Tuesday, October 12th 2021
![Intel ARC](https://tpucdn.com/images/news/intelarc-v1721205152158.png)
Intel Confirms that Arc Graphics Will Not Feature Cryptocurrency Mining Lock
Intel's VP and GM of Client Graphics Products and Solutions Roger Chandler has recently confirmed in an interview with Gadgets 360 that the companies upcoming Arc Alchemist desktop graphics cards will not ship with any software or hardware cryptocurrency mining inhibitors. Roger Chandler didn't rule out the possibility of Intel implementing such a lock in the future simply stating that it is not a priority for the company. Intel SVP and GM of Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Raja Koduri also noted that they cannot guarantee sufficient supply will be available to meet consumer demand. These graphics cards are not expected to be released until Q2 2022 with mobile versions coming earlier in Q1 so we cannot be sure how they will affect availability and pricing for the general GPU market. The full interview which also covers reference board designs, workstation products, and XeSS super-resolution technology can be found at the link below.
Source:
Gadgets 360
Roger ChandlerAs far as like software lockouts and things of that nature, we're not designing this product or building any features at this point that specifically target miners. As far as actions we're taking to avoid or lock them out, it's a product that will be in the market and people will be able to buy it. It's not a priority for us.
40 Comments on Intel Confirms that Arc Graphics Will Not Feature Cryptocurrency Mining Lock
Intel's been talking about things Xe/Arc will do for five years now and almost everything they have ever said has become irrelevant because the card never came to market during the lifecycle of those things/topics. I remember Intel promising competitive framerates and solid drivers for their DG2 card ready for Destiny 2's launch in 2017, followed by imminent Xe DG2 launch hype at E3 the following January. That game came and went and all of the hype Intel spun for that was meaningless because we didn't get DG2 then and we still don't have a DG2 today. People have mostly moved on from playing Destiny 2 at this point, and games cycles have moved on half a dozen times since then!
Until there's a released-to-retail dGPU from Intel that normal people can buy, Intel needs to shut the f*ck up and get on with releasing the damn thing, otherwise they're just doing what they've always done. At the moment, despite all the hype, Xe/Arc is still pretty close in product lifecycle to where Larabree was when it was cancelled 20+ years ago.
I doubt Xe/Arc will be cancelled at this point because IGPs are more relevant now than ever, and their graphics tech was built to be scaled up to larger products but the DG1 card launch to select OEMs only with minimal compatibiliy outside niche prebuilts and video encoding builds doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Intel producing a real GPU competitor against AMD or Nvidia.
LHR only stops ETH mining, but LHR cards can mine at 70% of full speed and there is nothing to stop miners from mining other coins. The current mining default for an LHR card is to split mine 70% Etherium and 30% Ravencoin or ERGO.
Miners will pay a small premium for non-LHR cards but as you can get 90% or more of the mining revenue from LHR as you can from an older (discontinued) pre-LHR card, it's practically a non-issue now that only comes up when troubleshooting rigs for new miners who don't know why their card is 30% short on ETH hashrates.
If they launched this now they would gain massive gaming share in the market at a good price. I see this is as a massive missed opportunity!
and Nvidia is making dedicated mining cards which are build on / by the same fabs that make all the other stuff so they also take their chunk of the pie.
and those dedicated mining cards will be e-waste....
but ermm you believe whatever you want to I guess.
Yeah this was as obvious as the nose on your face intel would pimp to miners lol
Why not amd did to but amd sux at mining from what I've read and it's obvious to from amd availability in stores they just aren't selling.
:cry:
This is madman speak.