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

[NJ5]

greenmedic88 said:

Zlejedi said:

Squilliam said:

NJ5 said:

It's not the same thing as paid DLC which is already on the disc, since in that case you are paying for the development of the DLC (putting it on the disc or not doesn't increase the costs).

In this case, the real cost is in manufacturing the hardware, which means part of the chip you buy is wasted even though it's working perfectly well.

It just all seems a bit dodgy and cheap from Intel's part, I don't really like it.

They have always disabled parts of chips when they have worked. The difference here is you can pay to unlock them.

This. I wonder if all those people bitching about this realize that for example all the Pentium G and i3 5x0 as well as i5 6x0 cpu are coming from same line and are diffrent only by bins and/or multiplier that was applied to them.

Imho that's very good idea to save people time and effort when upgrading.

This is essentially the core of the "processor upgrade" program. It's nothing new; consumers have been paying more for additional multipliers and additional cache for decades.

Price bracking for CPUs is often the difference between a 20x multiplier and a 22x multiplier; purely an artificial constraint that amounts to a pretty significant difference in price.

But the difference is that an activation upgrade system provides a better option for upgrading CPUs than physically removing a chip, selling it and then buying and installing a new chip. It is a good idea.

Yeah it doesn't sound bad if you put it that way, but I'm still concerned about the loss of privacy. They are very likely using a unique ID on the CPU for authenticating the unlocking process, which means Intel (and trojans, if any program can get the ID out) can invade your privacy by tracking a CPU.

I'm sure police in all countries (and other government-controlled agencies, to "keep us safe") will love to get Intel's help to track down where a computer is no matter how much you format it or what anonymizers you use.

Get me Hollywood on the line, I'm sure they'll love this idea for a script.