Intel confirms that Arc graphics cards will not be blocked for cryptocurrency mining

During a recent interview, Raja Koduri, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Graphics and Accelerated Computing Systems division, and Roger Chandler, Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Graphics Customer Products and Solutions division, were talking about future Arc Alchemist graphics cards from the blue company, revealing new details about their availability, custom models, and the implementation of locks for cryptocurrencies similar to Nvidia’s LHR system.

Arc Alchemist GPUs will not have mining locks

One of the most important topics mentioned during the interview was the implementation of locks for mining, such as that of Nvidia with its LHR GPUs. This was Intel’s response when asked about this issue:

Roger Chandler: This is a difficult question to answer, but what I will say is that we are designing the Intel Arc and the Alchemist family of products as players-first and creators-first. All the optimizations, the features, everything that we’re doing is really to make sure that we can solve problems and deliver value to players and creators. As for software locks and things of that nature, we are not designing this product or building any features that specifically target miners. As for the actions we are taking to avoid it or leave it out, it is a product that will be on the market and people will be able to buy. It is not a priority for us.

Raja Koduri: We are not doing any additional work, yes.

In this way, Intel will not take any specific measures to prevent miners from acquiring their cards, it will let the market regulate itself instead of imposing restrictions, a view similar to the one that AMD took.

Intel is not sure if it will have enough stock to cover the demand, since it is a problem that affects all companies

When asked about the Arc Alchemist stock on the day of its release, Raja Koduri replied as follows:

Raja Koduri: The response to our announcements on Architecture Day from our OEM buyers and end users has been phenomenal. Everyone is welcoming us, and this is great news. We will be entering as the third player. I will always be careful, when the demand is so high and when the market is so difficult. We can always take advantage of a greater offer. So I will not say that we will have enough supply for this high demand market. I think each of my competitors would give you the same answer right now.

Basically, Raja ensures that although the stock may be large, it will never be enough in current market conditions, since all stock that enters is sold either a lot or a little. In this way, it is impossible to have enough stock no matter how many graphics you have.

We invite you to read the full interview

Obviously we do not want to remove the entire interview from Gadgets360, so we invite you to read it on their website by clicking here. There is more information about custom models, availability in pre-assembled PCs, technologies available in computers with Intel CPUs and GPUs, and also about XeSS, the AI ​​rescaling technology of the blues, so we recommend reading the entire interview.

What do you think about these statements from Intel? Are you looking forward to the arrival of your Arc Alchemist GPUs?