Intel shoots itself in the foot: lowers the price of its graphics cards in the US but not in Europe
Honestly, there is nothing more infuriating than seeing a drop in the price of a product from which in a part of the world we cannot benefit. The last? Intel’s ARC A750 price cut announcement, which can only be enjoyed by Americans. Is Intel missing a golden opportunity to make itself known? We believe so and we are going to argue.
The PC gaming market depends on users having access to hardware at reasonable prices. NVIDIA’s monopoly, with more than 80% of the market, has brought with it prices above what the average user is willing to pay. That is why new entrants to the pie like Intel are always welcome.
Intel ARC A750 price drop? No, rather not.
In the last few hours, you may have seen the news all over the internet that Intel has lowered the price of its Intel ARC A750 graphics card with 8 GB of memory to US$249. However, there is no mention by the blue brand of the same movement for the European market.
The reason? Although we can find it in some online stores, Pat Gelsinger’s have never officially launched this model for the old continent, instead we have to settle for a covert import.
- On Amazon, the ARC A750 is for €380 and, therefore, one hundred European currency units above what it should cost due to the recent price reduction.
- Yes, we look at PCComponentes the price is more or less the same.
Now, you may wonder what really bothers us. Well, Intel’s lack of vision, if the ARC A750 were below 300 euros in Europe, it would be one of the best options to mount on a PC to play for its price. The problem is that we cannot find said graphics card in our country for that price, making it not a viable option for many and, therefore, a missed opportunity for Intel to be considered, at least in Europe, as a viable option at NVIDIA and AMD.
In the event of the price drop for Europe, it is most likely that we would have seen Intel’s ARC A750 for a price of 280 Euros, which would make it a better option than NVIDIA’s RTX 3050. Hence, we consider it a missed opportunity.
Why Intel’s Limited GPU Distribution?
More than anything, we are surprised that from Intel’s gaming graphics chip division they are making a titanic effort to correct the errors accumulated during the launch. The next step will be the graphic driver that will greatly improve performance in old games, based on DX9 and DX 10, apart from increasing the compatibility of ARC Alchemist with the huge catalog of titles for PC. Although they had a failed launch, the fact that they have been saved from the sword of Damocles that has recently disintegrated some divisions of the company.
So, contrary to what certain competitive zealots say, the closure of the division doesn’t seem to be something that is planned in the near future. However, the big problem they have is the fact that they ended up with a much larger chip than they should have when we take into account its specifications, manufacturing node and performance. This means a much higher cost for Intel, which must force the sale of its ARC Alchemist at a price well below the planned price, along with limited distribution.
In other words, in the United States Intel is selling its gaming graphics cards at a loss in order to gain market share and we all know that you can lose money up to a point. what
The next logical step?
A move like the one AMD made in the mid-2000s with the R600, with a better-made version of the chip, using fewer transistors and smaller size.
The strategy? Waiting for NVIDIA to place its RTX 4060 well above the price of the current generation and thus continue the trend started by the RTX 40. At which point the ARC Alchemist 2.0 may have a place in the market, although we hope this time that the Let’s see with an official launch in Europe and with many better drivers than in the output of a few months ago. The important thing is the effort and when things are done well, consumers forget the old setbacks and more so in a market as dynamic as this one.
