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Next time, buy AMD...

Razzy

By Razzy,
in Huddle Lounge

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Razzy Newbie

Razzy

Posted
Posted

If there's one thing I hate it's dirty business practices.

Hold onto your hyperthreaded horses, because this is liable to whip up an angry mob -- Intel's asking customers to pay extra if they want the full power of their store-bought silicon. An eagle-eyed Engadget reader was surfing the Best Buy shelves when he noticed this $50 card -- and sure enough, Intel websites confirm -- that lets you download software to unlock extra threads and cache on the new Pentium G6951 processor. Hardware.info got their hands on an early sample of the chip and discovered it's actually a full 1MB of L3 cache that's enabled plus HyperThreading support, which translates to a modest but noticeable upgrade. This isn't exactly an unprecedented move, as chip companies routinely sell hardware-locked chips all the time in a process known as binning, but there they have a simpler excuse -- binned chips are typically sold with cores or cache locked because that part of their silicon turned out defective after printing. This new idea is more akin to video games that let you "download" extra weapons and features, when those features were on the disc all along. Still, it's an intriguing business model, and before you unleash your rage in comments, you should know that Intel's just testing it out on this low-end processor in a few select markets for now.

[Thanks, Brian]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/18/intel-wants-to-charge-50-to-unlock-stuff-your-cpu-can-already-d/

Companies shouldn't try and use their customers like that. Imagine if you were listening to a new album but you had to pay an extra $3 to unlock the "bonus tracks".

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TerriblePizza Newbie

TerriblePizza

Posted
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If there's one thing I hate it's dirty business practices.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/18/intel-wants-to-charge-50-to-unlock-stuff-your-cpu-can-already-d/

Companies shouldn't try and use their customers like that. Imagine if you were listening to a new album but you had to pay an extra $3 to unlock the "bonus tracks".

Or if you bought a video game and had to pay extra for premium content.

Oh wait.. thats already happening.

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Guild Collaborator

Guild

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Or if you bought a hamburger and had to pay extra for cheese.

Oh wait.. thats already happening.

No it's more like if you had to buy a car but to actually drive at interstate speed you have to pay an extra fee worth a considerable percentage of the value of the car.

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Guild Collaborator

Guild

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Yea, people should be happy about this. You're getting a better chip than you are paying for with the only hurdle being software limiters.

Crack it or one day take advantage of a one-click upgrade.

That's just it. Does Intel really think they are going to somehow prevent everyone from just downloading pirated or otherwise freely distributed software that unlocks the full potential of the chip?

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