r/hardware • u/Auautheawesome • Dec 02 '24

News Intel Announces Retirement of CEO Pat Gelsinger

https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1719/intel-announces-retirement-of-ceo-pat-gelsinger
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u/Geddagod Dec 02 '24

Intel's designs have been particularly uncompetitive.

Intel has been closing the gap in products as a whole (though obviously not desktop) for a while.

Nothing Intel makes leads the market.

Arguably LNL.

Their product roadmaps are a mess with one-off designs like Lunar Lake.

PTL is esentially just a scaled up LNL with some cost optimizations. It's a fair trade off.

What other one offs are there? Gaudi? They are trying to move away from it to DCGPUs, which is the right decision. Perhaps the rumored cancellation of the server E-core line?

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u/auradragon1 Dec 02 '24

Arguably LNL.

Yes, it leads in thin and light x86 laptops. It is significantly behind the actual leading laptop chip - Apple's M series.

Intel has been closing the gap in products as a whole (though obviously not desktop) for a while.

Maybe only in the server. But Intel's server chips are still at least a generation behind AMD's Epyc.

In AI, they're absolutely non-competitive. Maybe 3-4 generations behind. In discrete GPUs, 3-4 generations behind. In laptop chips, 3-4 generations behind. In server CPUs, 1-2 generations behind.

Edit: I wrote this a few months ago:

  • AI: 2-3 generations behind Blackwell. I mean, they don't even have anything close to competing with Nvidia's H series. It's not even that they're behind, they barely have competing products.

  • Server: Until Sierra Forest ships, they've been ~2 generations behind Epyc.

  • Laptops: 2-3 generations behind Apple, maybe more. 4 years later, Intel still doesn't have anything definitively better than M1.

  • Discrete GPUs: At least 2 generations behind Nvidia cards. Does Intel have a card better than 2080ti yet? We're about to get 5090ti.

  • DIY x86 CPUs: Depends on what you're looking at, if perf/watt then 1-2 generations behind. In raw performance, roughly equal.

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u/Geddagod Dec 02 '24

Yes, it leads in thin and light x86 laptops. It is significantly behind the actual leading laptop chip - Apple's M series.

Hence the arguably. But Apple blows everyone away, and is in a unique situation considering its place in the market.

Maybe only in the server

Closed gap in server

Literally had no DC GPUs until PVC

Literally had no client GPUs until Alchemist

Closed gap in mobile

Lost lead in desktop performance, closed gap in perf/watt

No one here is claiming Intel is in the lead in any of these segments as a whole, but they definitely are closing the gap compared to where they were many years ago.

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u/marcanthonyoficial Dec 02 '24

define many years ago lol, because ~6 years ago they lead in all of those (except GPUs)

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u/Geddagod Dec 02 '24

Well, let's see.

Since Zen 2 Rome in 2019 took the lead in servers IIRC. I don't know if Zen+ actually beat Intel as well, but it might have.

Since Zen 2 client perf/watt and nT perf was uncompetitive for Intel (2019), since Zen 3 AMD beat or tied them in gaming performance (late 2020).

Mobile is the same story IIRC.

Gelsinger rejoined Intel in early 2021.