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

[Squilliam]

LordTheNightKnight said:

Squilliam said:

I suppose it actually makes sense in a screwed up way. Rather than selling a laptop with X processor and a laptop with X Y processor. They can instead simply sell the laptop with X and let people unlock to X Y. You were always buying a processor capable of X Y when you bought an X laptop, you just could never enable the Y. Depending on how they charge for this it may lead to cheaper performance laptops as they tend to whack on quite a large manufacturer margin as you go up the range.

The problem with that is the tech is already on the chip, and you still have to sell it at a profit.

So it's essentially paying full price for less on the chip.

Nope. Its the same as before.

Before: They sell you a chip which is cut down but you can't restore the features.

Now: They sell you a chip which is cut down but you can restore the features.