Intel selling $50 codes to unlock parts of your CPU

[worluk]

I do wonder though what are the legal implications of deliberately limiting performance in hardware are.

huh? Legal implications? Because it is hardware and not software where this is state of the art for more than 20years now?

Lot of "someone is stealing my toy" posts here. In the end, of course depending on execution, it benefits the end user. Disabling parts of CPUs to sell them to a cheaper market segment has been practiced for many years now. With this users can upgrade their CPU without soldering or replacing the whole unit.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

As long as you are paying less for the cpu that is locked compared to one with its full capabilities available at purchase time, what is wrong with that? If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you do, for a fee you can unlock a more powerful cpu instead of a whole new one and then have to go thru the process of removing the heatsink etc and swapping out a newer cpu which most likely would cost way more than the fee would.

Ultimately its up to the consumer if they want to go this route.

 

[Oldih]

Lot of "someone is stealing my toy" posts here. In the end, of course depending on execution, it benefits the end user. Disabling parts of CPUs to sell them to a cheaper market segment has been practiced for many years now. With this users can upgrade their CPU without soldering or replacing the whole unit.

It would be worth asking that let's say Intel's current CPUs on sale, would they 'downgrade' (so to speak) them and you must pay to get their normal (aka 'full') performance or does the performance remain the same, but paying makes it overclocked so to speak. Now of course while the term performance might be incorrect, I'll use it to keep it more simple.

I would rather pay full price for CPU for the performance rather than buy CPU, pay extra to gain more performance and in the long run pay more than I would by buying just the 'full' CPU. My guess is that if they start doing that they won't sell standard CPUs that have the full performance on the money. Obviously that would give them beter profit in one way or another, but it would be quite a hassle for customers to buy CPU and buy additional CPU related code just to get rid of the so-called downgraded performance.

 

[Mahnsikir]

huh? Legal implications? Because it is hardware and not software where this is state of the art for more than 20years now?

Of course limiting of hardware has been done before but I meant in context of them blatantly selling you and limiting it via 'just' a serial number and not in manufacturing.

It's a bit iffy, what's to stop people from just unlocking the hardware themselves, there's no such user agreement for hardware, you're free to do what you want with it (within reason of course, going back to car speed limiters you could remove it but then depending on the country it would not be road legal), there's nothing stopping you except voiding your warranty.

They can do it if they want to and depending on the price point it may be good for some people but all it really is, is just a silly gimmick.

 

[Grobut]

You know it's never going to be this simple, if this is how Intel aims to make it's money in the future, you can be damned sure that DRM is soon to follow, afterall, there's no real money there if people can just overclock their way out of it, or grab an activation code by means of piracy.

I've seen a lot of DRM come and go over the years, but all of it had one thing in common, it did not makes the lives of the consumer any easier, and usually just serves to needlessly complicate matters, cause more overhead, and make them more prone to crashes and glitches, how's this gonna be any different?

 

[Flogger23m]

Another nail in the coffin of PC gaming?

If PC game developers knew how to make games load/install on PCs, you might have a point.

Battlestations Midway, CoD4, IL-2 1946 - all crap that can barely load/install.

That is what kills PC games.

You spend 2-3 hours trying to make a damn game work. If you were to give a bunch of PC games for free, I wouldn't even bother trying to install half or more of them.

 

[omarfw]

As long as you are paying less for the cpu that is locked compared to one with its full capabilities available at purchase time, what is wrong with that? If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you do, for a fee you can unlock a more powerful cpu instead of a whole new one and then have to go thru the process of removing the heatsink etc and swapping out a newer cpu which most likely would cost way more than the fee would.

Ultimately its up to the consumer if they want to go this route.

the problem I have with this despite there being a few upsides is that they are going to start charging the same price you would find for a modern cpu but with locked capabilities that you will have to pay even more to unlock.

this is just a way for them to charge more money for the products.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

the problem I have with this despite there being a few upsides is that they are going to start charging the same price you would find for a modern cpu but with locked capabilities that you will have to pay even more to unlock.

this is just a way for them to charge more money for the products.

Yes, that would be a problem if they did that, but most likely the prices may push some people over to AMD.

 

[omarfw]

Yes, that would be a problem if they did that, but most likely the prices may push some people over to AMD.

we can only hope amd stays respectable