Intel encourages you to compromise on older i7s with the "Game Without Compromise" bundle

[Misanthrope]

Intel starts their "Game Without Compromise" bundle for older K-series i7 CPUs

 

So it seems that intel is more than aware that they might not be able to resolve their coffee lake supply issues as quickly as the demand for them on hand. Their solution however seems rather peculiar to say the last: They're offering gaming bundles on the 7700k and 6700k SKUs now:

 

Quote

For a limited time, Intel is offering PC builders the opportunity to get two free games with i7 6700K and i7 7700K CPUs at select retailers. These two games include the recently released Total War: Warhammer II from Creative Assembly and the soon to be released Assassin's Creed: Origins from Ubisoft.

  
Sadly this promotion does not apply to Coffee Lake series CPUs, though it does mean that existing 100-series and 200-series motherboard owners can get a little more value out of their CPU upgrades while stocks last. 

This bundle applies to both complete systems and individual CPUs depending on the retailer, though sadly neither of these CPUs have received a price decrease in the wake of Coffee Lake's release, which undermines the value proposition of this bundle somewhat given the increase in raw CPU performance that Coffee Lake offers. 

 

In the case of complete pre-built systems I can concede that is a good offering to make those rigs more attractive since many of the system builders might be unable to completely replace their stock of machines to coffee lake in time for this holiday season so if you're asking people to buy an outdated chip at a price premium the least you can do is offer a couple of decent AAA games. For people buying pre-built rigs this might not even be that much of an outdated chip since this machines should still perform reasonably well for gaming and such.

 

But for everybody else, I don't think 2 titles make up for 2 missing cores: You're asking people basically not to just wait for coffee lake availability but to buy into a dead-end platform with a chip that we know it's already severely outpaced by the new chips on all non-gaming scenarios and even select gaming ones (Mostly Civ 6 though but you get the point). If you don't care about productivity at all, if you foresee upgrading within 2 or 3 years anyway or if you don't want a full platform upgrade and were waiting for a chance to up from an i5 chip then by all means this is good news.

 

Source: https://www.overclock3d.net/news/cpu_mainboard/intel_starts_their_game_without_compromise_bundle_for_older_k-series_i7_cpus/1

[PCGuy_5960]

Instead of trying to sell more 7700Ks and 6700Ks, they should improve Coffeelake availability.

[goodtofufriday]

Those two games are hardly worth building a new system for. 

[TidaLWaveZ]

Deals to try and sell older models, can't say I've heard of that one before. Must be specifically because of Coffee Lake.

 

... everyone's talking about Coffee Lake. Coffee Lake, Coffee Lake, COFFEE LAKE!

 

Intel

[Jurrunio]

How about to those who already owned the first game?

 

I'd rather see price cuts to 8350k level, then these 2 chips are worth thinking about.

[Misanthrope]

On a related note if you really want free Asscreed Origins just pick up a new GPU or Asus monitor (choice of Freesync or Gsync) instead:

 

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/gpu_displays/for_a_limited_time_select_rog_gpus_and_displays_will_come_with_assassin_s_creed_origins/1

 

Quote

For a limited time select ROG GPUs and displays will come with Assassin's Creed Origins

 

ASUS has recently unleashed a new GPU/monitor bundle that allows those who purchase select GPUs and displays at certain retailers to get a free copy of Assassin's Creed Origins when it released later this month. 

This applies to the following products, though please note that this bundle does stack with Nvidia's "Forge your Army" bundle for Middle Earth: Shadow of War when applied to applicable products. 

 

GPUs
 

- ROG Poseidon GTX 1080Ti P11G
- ROG GTX 1080Ti 011G
- ROG GTX 1080Ti 11G
- ROG Strix GTX 1080 O8G 11GBPS
- ROG Strix GTX 1080 A8G 11GBPS
- ROG Strix GTX 1080 A8G GAMING
- ROG Strix GTX 1080 8G GAMING
- ROG Strix GTX 1070 O8G
- ROG Strix GTX 1070 8G
- ROG Strix GTX 1060 O6G

Displays  

• - ROG Swift PG348Q (G-Sync)
• - ROG Swift PG279Q (G-Sync)
• - ROG Swift PG278QR (G-Sync)
• - MG279Q (FreeSync)
• - MG278Q (FreeSync)

 

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

Instead of trying to sell more 7700Ks and 6700Ks, they should improve Coffeelake availability.

