Intel to launch top-end processors to counter AMD resurgence
Monica Chen, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES [Thursday 10 August 2017]
Intel plans to launch its 12-core Skylake-X processor, the Core i9-7920X, in late August, targeting the high-end gaming and enterprise PC market, and release other top-end Skylake-X series processors featuring 14-, 16-18-core architectures in late September, aiming to dampen the resurgence of AMD in high-caliber processors, according to industry sources.
Following years of lackluster sales performance, AMD has started a turnaround in 2017 by launching new-generation Ryzen processors and Vega graphic cards series to compete well with Intel and Nvidia, while also staging a full comeback to the server platform arena.
This has prompted Intel to revise its PC processor roadmap to mitigate the counterattack strength from AMD and claim its leading position in the processor market. After releasing five Core-X series processors at unit price of US$1,199 in late June, two months ahead of schedule, the company will start sales of its 12-core Skylake-X processor, Corei9-7920X, on August 28, also with unit price of US$1,199. It will also release three top-end Corei9 processor series with 14-, 16-, and 18-core architectures on September 25, with its 18-core, 36-thread Corei9-7980XE processor to bear the highest price tag of US$1,999.
Intel will debut the new processors to counter AMD's planned launch of high-end processor models, including 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen Threadropper 1950X and 12-core, 24-thread 1920X set for release on August 10, and 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen Threadripper 1900X on August 31.
To stay competitive, Intel is also planning to release Coffee Lake series processors and 300 series chipset platform by the end of 2017 or early 2018, with more cores and more threads than its previous models, which are expected to help the company better fend off the competition from AMD's Ryzen processors.
Along with surging market demand for high-end gaming motherboards, the ASP of motherboards has hit new highs. Motherboard vendors such as Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology, Micro-Star International (MSI), ASRock and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) have had over 200 versions of motherboards supported by Intel X 299 chipsets, and they have also rushed to release AMD X399 motherboards. These vendors are poised to enjoy increased sales of high-end motherboards fueled by keen competition between Intel and AMD in CPUs, according to market sources.