An Intel contest to advertise the corporate’s Arc graphics playing cards additionally hints at pricing for 2 of the desktop GPU fashions.
The corporate plans on giving freely 300 Arc graphics playing cards by way of the “Xe HPG scavenger hunt,” which kicks off on Oct 27. Curiously, the principles for the competition additionally point out the whole retail worth of the prizes, as observed by a person on Reddit.
The highest prize, valued at $900, features a “Premium Intel Arc graphics card,” some firm merchandise, and six months of Xbox Recreation Move for the PC. In the meantime, the second prize affords up a “Efficiency Intel Arc graphics card,” firm swag, and a three-month membership to Xbox Recreation Move for the PC for a complete worth of $700.
It’s not clear what merchandise Intel will supply up. However we do know an Xbox Recreation Move Final membership prices $44.99 for 3 months and $89.99 for a six-month subscription, in accordance with the Microsoft Retailer.
So for those who assume the Intel swag is a T-shirt and a water bottle price round $50, then it’s not laborious to estimate the value for every GPU mannequin. The Premium Intel Arc mannequin ought to are available in at round $760 whereas the Efficiency mannequin probably has value shut to $600.
These prices would put the playing cards on the higher-end of the spectrum. In distinction, AMD’s 6800 XT card begins at $649 whereas Nvidia’s RTX 3080 can go for $699 and up, though the chip scarcity, rising logistics prices, and Trump-era tariffs have induced GPU costs to inflate over the previous 12 months.
Nonetheless, if Intel offers extra firm swag than anticipated, then the pricing for the playing cards will drop down even additional, placing them nearer in line to Nvidia’s RTX 3070 card and AMD’s 6700 XT, which have a $499 and $479 beginning value, respectively.
The opposite curious a part of the competition is the way it runs till April 29, 2022. Intel has stated it plans to launch the Arc graphics card throughout subsequent 12 months’s Q1. However the scope of the launch—will it embrace each desktop graphics playing cards and laptop computer GPUs?—is unknown.
Within the meantime, the corporate plans on giving 100 customers the grand prize and 200 different individuals the second prize. The scavenger hunt includes answering 10 questions in the course of the ensuing weeks to earn factors; these with probably the most factors get the highest prizes. To reply the questions, the chip maker plans on posting clues on Twitter from Intel executives.
“Acquiring a registered Twitter account will not be required, all Tweets shall be made on accounts seen with out signing into Twitter,” the competition guidelines say. In case you’re the primary one to reply a query, you may earn a max of 5,000 factors. Intel is opening up the competition to customers primarily based within the US and elements of Europe and Asia.