Intel Reiterates: Next-gen Meteor Lake CPUs Aren't Coming To Most Desktops 24
An anonymous reader shares a report: Intel's Meteor Lake processor architecture promises to be its most interesting in recent history, but we've known for a while now that Intel isn't planning to launch a version for socketed desktop motherboards like the ones you'd find in a self-built PC or an off-the-shelf mini tower. For those systems, Intel plans to release a second consecutive refresh of the old Alder Lake architecture, the one that first came to desktops in 12th-generation Core CPUs in 2021. In an interview with PCWorld, Intel Client Computing Group General Manager Michelle Johnston Holthaus said that Meteor Lake chips would be coming to desktops after all. But the company backpedaled a bit a couple of days later, clarifying that these Meteor Lake desktop chips would be of the soldered-to-the-motherboard variety, not intended as high-performance replacements for current desktop Core i7 and Core i9 chips.
This kind of bifurcation isn't totally unheard of, especially when Intel is in the process of shifting to a new manufacturing technology, as it is with Meteor Lake. Chips for high-performance desktops tend to be physically larger and also need to be able to scale up to higher clock speeds, two things that are harder to do when a manufacturing process is new. And Meteor Lake is nothing if not complex to manufacture, using new Intel Foveros packaging technology to combine four different silicon dies produced on three different manufacturing processes by two different companies. Some of Intel's 10th-generation Core CPUs for laptops and all of the 11th-gen laptop CPUs had moved to new architectures and Intel's 10 nm manufacturing process, while the desktop chips remained stuck on the more mature (but aging) 14 nm process.
This kind of bifurcation isn't totally unheard of, especially when Intel is in the process of shifting to a new manufacturing technology, as it is with Meteor Lake. Chips for high-performance desktops tend to be physically larger and also need to be able to scale up to higher clock speeds, two things that are harder to do when a manufacturing process is new. And Meteor Lake is nothing if not complex to manufacture, using new Intel Foveros packaging technology to combine four different silicon dies produced on three different manufacturing processes by two different companies. Some of Intel's 10th-generation Core CPUs for laptops and all of the 11th-gen laptop CPUs had moved to new architectures and Intel's 10 nm manufacturing process, while the desktop chips remained stuck on the more mature (but aging) 14 nm process.
Still Going To Stick With AMD (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe next decade Intel will get it together.
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AMD is likely to have teething problems of their own similar to what intel had with 12th gen, as they're planning to implement big.LITTLE architecture in the next generation.
While Intel's problem is that they're adopting AMD style chiplets. So it looks like next generation will have teething problems on both sides.
Intel taking big losses (Score:4, Interesting)
I just don't understand what their strategy here is, it's been in the news headlines like "Intel loses 2.8 billion in another not great quarter" and "Intel records it's worst quarterly loss amid sinking PC sales" and "Intel reports largest quarterly loss in history" and yet they're coming out with new products but they won't be available for enthusiasts to build PC's with and AMD is doing a lot better and some articles claim "AMD continues to sell about 2 cpu's for every one Intel cpu sold" so how is this going to help them with their sales because it seems like a losing strategy to me?
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Re: Intel taking big losses (Score:2)
Intel's thinking probably is the same that AMD has for a long time had in the GPU stuff: the money is not in the high end, but in the mid and lower tiers, simply because of the volume. However, in that case, they are ignoring the fact that the halo products are the one that make the bulk of the perception of the whole product line, for various reasons. To put it simply, the manufacturer with the best product is seen as the best manufacturer, period. And of course, people are more inclined to buy products of
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it's been in the news headlines like "Intel loses 2.8 billion in another not great quarter" and "Intel records it's worst quarterly loss amid sinking PC sales"
That's not Intel. That's the PC industry. AMD also just announced a 94% drop in quarterly profits y/y. Dell announced a loss of sales. Microsoft's devices division has is making close to no profit. The only ones making any bank right now are people selling AI hype, e.g. NVIDIA.
and yet they're coming out with new products but they won't be available for enthusiasts to build PC's
The reasoning is right there in the summary. It doesn't matter if they come out with new products if they can't get the yields to price them competitively in the PC market. They need to get the yields up first.
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Nvidia's gaming division is a dumpster fire as much as everyone else. It's nvidia's AI that is good.
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Nvidia doesn't seem to be having problems. AI should've been Intel's piece of the pie.
Why? What products does intel have that are particularly suited to that kind of processing?
Nvidia does video cards/chips. Yet somehow, the #1 company for AI is Nvidia.
Yeah, as it turns out, that kind of card with that kind of memory right next to it is better than your CPU for doing that kind of processing. That's how.
