Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
For overclockers and gamers, for the rest of the market, which is 99.999% of all buyers, they don't overclock, the chips need to be X speed at a given TDP.
If Intel is selling 3Ghz core clock speed 8 cores at X price for servers and AMD is providing similar clocks in similar TDP at lower prices and with equal performance, it's going to compete very very well.
Intel sells their 6-8-10 cores at much lower clock speeds than their 2-4 core chips, similar will be true for AMD. It was suggested that a lot of the 2.8/3.2Ghz ES Zen chips were 65W tdp, meaning there is huge scope there for higher clock speeds within the 95W target they are going for.
Clock speeds when overclocked will probably dictate if I switch, I might well just because I'll get the best value for my 5820k sooner rather than later. Also in gaming terms, with so many of the higher performance/better graphics games being DX12 just between now and end of year, let alone next year, an 8 core lower clocked chip will make less and less difference for gaming but provide better and better performance for me in terms of running multiple apps at the same time and other computing work I do.
It would be nice if it hits say 4.5Ghz overclocked, but in reality at 4Ghz it would be as fast/faster than my 4.3Ghz hex core so... who cares.
The thing where AMD usually wins is, with Intel you have a lets say 4700k with HT and a 4600k without HT. With AMD you will get a 8 core unlocked chip for overclocking at lets say 4Ghz at £200 that can overclock to 5Ghz, and you also get a 3.4Ghz clock speed 8 core unclocked chip that can overclock to 5Ghz but is £160. AMD generally have that old school 2-3 speed bins of similar chips so people who don't clock have a choice of more clock speed for more money, AMD buyers could always buy the less premium lower clocked chip and just overclock further for WAY better value.
Intel providing a single overclockable version of each chip means you pay one price and like it or lump it. Where I'd buy a lets say 4650k that is a downclocked 4700k with a less premium price but still overclocks and probably to the same level, Intel just don't offer that chip any more, AMD mostly have done and hopefully will continue to do so.
For gamers/overclockers, it's that lower priced version that still overclocks that provides the killer value that persuades buyers to go AMD, hopefully they don't forget that.
