Intel in suicide bid

Niall · Sep 21, 2010, 19:13:08

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11379089

How to reduce your share value in one easy announcement.

Do they seriously think people will be moronic enough to buy, say a 6ghz CPU and pay MORE to unlock it to say 7ghz when for a vastly reduced amount they can already get that with AMD? Absolutely astonishingly ill thought out idea.

P.S. I like my Daily Mail/The Sun headline

Lona · Sep 21, 2010, 19:18:04

You get what you pay for and AMD is a much cheaper chip.

Rik · Sep 21, 2010, 19:18:16

They think it, Niall. It probably came up at some brainstorming session on a wet Friday afternoon.

kinmel · Sep 21, 2010, 19:19:41

It gives a new challenge to the Warez community, it is hard to imagine why they think it won't be cracked.

pctech · Sep 21, 2010, 19:27:53

Already happens with Windows and a lot of routers such as Juniper and Cisco, a single firmware image is applied to the device during manufacture and the licence key dictates whether it provides firewall and intrusion detection/authentication alongwode routing.

Niall · Sep 21, 2010, 19:32:16

Quote from: Lona on Sep 21, 2010, 19:18:04
You get what you pay for and AMD is a much cheaper chip.

Only partially true. It is cheaper, but for value it is a much better chip. The hex core chip from AMD costs £170. The equivalent from Intel costs hundreds of pounds more and is not even close to matching the performance to price increase, .'. from a purely common sense point of view, AMD is better.

However if you're rolling in money then yes, Intel chips are the better option.

zappaDPJ · Sep 21, 2010, 19:57:19

Before I read the article I was going to dismiss it as nothing more than Intel cashing in on unlocking multiplier locked chips for over-clocking. Now I've read it I'm astonished. What an utterly stupid idea. And one well worthy of your thread title Niall

john · Sep 21, 2010, 20:21:12

Quote from: zappaDPJ on Sep 21, 2010, 19:57:19
Before I read the article I was going to dismiss it as nothing more than Intel cashing in on unlocking multiplier locked chips for over-clocking. Now I've read it I'm astonished. What an utterly stupid idea. And one well worthy of your thread title Niall

I couldn't agree more. I read this earlier today and my first thought was that AMD executives are probably laughing their socks off. There is no other reason for Intel to do this other than to screw more money out of people which wonn't go down particularly well.

Other than very keen gamers there are only a small number of people who would need the fastest and most powerful CPU available anyway. Also ancillary devices can have a more significant effect on performance and most people who only use their PC's for web browsing, watching videos and the odd office application are only using a fraction of the CPU's capability for much of the time.

DorsetBoy · Sep 21, 2010, 20:22:34

Quote from: Lona on Sep 21, 2010, 19:18:04
You get what you pay for and AMD is a much cheaper chip.

AMD is cheaper yes, but features, quality,reliability etc are great. I often build systems and always look for boards that use AMD processors , in my view AMD represent much better value for money.

Technical Ben · Sep 21, 2010, 20:45:02

Cannot wait for the new 6 cores from AMD... wonder if they have a few spares sitting around the chip...

My actual CPU is a 4 core. But it's one of the "seconds" so AMD released it as a 3 core. They had a load of 4 core chips come out with defects, so released them with the parts that still work. This is a common practice, but Intel only release them as 2 core (core duo ect). I wanted to be different, not having 2 or 4, but 3!

Some people have managed to unlock the fourth core, but at a very high risk of frying the whole thing. That, and there are no motherboards left in production that still allow you the tools to take such a risk.

It is a strange decision from Intel. Why not just give the customer the full power, at a lower price. Then everyone is happy. Not making the same profit as you would "locking" the speed down? So what!? I'd not be happy if someone handed me a spanner with a padlock on it, and a note on how to obtain "full use" after extra payments.

Niall · Sep 21, 2010, 20:51:22

Quote from: Technical Ben on Sep 21, 2010, 20:45:02
Cannot wait for the new 6 cores from AMD... wonder if they have a few spares sitting around the chip...

The hex cores are great. My sisters other half got one after I did a bit of reading up on a system build for him. They actually went from my old 4ghz single core to the hex core. Jesus christ, the speed increase is silly. The loading time is so much faster on a lot of programs he uses in comparison to my dual core system, it's well worth the money.

I just wish the SSD drives would hurry up and reduce in price as I'd like to get an upgrade at Christmas time, and as I'm not paying for it I'd like to reduce the price even more out of guilt!

pctech · Sep 21, 2010, 20:54:00

Not used an SSD drive based system yet but did read they use them for all of the servers on EVE online so performance must be good.

Niall · Sep 21, 2010, 21:55:21

There's a video on youtube somewhere of 24 being linked in RAID, loading all programs on an operating systems in less than a second

My mate installed Windows 7 in 15 minutes on one, and it took more than twice that on my SATA drive. It's going to be the case soon that the DVD drives are the bottleneck when installing!

Technical Ben · Sep 21, 2010, 22:48:35

Meh, if ram was not so expensive I get a ram drive.

Mind you, there are still people who swear Tape is the best way.

Gary · Sep 21, 2010, 23:32:51

If AMD can get heat and power down they may have a chance, but since the X2 4800 (my last AMD proc) days Intel have led the pack, my i5 dual core with hyper threading and turbo boost has nearly the same geekbench score as last years 2.6ghz i5 Quad. Turbo boost gives up to 3.86Ghz if needed but on a 32nm core running at 73 watts, Intel are ahead of the game on architecture, heat output and power useage, it would be nice to see AMD catch up but I don't see it yet.

Technical Ben · Sep 22, 2010, 08:53:01

Aparently the hex core throttles down to 800mhz when idling, and at no speed loss. So they might be catching up in efficiency.

Gary · Sep 22, 2010, 09:15:12

Quote from: Technical Ben on Sep 22, 2010, 08:53:01
Aparently the hex core throttles down to 800mhz when idling, and at no speed loss. So they might be catching up in efficiency.

That would be good to see, but Intel always see to have an ace up the sleeve, be good to see AMD back on top, even if briefly.

gizmo71 · Sep 22, 2010, 11:49:00

I can't believe anyone is surprised.

IBM have been doing it for years in the mainframe world; it's only the next logical step from speed binning.

pctech · Sep 22, 2010, 13:30:35

In the none too distant future I reckon most devices will have a single software image or hardware locks and you'll purchase the features you want and unlock them.

Gary · Sep 22, 2010, 13:31:36

Quote from: pctech on Sep 22, 2010, 13:30:35
In the none too distant future I reckon most devices will have a single software image or hardware locks and you'll purchase the features you want and unlock them.

Or hack them

Technical Ben · Sep 22, 2010, 14:57:41

Quote from: pctech on Sep 22, 2010, 13:30:35
In the none too distant future I reckon most devices will have a single software image or hardware locks and you'll purchase the features you want and unlock them.

Well, the next thing is, you'll be born, grow up, and at age 18 be given a mansion with 15 bedrooms and Porsche in the back yard. All locked and secured until you pay for the upgrade and sign the user agreement. Oh wait, that is the life of kids with celebrity parents!

Gary · Sep 22, 2010, 18:19:49

Quote from: Technical Ben on Sep 22, 2010, 14:57:41
Well, the next thing is, you'll be born, grow up, and at age 18 be given a mansion with 15 bedrooms and Porsche in the back yard. All locked and secured until you pay for the upgrade and sign the user agreement. Oh wait, that is the life of kids with celebrity parents!