Intel’s “refocus on engineering” needs to challenge X3D if it wants to compete with AMD
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Intel's newly appointed CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has many hoping he can turn the company's fortunes around, and he certainly seems ready to shake things up. Earlier, he told employees that “tough decisions” would need to be made in order to help Intel regain the competitive edge it once held. He previously said that “It starts with the culture” of the company.
Lip-Bu Tan has announced a major restructuring plan that includes layoffs and management changes aimed at boosting innovation and cutting costs, reportedly affecting as many as 20% of employees. In his statement, he said the company will refocus its operations around engineering, with the goal of making engineers “more productive by removing burdensome workflows and processes that slow down the pace of innovation.”
- Cores: 8
- Threads: 16
- Boost clock speed: 5.2GHz
- Base clock speed: 4.7GHz
- L3 cache: 96MB
- TDP: 120W
- Platform: AM5
There is no X3D competition
With Intel now ready to make the necessary investments in its engineering talent, the only question that remains is where it should put all that focus. And if you ask us, the answer is simple: X3D. AMD has been dominating the CPU space for a while now, especially in gaming, as their X3D chips are simply hard to beat. Just look at the 9800X3D, which in our review proved to be not only a gaming beast but also a better all-rounder than its predecessors.
As bold as it sounds when AMD says the competition “isn't anywhere close” to X3D, the truth is chipmakers like Intel still don't have anything with the same edge. The Core Ultra 200 series setback only pushed them further behind, with the Core Ultra 9 285K even falling short of the last-gen 14900K in certain scenarios. We also recently saw AMD's flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D prove, once again, why X3D is the king of gaming CPUs.
Now, you could argue that Intel doesn't need to build an X3D clone, especially since even AMD admits that X3D “won't replace everything else.” We already know that in productivity tasks, X3D chips tend to fall short against Intel's alternatives. With the 9800X3D, we saw a notable improvement in productivity, but it still trailed the Core Ultra 7 265K by roughly 40 points in Blender rendering, as per our internal tests.
While Intel seems to have productivity figured out, AMD is managing to offer something for everyone with chips like the Ryzen 9 9950X. So, it's clear the gaming community wants more from Team Blue, and Intel needs to challenge X3D on its home ground: gaming, if it wants to get the ball rolling again. Especially after a loss in confidence following CPU degradation and stability issues in 13th and 14th gen processors last year.
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