For over half a decade, Intel has been the undisputed dominant leader of the CPU market. Most PC's today have 'Intel inside'. However, with AMD's introduction of the AMD Ryzen, it is poised to take over the reign from Intel.
If there is one thing AMD has that has been working for it even though it has not beaten Intel sales, it leads when it comes to multi-cored CPUs. It has been a while that AMD has inexpensive eight-core CPUs on the market. Intel, on the other hand, stuck with its four-cored CPUs while maintaining its eight-cored CPUs at a premium price point.
Intel dominance
The problem is that AMD's CPU cores perform lower than Intel's, which accounts for it being the CPU of choice for heavy users. Another factor adding to the discrepancy is the slow response of software developers to adapt their programming for multi-core CPUs.
Another edge Intel has over AMD is that it makes chips that require lower power requirements to function, making it the CPU of choice for mobile products and laptops. However, that might soon change.
AMD Ryzen offers more, for less
According to Forbes, during benchmark tests, AMDs Ryzen 7 1700X was pitted against Intel's Core i7-600K. It would be interesting to note that during the test, the Ryzen's clock was reduced to match that of the 6800K for a clock-for-clock comparison.
Results show that Ryzen's gaming power consumption is over 25 percent less than Intel. In multi- threaded Cinebench, it took a massive lead. In other tests, AMD matches or slightly betters results of its competition for an overall score of 1,537, or 4 percent better than Intel.
Bear in mind that Ryzen's clock was reduced during the tests, which would indicate Ryzen stock CPU will be faster right out of the box. Both CPU's are of similar price points at $399. Ryzen 7 1800X ($499) against Intel Core i7-6900K ($1,089), scored 1,601, or 9 percent better than Intel, according to PC World.
Intel fights back
In response, it has been reported that Intel lowered the prices of its CPUs to offset those of AMD Ryzen's before launch, which has already broken world records in benchmarks. However, Intel still has an ace up its sleeves in an attempt to trump AMD at its gambit.
Rumor has it that Intel is planning to commercialize a 12-core (24 threads) Skylake-X processor in response to the new Ryzen models. Additionally, 10-core processors at the high-end of its range would also be on the table.
With the current developments, it would be safe to say - it begins, again.