Intel has been sitting back getting fat every since Paul Otellini departed. They coined the tik - tok term
Tick Tock. They coined the term as "tick tock", they didn't name it after a Chinese video streaming and social manipulation site that didn't exist yet.
At the same time, forgetting their forte (or what was their forte) creating processors.
No, Intel has always been bad at that. AMD's 386 and 486 parts were faster than Intel's. A K6 was half the price of
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AI should've been Intel's piece of the pie.
Based on? It seems like you don't know what how AI acceleration works, how Intel have precisely zero expertise in the area, or that NVIDIA has been doing it for far longer than AI hype has been a thing.
If Intel had started on AI back when Paul left, things would be different today.
Based on? Intel was relatively good in the CPU field under Paul's leadership, but they had one colossal failure after another branching out beyond general purpose x86 processors. It seems like you don't know that Intel has a long history of failure in this area.
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I just don't understand what their strategy here is, it's been in the news headlines like "Intel loses 2.8 billion in another not great quarter" and "Intel records it's worst quarterly loss amid sinking PC sales" and "Intel reports largest quarterly loss in history" and yet they're coming out with new products but they won't be available for enthusiasts to build PC's with and AMD is doing a lot better and some articles claim "AMD continues to sell about 2 cpu's for every one Intel cpu sold" so how is this going to help them with their sales because it seems like a losing strategy to me?
"Well, AMD have been eating our lunch in the desktop space for the last few years now, and they're now starting to encroach on our monopoly in the laptop space. We cant compete with Ryzen on the desktop so we're going to try to force them out of the laptop space.. erm... somehow.".
If AMD make inroads into the server market, Intel will have almost no monopolies left.
AMD have cemented their reputation amongst gamers and enthusiasts by making good performing chips for good prices. A Ryzen 9 can take the
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Intel is actually very competitive on desktop in two ways. Top tier gaming and software compatibility. And inertia, which is why it's market share remains massive.
AMD crushes them in general compute and general gaming, which is why it's gaining market share and has been for a few years. Intel's difficulties with getting software to work right with big.LITTLE in 12th gen did a pretty nasty number on its gaming reputation too. But that same hit is almost certainly coming to AMD in the next generation, since
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Child support.
Not a huge deal. (Score:1)
Considering I only think I ever replaced a cpu twice, and that were more than 20 years ago, without replacing the motherboard. Since with each new upgrade the architecture had changed and the installed motherboard had an obsolete socket.
Memory and other components, sure, those need to be replaceable, because you might want to double ram and whatnot. But cpu, those could mostly come pre-soldered to the motherboard and come as a package. The only reason you want a socketed cpu, is if the part actually broke,
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I have had a motherboard break once, I produced a bypass operation on that one, soldered a copper wire between one pin and an other, so my din-5 keyboard port would get a signal. (Yeah, exactly that long ago.)
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Sure, on one hand, I'm in this same boat:
Considering I only think I ever replaced a cpu twice, and that were more than 20 years ago, without replacing the motherboard.
But that doesn't change the fact that I was able to mix-and-match motherboard and cpu on each purchase. If cpu's get soldered to the mobo, then the options are going to drop drastically. I'd expect to see only low end motherboards with the low end chips, and high end motherboards with the top of the line chips. Whereas I tend to go for a high end motherboard and the lowest power cpu possible (for example, currently on a server motherboard with 2x low power xeons and
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That is of course a valid concern, I have too always opted for a low tpu cpu. And options will go down, the market will tell if Intel is choosing a omniscient route.
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My 2018 AM4 motherboard is hosting it's third and final processor. I started with a 2700x, bought a 5600x when they came out and now have a 5800x3d.
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One of the great things of post-covid demand crash. Really good high end 5xxx chips are both cheap and available.
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That's the thing, AMD sticks with a socket long enough to get an upgrade, Intel doesn't. I too have had AMD machines where I put three different chips on the same board.
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I have not had an AMD cpu since I got a free replacement for my Cyrix 200 debacle, back when Cyrix/AMD/intel used the same socket, remember the good times?
This was an intel story though, don't blame AMD for the other guys bad decisions. I haven't need to change cpu for many years now, since I was gifted this intel server class motherboard and cpu. So I am not updated where intel vs AMD is rated power using wise. When the day comes and a new cpu/mobo is on the table, I will select one in the golden zone, whe
Meanwhile . . . (Score:2)
. . . AMD is busy working with companies like Supermicro at putting their top-of-the-line 7950X desktop / consumer-facing CPU on server motherboards with ECC RAM support and available 100G NICs to make killer workstations and high density nodes for "micro-clouds" [techpowerup.com]." And they're cheap (relatively speaking)! Very interesting to see Intel and AMD conduct the exact opposite tactics.
Like the 5950X before it, the 7950X is a beast with a great combination of thread density and insane single-threaded performance.