author: Arkadiusz Dziermanski
Is Intel Afraid of AMD?
Intel internal materials leaked to Reddit. They show that the processor manufacturer takes the threat from competitive AMD very seriously. The company's employees themselves spoke out on this matter.
Table of Contents
- Is Intel Afraid of AMD?
- Are Intel processors better than AMD?
- Intel Core or AMD Ryzen? The choice is not simple
Intel Core or AMD Ryzen? The choice is not simple
Intel knows that the growing competition from AMD is a genuine challenge. Which is good for us, the customers, because it takes us further away from a monopoly. And it's not just the case with processors. If the company becomes complacent and stops innovation, consumers are no longer interested in its products. This is clearly evident on the example of Apple and the decline in sales of iPhones. Intel is aware of the increasingly strong competition and will certainly do everything it can to maintain its position.
While it has been a number of years since we've faced a similar competitive environment (in the early 2000s with 1 GHz barrier, integrated memory controller, 64-bit, and so on) Intel has risen to every situation and almost always emerged better and stronger. ( ... ) Beyond product execution, we need to lean on our software expertise and strength and amplify our software differentiation - now more than ever. Finally, in competitive times, overall marketing, ensuring our customers understand our differentiated value proposition, along with customer obsession, are critical. Now more than ever, we need to lean into our sales and marketing teams to help carry us through these product challenges. – Summarizes Steve Collins.
The employees, however, think otherwise
Remarks of people working for Intel also appeared under the memo. From their statements, we know that not everyone agrees with the company's vision.
The original statements of the employees cited here have been since removed. Thus please bear in mind this is merely a paraphrase of their comments.
There is no recent evidence that would put us in a better position against AMD. We have more programmers? That doesn't convince me. Technology portfolio? Same story, especially considering that AMD has much more experience, for example, in gaming. AMD is going hard. They're constantly releasing new products, while having less manpower. They have a competitive product with significantly more cores and threads, which is a huge marketing advantage. This is what our customers are asking for. There is no excuse why we didn't do the same, and now we're struggling to catch up at a time when we exhaust our talent, and at the same time really feel the aftermath of the last 5-8 years and the decisions of our management. – one of the employees wrote in the comments as John.
It Seems to me that selling validation of products and security will be a hassle compared to AMD, given the number of flaws we've discovered in recent years – another employee, Ben, wrote.
I watched the microprocessor industry for years before joining Intel. As AMD demonstrated Ryzen processors, we had the advantage in single-stream performance and in games thanks to better IPC and higher clock speeds. Along with the new generation of Ryzen, it seems that (at least according to the AMD benchmark) they have largely bridged this gap and gained an advantage in multi-threaded operations. The AMD product is more popular among DIY users, but we still had the upper hand in games. If AMD's claim about the performance of their processors is real, we look bad, even from this angle. Tech influencers already recommend AMD processors instead of ours for people who expect high performance in games. If we lose that, our image will suffer. – Nizar commented.
In responses to the above remark, other Intel employees agree with Nizar's opinion. At the same time, Intel has been frequently ridiculed by Reddit memes, and an increasing number of people recommend AMD processors as the best choice in the price-to-performance category.
Looking at the comments of Intel employees allows to assume with large probability that the company is facing a big problem and should really start looking for solutions. I mean, leaders and representatives of the Blue camp can't openly say, even on their own forums, that "the competition is a lot better – we either up the game or perish" – but the tension in the company is great, and it was clearly evident at all levels.
We hope that the situation will promote innovation and motivate Intel to further strive to improve their offer and deliver better products – which will benefit the customers.
