Intel is reportedly preparing to renew its product lineup to counter the threat posed by AMD's upcoming Ryzen processor that is expected to launch in early March.
Intel To Launch New CPUs
According to the specialized tech website wccftech.com, in a direct response to AMD's Ryzen chips, Intel might soon launch some faster Kaby Lake processors. The new Intel processors will be based on the same Kaby Lake microarchitecture, but they will have higher TDP figures and will feature higher clock speeds.
These new Intel processors in the works are reportedly the Core i7-7740K and Core i5-7640K. The upcoming chips are a direct response to AMD's Ryzen. Brian Krzanich, Intel's CEO, said that he believes their company's Kaby Lake chip will make a better option than Ryzen.
After many years, the Zen based Ryzen is being AMD's most competitive processor family. Being aware of this, Intel is making changes to its own product lineup in order to be able to counter any AMD threat. If true, this might be a smart move from Intel, since rumors suggest that the Ryzen chip will be a potent competitor.
Back in the year 2003, to counter the surprise threat of the Athlon 64, Intel was forced to rush the launch of its Pentium 4 Extreme Edition on the market. However, the AMD's Athlon 64 still came up winning a number of consumer benchmarks and most games. It's certain that now Intel is trying to avoid repeating that situation.
Among the rumored updates there's the Core i7-7740K. This Kaby Lake-based chip will come with a supposed 4.6GHz Turbo frequency and a 4.3GHz base frequency. There's also the Core i5-7640K that will come with a similar modest frequency bump.
Consequences Of Intel's Move
According to Extreme Tech, it is unusual for a chip manufacturing company to push out a faster version of a core within just two months. This is typically done only when a rival company launches its faster version of a chip. But given the fact that AMD is preparing to launch a major architectural revision, it makes sense that Intel might be planning new launches of its own.
However, preemptively rearranging product lines to battle a rival that hasn't even launched its product yet is not making a great business plan. Intel has kept a stable desktop strategy for almost a decade. Its Pentium chips used to come until recently without Hyper-Threading and just run at lower clock speeds but are still based on modern Core architectures.
Intel's Core i3 chips come with Hyper-Threading, offer Turbo frequencies and have higher clock speeds. Core i5 chips have four cores without Hyper-Threading but are typically about the same speed as Core i3 chips. Intel Core i7 CPUs add Hyper-Threading back again and are company's highest-clocked cores.
At the low end, by flipping on Hyper-Threading on its newest Pentium processors, Intel has already disrupted its own market. However, it's going to be even more difficult differentiating the same way at the high end. The distinction between the Core i5 chips and the Core i7 gets blurry in case that Core i5 chips add Hyper-Threading.
