Thread Ripper 2, and the effect on Intel pricing

[Madpete]

So with AMD's Thread Ripper 2 upon us, offering reasonable IPC performance and a bonkers amount of cores at a very reasonable asking price I've been wondering what Intel will do... if anything.

It looks like they don't have a desktop product to complete on core count, so I'm presuming they will be forced to cut the prices on their next HEDT CPU's to stay competitive? Unless they have something in reserve, which doesn't seem likely.

I think it's great what AMD is doing and if I was buying a new rig I'd probably go that way, but as someone who already has an X299 system (and has spent out on it) I'm wondering how it will affect the platform with Intel's up coming refresh, with one eye on an upgrade.

I don't need a billion cores, but I competitively priced 16 core to AMD's 2950x would be very tempting as I use my PC for a bit of everything.

The only thing with Intel is they have had it their way so long, they might just flatly refuse to adapt their strategy and carry on (they've done this before), though I can't see that making any kind of business sense and would be bad for market share.

So what do you guys think will happen?

If you see any news, maybe you could post it here?

One thing is sure, this revitalised AMD is good news for consumers in both camps.

 

[Madpete]

What's going to be interesting is how much they charge for a 28 core HEDT chip seeing as the one they demoed was a £10k chip.

Exactly this, the days of Intel getting away with that kind of insane pricing are gone I think.. Or at least while AMD is able to remain competitive.

AMD have priced their 32 core cpu at £1700, if Intel don't respond to this AMD will surely batter their market share.

 

[Madpete]

@AndreiD I agree and you are right, HEDT isn't high volume so maybe they aren't so worried.

On the other hand though, being outdone (on paper) by AMD never sits well with Intel. It makes them look back, and like a high performance car company it's the flagship that sells the range.

Also I think that AMD's business model is across the range, so for example even though the 8700k is arguably a better gaming CPU than the 2700x, Intel has felt the need to respond with the upcoming 8 core 9000 series... this is an area where they are able to respond and probably outgun AMD (maintain pricing). But again, they are being pushed.

Going forward, I keep reading that Intel's 10nm process is delayed again (end 2019 was the last time frame I read), while I hear AMD's 7nm (via TSMC is on track). I've read that TMSC's 7nm and Intel's 10nm are pretty much the same thing (no advantage to one over the over), but whats important is if AMD get there first at volume, if so then again this is another big advantage.

I just can't see Intel having a particularly good time over the next 18-36 months, esp if they don't get their 10nm back on track and sort out EUVL at volume.

If I translate this in my head to end product I just think Intel will either have to "put up, or shut up"... Ie release a product with clearly superior performance and maintain their pricing structure, or recognise that if the playing field is fairly level (give or take 5%), people aren't going to pay 2x the price over a competitor.

At least, I hope this is what will happen.

Hugely interested to see how this all plays out!!