Intel hit by new class action

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Important takeaways

  • Intel is facing a class action lawsuit over Raptor Lake instability issues dating back to December 2022.
  • Plaintiff Mark Vanvalkenburgh alleges that his Intel 13th generation CPU experienced defects and that Intel knew about the problems.
  • Intel is accused of fraud by omission, breach of warranty and violation of the New York General Business Law.



A new class action has been filed against Intelalleging that the company knowingly sold 13th and 14th generation Raptor Lake processors that were prone to instability issues and degradation. The instability issues caused a lot of controversy for Intel until 2024, as the company conducted extensive investigations to find the exact cause.

After receiving user reports of crashes and performance issues in April, Intel confirmed that high voltage and frequency settings were causing a number of 13th and 14th generation CPUs to operate outside of recommended settings. The increased voltage and frequency can degrade the CPU over time, causing it to become defective or completely unusable. At the time, Intel claimed the problems were common on systems using underclocking and overclocking settings on 600 and 700 chipset motherboards. Although board partners and Intel worked together to release BIOS updates, the issue was not resolved, prompting Intel to conduct investigations to determine the cause. The results of the investigation determined that the microcode algorithm on the affected CPUs was sending incorrect voltage requests, resulting in erratic CPU voltage and frequencies. These Intel Raptor Lake instability issues seem to still be affecting PC gamers as 2024 draws to a close.


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As reported by Techspot, Intel is now being sued in federal court in San Jose, California, with plaintiff Mark Vanvalkenburgh of Orchard Park, New York citing that he first encountered instability issues and defects with his i7-13700K in January 2023. Despite the launch of Intel's microcode patch, crashes and performance issues still occurred with Vanvalkenburgh's Intel 13th gen CPU, according to the newly filed lawsuit. Vanvalkenburgh's lawyer expects many Intel customers to join the class action, as it claims Intel became aware of the problems and defects as far back as December 2022, shortly after the launch of Intel's 13th generation CPUs. More specifically, the lawsuit states that the problems faced by customers were well documented in media reports and social media posts in 2022 and 2023, well before Intel began its investigation into the matter.



Intel is facing a class action lawsuit over Raptor Lake instability issues and defective processors

  • A class action lawsuit has been filed against Intel in California federal court.
  • The lawsuit alleges that Intel knew about Raptor Lake's problems as far back as December 2022, shortly after the 13th generation was launched.
  • Plaintiff Mark Vanvalkenburgh claims his i7-13700K experienced problems shortly after he purchased it in January 2023.
  • Intel is accused of committing fraud by omission, breach of implied warranty, and violation of the New York General Business Law.

The lawsuit accuses Intel of committing fraud by omitting and breaching the implied warranty of its products. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that Intel violated the New York General Business Law due to the sale of the defective product in Vanvalkenburgh's home state. It's also worth noting that Intel didn't recall any 13th and 14th generation processors that were affected this year.


Intel's Raptor Lake microcode patch was released back in September 2024, but it only prevented Vmin shift instability from occurring, according to Intel. As a result, Intel Core 13th and 14th generation processors that were severely affected or damaged had to be completely replaced.

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