Easier said than done

[Dylanc1500]

11 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

Deals to try and sell older models, can't say I've heard of that one before. Must be specifically because of Coffee Lake.

 

... everyone's talking about Coffee Lake. Coffee Lake, Coffee Lake, COFFEE LAKE!

 

Intel

Now THAT ^ is the game they should be including. They would sell out in no time. You are absolutely right though, it was enough of a taste to get people to wait for stock to arrive, and talk it up in the mean time.

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, FTL said:

Easier said than done

Well that's the thing: it's been like 5 years since Intel didn't have to plan release schedules to react to competitors since only their own older products were feasible. 

 

Now that AMD is not on a corner eating glue anymore (Well, for CPUs anyway) People might see that Intel isn't immune to launch woes and that they might even worsen on that regard. 

[pat182]

my new rare 8700k built

 

 

[TVwazhere]

19 minutes ago, pat182 said:

my new rare 8700k built

-sni-

*gasp* HOWD YOU GET ONE OF THOSE??? (Nice build though, the P3 is a good open design case)

[sof006]

Id rather have a CPU that doesn't melt a hole in my wallet AND my motherboard

[pat182]

22 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

*gasp* HOWD YOU GET ONE OF THOSE??? (Nice build though, the P3 is a good open design case)

did the queue at my local store !

[Eduard the weeb]

this kinda sucks because people how have been wanting push back from Intel are going to have to wait feel really bad for someone how wants to build a RX Vega 64 and coffee lake build due to neither being readily available.  

[PlayStation 2]

Guess people don't understand how when you rush a product to the market that actually functions as it should, you wind up with shortages.

"Oh no, I can't upgrade my 6700K to an 8700K because they have none in stock!"

[Ganz]

Honestly, Intel has really been going downhill for me.  Haven't been a fan of their business practices for quite some time, but still had to buy them because there really wasn't alternatives at the time.  

 

Promoting their older SKUs trying to get people to buy all their leftover stock in the wake of shortages on their latest product is downright stupid to me.  They should instead incentivize waiting for the 8700k.  I've seen plenty of posts already that people are saying just get a 1700/x/1800x because the 8700k is impossible to find and is more pricey.  

[mynameisjuan]

2 minutes ago, Ganz said:

Promoting their older SKUs trying to get people to buy all their leftover stock in the wake of shortages on their latest product is downright stupid to me

So you are saying trying to sell a pile of CPUs that cost money to make that holds up more than fine in games and then selling them under gaming bundles is stupid for business....but you say they should not try to sell anything until their stock is back up for the 8700k? You are not a fan of their business practices but your suggestion is for a business to say dont buy our stuff...wait a bit...while literally throwing money down the drain. Sounds legit.

[Misanthrope]

9 minutes ago, Ganz said:

Honestly, Intel has really been going downhill for me.  Haven't been a fan of their business practices for quite some time, but still had to buy them because there really wasn't alternatives at the time.  

 

Promoting their older SKUs trying to get people to buy all their leftover stock in the wake of shortages on their latest product is downright stupid to me.  They should instead incentivize waiting for the 8700k.  I've seen plenty of posts already that people are saying just get a 1700/x/1800x because the 8700k is impossible to find and is more pricey.  

I'm not against them moving their old stuck but this is a case in which they could take a page out of AMD's book: Rebrand the chips instead making it an "i4" for example (not 6 core like i5 but with hyperthreading beating the i3s) and release them at lower prices. Sure you won't make as much money as with this promotion (assuming it works) but you wouldn't be forcing a rather high price for an outdated product.

[Ganz]

4 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

So you are saying trying to sell a pile of CPUs that cost money to make that holds up more than fine in games and then selling them under gaming bundles is stupid for business....but you say they should not try to sell anything until their stock is back up for the 8700k? You are not a fan of their business practices but your suggestion is for a business to say dont buy our stuff...wait a bit...while literally throwing money down the drain. Sounds legit.

It's not stupid for business, never said it was.  But it's also not healthy for the consumer.  It's funny how those two often go hand-in-hand.  It's extremely difficult if not impossible to find the perfect balance between good for business vs good for consumer.  You want consumers to keep coming coming back yes?  Putting them on a dead end platform will in theory make them upgrade sooner thus spending more money.  Which again is amazing for business, but bad for the consumer.  Business practices I don't like doesn't mean bad for business.

