“Intel has not halted sales or clawed back any inventory.”
Intel’s microcode patch lands in mid-August and does nothing for a chip that has already degraded. Any 13th or 14th Gen desktop part at 65W or more is exposed, not just the i9s. Some failures trace to a separate oxidation defect that Intel fixed at an unspecified date last year. No recall, no sales pause, no warranty answer, and the chips are still on the shelf.