In what can only be described as a savage and savvy marketing stunt, AMD is stealing some thunder from Intel's 40th-anniversary celebration of its first x86 processor. See, Intel recently announced it is giving away 8,086 of its Limited Edition 6-core i7-8086k CPUs. AMD is striking back by giving 40 performance-hungry enthusiasts a chance to trade that prize in for a better prize: a 16-core Ryzen Threadripper 1950x.
If you're wondering why this article's headline doesn't explicitly call that out, it's because the exhange stunt itself isn't nearly as entertaining as the text that accompanies it. In AMD's own words (emphasis mine):
Our competitor recently kicked off a sweepstakes to celebrate the first 40 years of the x86 processor by giving away 8,086 limited edition processors.
We appreciate the advancements they’ve helped drive with the x86 architecture over the last four decades. But, we’re ready to take it from here. That’s why we’re giving 40 performance-hungry enthusiasts in the U.S. an opportunity to celebrate the next 40 years of high-performance computing by trading in their commemorative processor prize for our CPU that enables you to work, play and create with heavy metal.
Wow, AMD's marketing is going for the throat. Remember its bold advertisements recently for EPYC datacenter processors? Here's a reminder:
Then again, Intel isn't taking AMD's guerilla marketing lying down, and has issued a genius response via their Intel Gaming Twitter account:
This Threadripper trade-up contest is about more than taking some wind out of Intel's celebratory sails. The timing and the inclusion of a Threadripper 1950x makes it a subtle reminder of Intel's "5GHz" Computex debacle, where the company demonstrated an upcoming 28-core processor that hit 5GHz only thanks to extreme exotic cooling. Not only did Intel fail to disclose the trick onstage, but the company later commented that despite the presentation being framed with a PC gamer attitude (and indeed, a PC gamer on the slide), it was a product intended for the professional workstation market.
Intel's demo happened the night before AMD unveiled a 32-core Threadripper 2 -- running on air.
Is this just hot air from AMD's marketing department? The latest data as presented by Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland indicates that AMD has captured 15.2% of desktop CPU marketshare as of Q2 2018. In Q3 2017 that share was 10.9%, and in Q4 2017 it was 12%.
It is steady and significant growth. What a long way we've come since only 18 months ago when AMD's position in the CPU race was so poor it would use Intel's flagship processors for internal benchmarking of its Radeon GPUs. I'll leave predictions of Q3 and Q4 market share to the analysts, but there's no denying that Ryzen isn't finished capturing the desktop CPU landscape. Not by a longshot.
Anyway, I thought the subtext within this Threadripper promotion was worth highlighting. AMD is gracious for Intel's past innovations, but prepared to pave the future of CPU innovations with Ryzen. Just remember this, AMD: with statements that bold, you better live up to them. The internet doesn't forget.
More information on the Threadripper Exchange contest is here. It's U.S. only, unfortunately.
