in some games was blamed on energy-efficient "E" cores. Gigabyte recently released a tool called DRM fix Tool, which goes some way to fixing this problem - by disabling less powerful CPU cores "on the fly".

One of the previous methods of solving this problem was to disable the "E" cores yourself using the BIOS, although they would then become useless until you rebooted your PC and reversed the changes. Having to suddenly disable innovative features on next-gen processors looked a bit lame. However, Gigabyte has released a new tool for Z690 motherboards that enables us to make changes "on the fly".

It's worth reminding here that Intel's 12th-gen CPUs are based on a hybrid architecture, meaning they use two types of cores - "P" (Performance) offer high performance, while "E" (Efficiency) emphasize energy efficiency.

Unfortunately the fix is for now only for owners of Gigabyte boards with the Z690 chipset, with the latest BIOS version. It's not a perfect solution (or at most a temporary one), but it's pretty much the only possible one at the moment. However, we know that Intel is already working with game publishers to finally solve the Denuvo DRM issue and we should expect updates in the near future.