Question Will Tiger Lake be Intel's Core2Duo of 2020?

[Hulk]

Edit! Big mistake in the 1st sentence! I've never owned an AMD PC, I originally wrote Intel! Sorry about that.

I should state right up front that I have never owned an AMD PC. All the way back to my IBM SX25 it's been Intel for me. But I have to say that Intel seems to have gotten themselves into quite a pickle. It feels like the P4 Netburst fiasco of the early 2000's, but I think is going to be a much tougher mountain to climb for Intel.

As we all know through the 80's and 90's AMD seemed to be more of an annoyance to Intel rather than an actual threat. It was only when Intel got caught with their pants down with Netburst did AMD present a serious challenge with the original Athlon. Luckily for Intel they had the brilliant Merom mobile core designed by the Israeli engineers and a huge process advantage.

In 2005 with the release of Core2Duo it all turned around for Intel. They had AMD handily beat on both frequency and IPC. And then they moved along quite nicely for a number of years with tick tock until the 14nm process. And AMD began to catch up.

From and "Intel guy" perspective AMD was struggling along. But they kept at it. And Intel seemed to stall. While this is anecdotal, I generally upgrade my CPU every 2 or 3 years. But I've been on Haswell for 7 years now. Until Coffee Lake there really hasn't been anything that seemed like a significant upgrade to me in the $400 price range.

Coffee Lake looks really good to me. Until I really started to research the new 3000 series Ryzen parts. I have to admit these parts are impressive. These are actual cores, not half cores, or weak in comparison to Intel.

I was considering a 9900k but you can get a basically equal Ryzen part for $200 less. AND you have an upgrade path to a 12 and then 16 core part. With the 9900k it's the end of the line.

From an architectural point of view I think it's fair to say Intel has been caught (at least). They are offering better value and better performing chips.

So can Intel pull a rabbit out of the hat? Unless Tiger Lake is to Ryzen is what Core2Duo was to the Athlon I think Intel is going to have some rough times ahead. To pull off what they did in 2005 they will have to clearly surpass Ryzen in IPC, and beat them in frequency and efficiency and core count. And on top of all that they need to do it as competitive price points.

The way Intel has been plodding along IPC-wise and struggling with process it seems like they have a big mountain to climb.

Me, I'm going to wait to see what happens with Tiger Lake before I buy a new system. But AMD is really on a roll. Gotta love it. The CPU Wars are on!

 

[Atari2600]

AMD's Core 2 moment isn't some particular Zen arch, it's their execution. For the first time in history Intel is chasing a fast moving target.

On both architecture and process.

 

[coercitiv]

On both architecture and process.

On process the target is moving fast indeed, but I'll believe Intel is chasing them when they turn up on the horizon. /s

[EDIT] on a more serious note, Yes - both arch and process were implied.

 

[Arx Allemand]

Conroe was when I switched from AMD (FX60) to Core2Duo then Core2Quad in late 2006. Those G0 Q6600s were amazing pieces some doing 3.6GHz at stock voltage bouncing off 100C with stock cooler in coretemp when running Prime95 never missing a beat.

Running such a program on 3990X will dim the lights like a four slice toaster and in the summer if the AC is on, Cinebench runs may throw a breaker if the box isn't on a dedicated 20A line! Lovely times, isn't it?

 

[Markfw]

Conroe was when I switched from AMD (FX60) to Core2Duo then Core2Quad in late 2006. Those G0 Q6600s were amazing pieces some doing 3.6GHz at stock voltage bouncing off 100C with stock cooler in coretemp when running Prime95 never missing a beat.

Running such a program on 3990X will dim the lights like a four slice toaster and in the summer if the AC is on, Cinebench runs may throw a breaker if the box isn't on a dedicated 20A line! Lovely times, isn't it?

An exaggeration for sure... 280 watts ? Even if it took more, like 350 it would not be as you say.

Real example. I have a 64 core EPYC box, a 1950x with a 2080TI, a 3950x with a 2080TI and a 14 core Xeon box all running 100% on the CPU and GPU on my Kitchen circuit. If I run the microwave and the coffee make at the same time, yes it will blow a circuit.

Not one 3990x

 

[Arkaign]

Conroe was when I switched from AMD (FX60) to Core2Duo then Core2Quad in late 2006. Those G0 Q6600s were amazing pieces some doing 3.6GHz at stock voltage bouncing off 100C with stock cooler in coretemp when running Prime95 never missing a beat.

Running such a program on 3990X will dim the lights like a four slice toaster and in the summer if the AC is on, Cinebench runs may throw a breaker if the box isn't on a dedicated 20A line! Lovely times, isn't it?

While these are very high power consumption when loaded, these are also not regular consumer platforms/SKUs.

TR is absolutely a platform for professional use that needs as many cores as possible, and the TR 3000 series especially meets that target in a complete way that I feel the 1000 or my 2000 series didn't quite live up to.

Now if your consumer class mid-range CPUs are using 200+ watts loaded at stock settings, yes, that is definitely a poor showing. But I think the workstation/prosumer class of products and the ones with a clearly highly specialized target shouldn't be too nitpicked, as you kind of know the bargain you're making to get your results.

I also know you're joking to a point Conroe indeed was incredibly hardy with volts and temps lol.

 

[RetroZombie]

Running such a program on 3990X will dim the lights like a four slice toaster and in the summer if the AC is on

Just 80 watts more than one overclocked intel 9900K, and those 80 watts are enough to feed the extra 56 cores vs the intel only 8.