Not everyone agrees that Rocket Lake is okay. Some people think it's perfectly fine.
Not everyone agrees that Rocket Lake is okay. Some people think it's perfectly fine.
Even before the Swann/Gelsinger shift was revealed, Intel was close to achieving a 10nm yield that would enable desktop deployment. The Xe DG1 had already left the factory, and the DG2 was in advanced development. Following the announcement, with Gelsinger now leading, Intel demonstrated steady momentum by reinstating key expertise and outlining their IDM 2.0 plan. This strategy involves a $20 billion investment in fabs to bolster North American silicon self-reliance and also extends fab services to external clients. Internal reports suggest a renewed sense of purpose and energy within the company, driven by the new direction. Intel’s technology lineup now stands out—producing 28-core chips and pushing performance boundaries—while AMD has not released a single CPU die exceeding eight cores. This highlights Intel’s dominance in monolithic designs versus chiplet approaches. The EMIB packaging method enables superior interconnects in dense packages, offering an advantage over the chiplet architecture used by AMD. AMD has made significant progress, closing the gap in raw performance and even surpassing Intel in certain benchmarks with its chiplet solutions, PCIe 4.0 adoption, and strong market presence. Their efforts have injected much-needed competition, helping shake Intel out of a prolonged period of stagnation where innovation was scarce. The battle continues, and consumers stand to benefit most. Overall, this development underscores the community’s awareness of what investors truly value—driving change that could finally restore trust and confidence.
The BAD/GOOD false dichotomy is what I am addressing here, and the reason I very specifically chose the word "fine". The thing works, provides acceptable feature and performance parity to the competing products, and costs.. slightly more than we would like. It's not "good". It's also not "bad". It's just "fine". The takeaway is that the deciding factors for a customer can be availability and preference, they do not have to feel bad for getting either product, both will serve the purpose well within a similar price range, whereas previously Intel was lagging notably in a number of areas. Catch-up, not a run at the crown.
?! The claim about AMD not releasing CPUs with over eight cores is clearly false. Having more than eight cores is actually their focus. The 3900 series had twelve cores, every x900 model follows suit, and the Threadripper line even surpassed that. We’re not ignoring the bigger picture either, which includes Intel’s 28-core processors competing unsuccessfully. There was a time when AMD’s single-thread performance lagged, making them less competitive against Intel’s lower-core designs. That situation changed with Ryzen 2, and now they’re moving to Ryzen 3. They might not have prioritized custom chipsets with more than eight cores, but that doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant.
I attempted to avoid such remarks by saying, "So if you enjoy your Ryzen build and it runs smoothly, keep in mind there are countless hardware/software pairings for PCs." I've experienced stable setups with four different CPUs—1800X, 1700X, 2700X, and even a 5900X briefly. ComboAM4v2 is quite complex right now, with many chipset options and strong vendor support. Things were chaotic when PinnaclePi launched too. I don’t remember any big problems with ComboAM4(v1). They still have capable CPUs, though the platform remains a challenge. It’s mainly an integrated system-on-chip, so TL;DR—Intel is still relevant and competitive today. They’re adapting and returning to strong performance in most segments. Most rigs I see have 6-8 cores, which matches what gamers and hobbyists prioritize. The reality is that Intel remains a major player, especially for those seeking value and quality support. I’m compensating elsewhere—my budget-friendly AMD 5900X lacks the premium pricing but offers solid core count without the extra markup. Rocket Lake works well, and single-core speed is still achievable. If they released a 10-core 11th-gen model soon, I’d be typing this right away.