Intel wants to charge $50 to unlock stuff your CPU can already do

[petroid]

This sounds exactly like buying a car that has all the features of climate control installed, but you need to pay the dealer extra to enable it or it won't function...

[ArKeYa]

It's exactly what this is! The CPU is already capable of certain performance when it leaves the factory but they reduce or lock -whatever you want to call it- (either Ghz speed, cores, etc) so that you can UNLEASH the full functionality (what you paid for in the first place ;) ) for a little more. Think about it, it's not the same as upgrading, don't let them confuse ya.

No. You paid for what you got. What you paid for in the first place doesn't include the full functionality. e.g. you paid $100 for 2.0 GHz, not 3GHz. What makes people like you tick is because you already know the hardware is already in your possession. But if you think about it, you are still getting what you paid for.

I really don't see anything wrong with it. It's a process decision. It is probably cheaper to have one manufacturing process versus the hardware cost of teh extra features.

This sounds exactly like buying a car that has all the features of climate control installed, but you need to pay the dealer extra to enable it or it won't function...

But the point is you didn't pay for climate control in the first place. The dealer just opted to put it there in case you decided to activate it. It is not your concern why they do it like that, so to speak.

[webeagle12]

...

[nub]

" that lets you download software to unlock extra threads and cache on the new Pentium G6951 processor."

Software? Nobodies going to pay for it.

[Damien]

Amd time.

LOL +1

[Innuendo]

Why is everyone jumping all over Intel for this? This 'upgrade card' is only for a Gateway system. Sounds more like a Gateway stunt than an Intel one to me. Looks like you pay $50 to essentially upgrade your motherboard BIOS.

Either way....lame.

[Ci7]

Technology is very unpredictable, couple of years intel was king of the hill, then amd, then intel, then amd and for teh time being intel. Your sig is proof :)

And I don't mind not buying an UBER ultra fast intel i9 when I can have a better bang for buck, withouth having to pay extra for it!

intel has been king since Core 2 duo

that is like 3+ years ago

[Sikh]

And people support this bull**** of a company to the point where they can do this.

And I dont want to hear any bull**** excuses like "well thats why you build your computers, this is only on store bought versions" or a blah blah blah. The fact they are gonna do this and no one will boycott them, means the company can go die.

I stopped supporting intel awhile ago, and im glad i did. On top of all this, they bought mcafee a few weeks ago which definitely made me look at intel like NO.

[JoeyF]

Why is everyone jumping all over Intel for this? This 'upgrade card' is only for a Gateway system. Sounds more like a Gateway stunt than an Intel one to me. Looks like you pay $50 to essentially upgrade your motherboard BIOS.

Either way....lame.

I don't know, this looks more like an Intel plot to me:

https://retailupgrades.intel.com/Page.aspx?Name=WhereToBuy

Granted, they completely forgot to add actual content to that page, but the simple fact that such a page exists on Intel's website suggests that they're planning to do this on more than just this one laptop.

[Ji@nBing]

I don't think so girlfriend?

[CentralDogma]

I don?t know what the higher ups at Intel are thinking anymore. Not supporting the new USB standard, limiting over clocking, and now this. Worst of all though, the mess they?ve made with having two commercial sockets during the same generation.

Intel?s chips outperform AMD?s by a healthy margin, but it seems like they?ve chosen to shoot themselves in the foot.

[Neoauld]

If they sell it for the price of the lower chip, and only charge the difference, id be ok with that..its an 'easy' upgrade...but it would be so temping the entire time it wasnt unlocked....either way i dont like this

[dknm]

I call this BS . You already pay premium for the mobo's socket , that changes with every new chip revision ( roughly a year and a half )

The sale is not for 75% of the product (example figure) , yet this is what you get for full price . Legally you can't pursue this , because the card is a product by itself .

The next decade yields promise for hardware piracy.?

[ThisSiteHasLostItsCharm]

Intel announces DLC for certain CPU models. Yea that would sound dumb.

[The Teej]

^Yup, I believe staff in places like Best Buy will be pushed to recommend these kinds of things in the future, along with product protection, internet security and microsoft office. :p

Great, another KPI to go with the 30+ they already have. >_>

A tad extreme to have another KPI just for an Intel processor add-on (although it wouldn't surprise me) :laugh: But I totally know where you're coming from, push push push!

Oh, the joys of KPIs!

[zhangm Supervisor]

I don't see the problem.

People who want to purchase the extra processing power and think that this is a reasonable value will do so. People who don't believe this to be a reasonable value won't. If you buy a Celeron processor and have the option of giving it i7 performance, how is Intel really at fault? You paid for the Celeron, right?

[Pupik]

I don't see the problem either. Not because I agree with it, but because I know someone will release a bios hack or something a like to bypass this stupidity.

[LiquidSolstice]

Yeah, nothing really wrong with this, especially if it means I get discounted hardware and later on the bios gets hacked :D

[Meraklis56]

and then the intel somehow will force us,to use one program to check if our bios is hacked and cpu unlocked illegally.if yes,they will disable another one core,except the unlocked one and the updates will continue to pop out...

hm,something reminds me...hm,ps3?! :whistle:

[Soldiers33]

even more reason to go to amd on my next build.

[Innuendo]

I don't know, this looks more like an Intel plot to me:

https://retailupgrades.intel.com/Page.aspx?Name=WhereToBuy

Granted, they completely forgot to add actual content to that page, but the simple fact that such a page exists on Intel's website suggests that they're planning to do this on more than just this one laptop.

Hmmm...compelling evidence, Joey. If they want to make it possible for people to upgrade the CPU on their laptops why don't they do something outrageous like, say....making the CPU socket user-serviceable. There'd be a lot less consumer backlash & Intel would make more money than this scheme will.

[SaltLife]

The only reason I see this being useful is because it helps lower cost of deployment for not only Intel but also Gateway. This allows gateway to purchase more of a single type of chip while providing different hardware speeds. I'm not 100% sold on this being a viable option with ALL types of processors, but for the lower end I don't see why not.

This also leaves a decent upgrade option for users without having to buy a complete new system because sometimes that difference in CPU can be larger than $50 because typically the manufacture includes other options to jump the price.

[Motoko.]

The only reason I see this being useful is because it helps lower cost of deployment for not only Intel but also Gateway. This allows gateway to purchase more of a single type of chip while providing different hardware speeds. I'm not 100% sold on this being a viable option with ALL types of processors, but for the lower end I don't see why not.

This also leaves a decent upgrade option for users without having to buy a complete new system because sometimes that difference in CPU can be larger than $50 because typically the manufacture includes other options to jump the price.

I don't see why they have to disable SMT and 1MB of L3 cache. They could just buy the chips as intended (untampered with) and put them in.

Unless they discount the price of the entire machine, which I have my doubts about.

[Ci7]

oh , wait a min!

if that thing modify the bios , that would be just to easy to share it ,just get bios dump and flash it into another PC with similar mobo :p

[Subject Delta]

If it's a software based solution that is used to unlock the CPU, once hackers get their hands on it, they will find a way to do it for nothing and release it. Regardless, it's an interesting and slightly strange tactic from Intel