Intel Arc scavenger hunt prizes suggest the graphics cards will be expensive at launch

[midian182]

In brief: Intel's scavenger hunt competition that offered Arc Alchemist desktop graphics cards as prizes (when they arrive) has finished, with the 200 winners now being notified. Interestingly, this has given us an idea of what the GPUs will cost when they land.

Intel launched its Xe HPG (the name Arc was going by back then) Scavenger Hunt on March 26 to gain more publicity and interest for its Alchemist graphics cards. It began with a video posted on Twitter containing some hidden codes that pointed to an Intel website and went from there.

The hunt has now finished. Rock Paper Shotgun reports that Intel sent out confirmation messages to the 200 winners informing them of their prizes and the bundle's approximate retail value (ARV), which means we can work out roughly how much Intel's desktop cards will cost at launch.

Twitter user La Frite David posted a screenshot of his message confirming a bundle with an ARV of $700. It contains a "performance" Intel Arc graphics card, merchandise, and three months of Xbox Game Pass for PC. Taking off the $45 it costs for three months of Ultimate-tier Game Pass leaves $655. Exactly how much the merchandise is worth is unclear, but we can expect the final price of the card to be somewhere between $600 and $640.

yea pic.twitter.com/ikl0WN8pnU

— La Frite David 🇫🇷 (@davideneco25320) April 28, 2022

Another winner, @Malcore, also posted a shot of their win. The card in this case is listed as a "Premium" Arc GPU, and it ships with merchandise and six months of Game Pass for PC Ultimate. The bundle ARV is $900, meaning the card will likely be around $750 to $800.

That's quite a high figure for the Premium-tier Arc card. A quick look on Newegg shows the cheapest RTX 3080 is $869. That's not far off Intel's product, and few expect the two to offer similar levels of performance—the Arc is likely to be closer to the RTX 3070 or 3070 Ti. There are also the upcoming Nvidia RTX 4000-series (Lovelace) and AMD RDNA 3 cards to consider. But GPU prices are falling, so the final Arc pricing could be a surprise; time will tell whether it's a good or bad one.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/94459-intel-arc-scavenger-hunt-prizes-suggest-graphics-cards.html

 

[hahahanoobs]

So the reveal was correct.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-arc-giveaway-reveals-approximate-graphics-card-pricing

A lot can change in 6+ months. I don't see Intel charging $800 for $600 performance.

 

[Kosmoz]

This news is BS!

If anything this is reverse psychology by intel so when then come to the market with half the price people buy more.

 

[trparky]

So let me get this straight, Intel is going to charge people top dollar for something that hasn’t even been tested in the gaming market. Sure Intel. Keep dreaming.

 

[The Tech Gen]

Hard for the GPU to be expensive if it never launches

 

[The Tech Gen]

So the reveal was correct.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-arc-giveaway-reveals-approximate-graphics-card-pricing

A lot can change in 6+ months. I don't see Intel charging $800 for $600 performance.

I can,,, because Intel has to go to an outside source for the chip. TSMC. There is almost no doubt that TSMC charged Intel a premium, for one they are not a regular customer and won't be a long term customer. Add in the fact that at the time Intel purchased these chips late, which means they paid a higher price than Apple, Nvidia and AMD who buy the chips years in advance.

I highly doubt Intel is eating the cost of these GPUs they are going to pass the buck.

 

[hahahanoobs]

I can,,, because Intel has to go to an outside source for the chip. TSMC. There is almost no doubt that TSMC charged Intel a premium, for one they are not a regular customer and won't be a long term customer. Add in the fact that at the time Intel purchased these chips late, which means they paid a higher price than Apple, Nvidia and AMD who buy the chips years in advance.

I highly doubt Intel is eating the cost of these GPUs they are going to pass the buck.

I'd have to see your source material, because none of that is triggering anything with me.

 

[torchyear]

I think Intel have well and truly missed the optimum launch window that opened in Nov-Dec 2021, when the market was extremely hungry for _anything_. They've now lost momentum for any compelling reason to even consider their 1st-gen offering (I was one of those cautiously optimistic people - until now). Access to team red & green's 3rd gen has returned, and 4th gen is around the corner.

The RX6500 and RTX3050 were incredibly cynical releases, but at least AMD and Nvidia got their timing right.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Well if Intel are really that stupid it'll be a bloodbath for them. But Intel has never done cheap hardware, they always charge a premium.

 

[GoldenGoat]

Intel is going to need to price very competitively if they want people to give them a chance. most of the people I know won't even consider anything that's not nvidia now matter what. at the same price, people are going to stay with what they know. there needs to be an incentive to try something new.

 

[HardReset]

I'd have to see your source material, because none of that is triggering anything with me.

Now let's see:

- Intel is TSMC's direct competitor
- TSMC has much better manufacturing tech currently
- Intel is not buying much, unlike AMD and others
- Intel will stop buying after they have own better processes working
- Chip shortage exists

And now you ask source for claim that TSMC charges Intel a lot? How about figuring at least single reason why TSMC would Not charge Intel much?

 

[Watzupken]

I think we need to wait for Intel to reveal the prices of their respective GPUs. Intel should know that the current market is actually working against them, or rather, they have missed the boat to sell GPUs at an inflated price. So while they can price whatever they want, at worst they will just have a bunch of cards that they may have to write off at some point.