Intel Stops the Performance Tuning Protection Plan

Yesterday, it would seem, Intel announced that they are going to discontinue the Performance Tuning Protection Plan which was basically overclockiing insurance for your X and K edition processors.  

They had this to say on the Intel website.

The Performance Tuning Protection Plan program has been discontinued.

As customers increasingly overclock with confidence, we are seeing lower demand for the Performance Tuning Protection Plans (PTPP).

As a result, Intel will no longer offer new PTPP plans effective March 1, 2021.

Intel will continue focusing on delivering amazing processors with tuning flexibility and overclocking tools like Intel Performance Maximizer and Intel XTU.

All existing plans will continue to be honored through the duration of the processor warranty period.

For questions, contact Intel Customer Support.

Note about the intel xeon W-3175X Processor
The intel xeon W-3175X Processor is automatically covered for overclocking, No additional plan or activation code is required

 

 

Thank You,
PTPP Team

 

It is nice to see that the $3000 USD W-3175X will still be covered under the PTPP, however for those with pockets deep enough to buy one I'm not sure the insurance is really a driving factor for using the processor as it was intended.

When Intel first launched the PTPP it was met with skepticism.  Some saw it as a quick cash grab and a way to take advantage of those who always seemed to break their computer hardware, You know the types, they are always sending stuff in for RMA and will likely frequent pawn shops.  Others welcomed the insurance and saw it as proof that they could take advantage of what K and X edition processor(s) had to offer.

Personally, I was on the "cash grab" side of the fence.  I have overclocked quite a few processors in my day, some on air, some on water and even more under Phase and LN2.  I have yet to actually burn up a processor doing this.  Sure, I have degraded plenty but nothing that required sending a processor back to Intel.

In fact, I have only used the Intel warranty once, and was when a memory channel died on my Core i7 980X.  The process was very easy with the only "sticky" bit being that everything in the build had to be "Intel Approved" else the warranty return would be denied.  That is really the primary reason for the PTPP as the warranty exchange became a "no questions asked" sort of deal and might have been a good way to “bin” your processors.

Overall, I am not heartbroken that PTPP is going away.  Overclocking on Intel processors has really gone downhill over the past several years with processors becoming “heat bound” with very little headroom.  Despite this I will always recommend a K or X processor as it gives you higher clocks out of the box.

Related Web URL: https://tuningplan.intel.com/