AMD, Intel Reversed Roles at CES 2020
For decades, Intel has been the chip maker that promised strong products and delivered on time, while AMD was the competitor. One again, the two appear to have switched places, and their their CES 2020 appearances prove it.
At CES 2020, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) hosted a press conference and unveiled new chips available in the coming weeks. As we previously saw, the
company announced new third-generation Ryzen 4000 mobile processors for laptops. Chief Executive Lisa Su claimed it outperformed Intel's i7 rival, especially in graphics performance. Laptops with the chips will debut this quarter, Su said, with more than 100 products expected to launch this year.
The chip maker also announced a new graphic card, the Radeon RX 5600 XT, which splits the difference between the high-end 5700 and bargain 5500 cards launched last year and will be available Jan. 21 for $279. AMD also claimed superior performance against its main rival in the gaming sphere, Nvidia.
To close, Su showed off a new version of its high-performance desktop processor called Threadripper, which doubles the number of cores to 64, which Su said has not been available on a consumer desktop processor previously. The third-generation Threadripper will cost $3,990, and go on sale Feb. 7.
Lisa Su also predicted that 2020 will surpass 2019, when AMD was the biggest gainer among the S&P 500 for the second year in a row.
“It will be a bigger year than 2019,” Su said, while noting that 2019 was a “huge, huge” year and briefly recapping some of AMD’s accomplishments. “Our theme for 2020 is all about the best, bringing the best to the market.”
Intel's presentation at CES followed its rival just an hour later. The chip maker's executives spent more than an hour on stage with few important points to take away. The most exciting part of Intel’s demo was a presentation from Adobe, with a rousing demo of how Photoshop uses artificial intelligence to simplify difficult photo editing.
Intel provided just a few details about the next generation of mobile processors known as Tiger Lake, as well as its forthcoming discreet graphics processor, known as DG1. The chip giant was less specific on launch dates or pricing in its product news than AMD. Don't forget that Intel has had problems in recent years with process and production. The company said that the first Tiger Lake systems are expected to ship sometime later this year.
The world’s largest chip maker also showed a series of new form factors for future computers with partners, like Lenovo and Dell, working with Intel’s Project Athena, where it is working on designs for the most advanced PCs. Examples included a concept foldable laptop by Dell, which when fully open could work as one huge screen or two separate screens.
AMD’s time on stage also included a brief appearance by Alienware co-founder Frank Azor.
Obviously, AMD's presence at CES outlined Intel's. AMD had real products to show, while Intel made just a few announcements and demonstrated some cool 3D athlete-tracking technology -- not very interesting to enthusiasts and of course, investors.
So far, AMD's product execution on strong client CPU/APU roadmaps has made Intel’s struggles stand out even more.