Intel has announced another round of software upgrades for a range of its chips, with the processor manufacturer boasting performance increases of up to 23%.
The “Retail Upgrade Service” was trialled with one processor last year, and will now be available on selected Intel Core i3 and Pentium G processors, with consumers buying a scratch card with a pin number to unlock the additional powers with a software download.
It’s not the first time Intel has floated the concept, announcing a similar service for the Pentium G6951 late last year, but the latest announcement involves more chips in the range and is an indication that the company likes the ongoing revenue potential following last year’s trials.
According to the upgrade service page, three processors will be up for improvement – the i3-2312M, i3-2102 and Pentium G622 – with all three seeing an increase in processor frequency, and the i3-2312M also getting additional caching capacity.
Intel said the i3-2312M (with 2.1GHz and 3MB cache) would be upgraded to a 2.5GHz, 4MB-cache processor called the i3-2393M, with a performance improvement of 10%-19%.
The i3-2102 will move from 3.1GHz to 3.6Ghz for a 12-15% performance hike, while the Pentium G622 sees the biggest tune-up, with a move from 2.6GHz to 3.2GHz touting performance increases of 15-23%.
However, prices have yet to be announced. Last year, when the idea was launched, the upgrade to the G6951 cost $50 and delivered Hyper-Threading and 1MB more L3 cache.
We’ve contacted Intel to find out if the upgrades will be available in the UK, but have yet to hear back.
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