GIGABYTE offers DRM Fix Tool for Intel Alder Lake Processors (Dynamic Parking and Unparking of E-Cores)
Gigabyte has published the Gigabyte DRM Fix Tool, which allows users of Gigabyte Z690 motherboards to easily and swiftly park or unpark the E-cores (Gracemont) contained within Alder Lake processors.
Although it wasn't generally known prior to Alder Lake's announcement, it was widely assumed that the 12th Generation Core processors would have issues with older games that contained DRM. Briefly stated, Alder Lake's hybrid microarchitecture deceives DRM solutions such as Denuvo into believing that two different systems are concurrently the same game, despite the fact that both systems are using the same key. Obviously, a simple update on the part of the game developer will be sufficient to resolve the incompatibility concerns with the Alder Lake environment. To be practical, it's unlikely that developers will go to the trouble of updating all of their titles for Alder Lake, especially if the games are more than a couple of years old at this point.
Fortunately, motherboard manufacturers have included an option to turn off the Gracemont cores in the Alder Lake processor. The difficulty is that the choice is located within the motherboard's BIOS, which can be a confusing and daunting place for individuals with little computer experience. Even experienced users will find it inconvenient because they will have to manually restart the system, enable the option, and then restart again. The process is one that you must go through every time you wish to play an old game that has a DRM that does not play well with Alder Lake.
With the Gigabyte DRM Fix Tool, which is small in size and does not require installation, the work of parking E-cores is made easier. The bad news is that the software is only available for use with Gigabyte Z690 motherboards. In order to use this feature, only the most recent firmware version on the motherboard is required.
The DRM Fix Tool can be downloaded from the Gigabyte website.
Gigabyte Z690 Motherboards
Motherboard | Firmware |
---|---|
Z690 Aorus Elite AX DDR4 | F6a |
Z690 Aero D | F5a |
Z690 Aero G | F4b |
Z690 Aero G DDR4 | F6a |
Z690 Aorus Elite | F4a |
Z690 Aorus Elite AX | F5a |
Z690 Aorus Elite DDR4 | F5a |
Z690 Aorus Master | F6b |
Z690 Aorus Pro | F6a |
Z690 Aorus Pro DDR4 | F6a |
Z690 Aorus Tachyon | F3a |
Z690 Aorus Ultra | F5a |
Z690 Aorus Xtreme | F5a |
Z690 Aorus Xtreme WaterForce | F4a |
Z690 Gaming X | F5a |
Z690 Gaming X DDR4 | F6a |
Z690I Aorus Ultra | F4a |
Z690I Aorus Ultra DDR4 | F5a |
Z690M Aorus Elite AX DDR4 | F5a |
Z690M Aorus Elite DDR4 | F5a |
Z690M DS3H DDR4 | F2a |
Z690 UD | F5a |
Z690 UD AC | F5a |
Z690 UD AX | F5a |
Z690 UD AX DDR4 | F5a |
Z690 UD DDR4 | F5a |
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Senior Member
Posts: 2410
Joined: 2016-08-01
All this is showing us for 100th time is that drm is bad and we should boycott any product with it .... Sadly never going to happen ... Imagine how fast drm will die if any game with drm have close to 0 sales !
Junior Member
Posts: 6
Joined: 2019-11-05
The list of games effected by this is too small
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000088261/processors/intel-core-processors.html
And fix for this is very simple....
T
Not a good start for LGA1700, first these issues with DRM protection in some games, then lack of DDR5 availabillity and huge prices for these. Not a fun time for LGA1700 early adopters

Lack of DDR5 is not an issue. Cause you can use DDR4 and get almost same performance at lower price.
Senior Member
Posts: 530
Joined: 2001-02-27
This tool works only on GigaByte motherboards or can be used on LGA1700 boards made by other AIBs?
Why Intel didn't (or it already did) offered similar tool for LGA1700 boards?
edit
Well, all this "tool-fix" does is that it turns on Scroll Lock. If LGA1700 motherboard (in atm early BIOS builds) doesn't support E cores parking via BIOS using Intel's Scroll Lock "fix" one can really forget about this "fix"

Not a good start for LGA1700, first these issues with DRM protection in some games, then lack of DDR5 availabillity and huge prices for these. Not a fun time for LGA1700 early adopters

Some super mini keyboards don't have a scroll lock key, so....
(though I wouldn't be surprised, since they're supposed to be programmable, that they left out programming that particular key also...)
Senior Member
Posts: 2410
Joined: 2016-08-01
Some super mini keyboards don't have a scroll lock key, so....
(though I wouldn't be surprised, since they're supposed to be programmable, that they left out programming that particular key also...)
So .... I can fire up auto hotkey and make a fix my self ? Oo
Senior Member
Posts: 2540
Joined: 2013-02-26
This tool works only on GigaByte motherboards or can be used on LGA1700 boards made by other AIBs?
Why Intel didn't (or it already did) offered similar tool for LGA1700 boards?
edit
Well, all this "tool-fix" does is that it turns on Scroll Lock. If LGA1700 motherboard (in atm early BIOS builds) doesn't support E cores parking via BIOS using Intel's Scroll Lock "fix" one can really forget about this "fix"
Not a good start for LGA1700, first these issues with DRM protection in some games, then lack of DDR5 availabillity and huge prices for these. Not a fun time for LGA1700 early adopters