Just now, Misanthrope said:

I'm not against them moving their old stuck but this is a case in which they could take a page out of AMD's book: Rebrand the chips instead making it an "i4" for example (not 6 core like i5 but with hyperthreading beating the i3s) and release them at lower prices. Sure you won't make as much money as with this promotion (assuming it works) but you wouldn't be forcing a rather high price for an outdated product.

That's actually a much better idea IF they could make them work on current motherboards.  

 

[Misanthrope]

3 minutes ago, Ganz said:

That's actually a much better idea IF they could make them work on current motherboards.  

Technical reasons were provided afaik to explain away backwards compatibility but forwards compatibility should still be on the table imo. I mean they obviously have 4/8 chips they want to move  and they still covered the coffee lake mobo sales with no backwards compatibility.

 

Specially right now where people otherwise could buy Z370 boards and just use their current 4/8 i7s as placeholders to wait out the supply issues. It seems like there's many situations to actually not shoot yourself in the foot by killing platforms prematurely.

[mynameisjuan]

12 minutes ago, Ganz said:

 Putting them on a dead end platform will in theory make them upgrade sooner thus spending more money.  Which again is amazing for business, but bad for the consumer.  Business practices I don't like doesn't mean bad for business. 

 

That's actually a much better idea IF they could make them work on current motherboards.  

 

Again as if a 7700k is a dead end platform. People buying a 7700k today wont upgrade for 3-4 years which a new mobo would be needed anyway, even if gone AMD. There is nothing wrong about selling a 6700/7700k with two games for savings when its still a amazing processor that will last years from now. 

 

Also like I called before they released the info, there are new pins for power delivery to the chips that dont exist on z170/270

[Misanthrope]

22 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Again as if a 7700k is a dead end platform. People buying a 7700k today wont upgrade for 3-4 years which a new mobo would be needed anyway, even if gone AMD. There is nothing wrong about selling a 6700/7700k with two games for savings when its still a amazing processor that will last years from now. 

 

Also like I called before they released the info, there are new pins for power delivery to the chips that dont exist on z170/270

It is without a significant price reduction once the 8700k is officially out (even if it was mostly a paper launch)

 

There's plenty wrong to sell such an inferior product at such a high price. Even if the platforms are incompatible. Not only that but I covered most of your exceptions myself already:

 

3 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

In the case of complete pre-built systems I can concede that is a good offering to make those rigs more attractive since many of the system builders might be unable to completely replace their stock of machines to coffee lake in time for this holiday season so if you're asking people to buy an outdated chip at a price premium the least you can do is offer a couple of decent AAA games. For people buying pre-built rigs this might not even be that much of an outdated chip since this machines should still perform reasonably well for gaming and such.

[...]If you don't care about productivity at all, if you foresee upgrading within 2 or 3 years anyway or if you don't want a full platform upgrade and were waiting for a chance to up from an i5 chip then by all means this is good news.

 

[pas008]

seems like everyone needs to cry now days

 

gets old quick

 

they are selling older stock with games big deal to get rid of it

its not like they perform any worse now lol

 

 

[WereCat]

3 hours ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

Instead of trying to sell more 7700Ks and 6700Ks, they should improve Coffeelake availability.

-A- "We need to stop AMD from selling Ryzen, release Coffee Lake now!"

-B- "But sir...! It's not ready, we just barely started production!"

-A- "Don't question my decisions, just do it noaaaw!"

 

few days later

 

-A- "What is this?! The sales of our Kaby Lake CPUs stopped almost completely!"

-B- "Sir, it's because everyone has ordered Coffee Lake and now is waiting for delivery, but we already sent most of our stock just to reviewers, we won't see any profit for several months. Should we encourage price drops on Kaby Lake?"

-A- "Nah, just bundle some games with it or something..."

[cj09beira]

41 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Again as if a 7700k is a dead end platform. People buying a 7700k today wont upgrade for 3-4 years which a new mobo would be needed anyway, even if gone AMD. There is nothing wrong about selling a 6700/7700k with two games for savings when its still a amazing processor that will last years from now. 

 

Also like I called before they released the info, there are new pins for power delivery to the chips that dont exist on z170/270

if that person had gone amd, they would not be forced to buy a new board as they could just upgrade to ryzen 2, which will be compatible, and will have 50%+ improvement (because it will be 12 core)