Intel 14th & 13th Gen RMA Requests Met With Huge Delays Due To Stock Availability Issues

Intel's 14th & 13th Gen RMA requests are mounting up after several users have started replacing their degraded CPUs with new chips but the blue team is unable to provide a timely solution due to stock availability issues.

In a customer support email by Intel responding to a Core i9-13900K RMA request made by Reddit user, Towel4, it looks like the company might be having trouble allocating enough units for RMA's.

All I’ve read about is how easy the Intel RMA is, and how fast and painless the process is.

No so much my experience.

While everything leading up to the actual exchange went well, I was contacted yesterday for my Address and name on my Credit Card so that the replacement process could begin. I received this email at 11:35AM yesterday.

At 11:39, I was sent a follow up email stating that they don’t have any replacements left at the moment. This email included a line that not only do they not have replacements, they don’t have upgrades for the socket either.

No 13900k or 14900k units are on hand by Intel? That seems absolutely wild. Are more 13/14900k chips actually being fabbed in the next 3-4 weeks? Or is this a logistics issue? Given I’ve seen posters talk about their K being replaced with a KF, as well as upgraded from 13th to 14th, it’s crazy they don’t have ANY replacements. Honestly for how bad my chip is, 3-4 weeks is pretty absurd, but maybe I’m just salty.

Either way, if you were planning to start your RMA process, you might as well get it started now and get in line.

Reddit via u/Towel4

The email states that Intel was successfully able to validate the customer's Core i9-13900K CPU which still falls under warranty considering the company has extended it by 2 additional years. It's stated that due to "Stock Availability Issues", the company doesn't have the actual or same-part replacement available for the Core i9-13900K. Intel also states that a higher but compatible CPU replacement, such as the Core i9-14900K, is also not available at the moment.

A wait time of 4-5 weeks or more is given to the user before the stocks get replenished and Intel asks the user if they are willing to wait 3-4 weeks while they check with their planning team. The company apologizes for the delay but it's pretty much clear that users who have degraded silicon and want a replacement will have to wait a good while, at least a month as per Intel's email, to land a replacement unit.

This sucks for gamers who have degraded silicon and need something fresh that doesn't produces the same issues. I am personally running a degraded Core i9-13900K CPU at the moment which cannot run stable and crashes very often despite the new microcode patches. The solution is only to undervolt and underclock the chip which provides the most stable experiences. Even web browsers such as Chrome crash without the undervolt applied.