Intel’s New Arc GPUs Won't Restrict Crypto Mining

Intel will not follow NVIDIA in limiting crypto mining through its GPUs, despite the stock shortages attributed to mining.

Speaking to Gadgets 360 earlier this week, Roger Chandler, VP and GM of Client Graphics Products and Solutions, confirmed its Alchemist family of GPUs will include any software limiting their hash rates.

While Intel wants to target the high-end PC gaming market with its Intel Arc GPU, Chandler said restricting mining is “not a priority for us.”

Intel GPU's Mining Potential

“We are designing Intel Arc and the Alchemist family of products as gamer-first and creator-first,” he said.

“As 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.”

The Intel Arc GPU, set to launch in Q1 2022, may target a clock speed of 2200-2300 MHz and memory speed of up to 16 GB/s (via Tom’s Hardware). TechRadar compared the Arc GPU to the RTX 3070, which has a hash rate of around 60 MH/s.

By the time Intel releases its GPU, Ethereum may no longer require mining – especially if component shortages delay its release. The Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, which switches the blockchain over to proof-of-stake, replaces mining with Ethereum staking. ETH 2.0 is currently slated for an early 2022 launch, too.

In February 2021, NVIDIA announced it would restrict the hash rate of its new GeForce RTX 3060 GPU by 50%. “GeForce is Made for Gaming,” said its blog post. These Lite Hash Rate (LHR) limits have fallen victim to several bypasses since their launch.

NVIDIA has since added limits to its other new RTX 30 Series GPUs. Intel’s other competitor, AMD, has not implemented mining limits on its Radeon GPUs.

Read More: How Powerful Will The NVIDIA RTX 40 Series GPUs Be For Crypto Mining?