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If you’ve been following the tech news throughout 2020, it probably hasn’t escaped your attention that the stories and rumors about Intel haven’t been entirely positive. They span the gamut, from stories about how AMD processor sales are crushing Intel to turning it to dust on the desktop, to news of further delays in Intel’s shift to next-gen CPUs and Apple deciding to go its own way. with Mac, avoiding Intel silicon.
That said, this year hasn’t been a complete loss for Intel, and we witnessed glimpses of hope, especially with laptop chips and the new Xe GPUs. Let’s take a deeper look at Intel’s pros and cons for 2020, and how the balance sheet turns out in the end, and what that could mean for next year.
Desktop problems
Intel’s big move on the desktop CPU front last year was the introduction of Comet Lake processors, but introducing these 10th-gen chips was not a smooth process.
We were very disappointed when Intel didn’t even mention Comet Lake at CES in early 2020, and after rumors of delays and behind-the-scenes issues with domesticated power use for the flagship chip, the release of CPUs won’t actually happen until end of April (remember the previous 9th gen range came out in October 2018 so it was a long wait for the 10th gen).
And of course, Intel pulled off some impressive feats in terms of boosting the clock speed and achieving great single-core performance, and to begin with, it introduced a 10-core flagship, the Core i9-10900K.
But as we observed in our review, the 10900K seemed to fall a bit between stools, failing to match the raw gaming performance of the outgoing 9900K and falling behind the AMD Ryzen 3900X in heavy CPU workloads.
The Core i5-10600K was the highlight of the Comet Lake range that provides good performance for the money in a mid-range CPU; it’s actually the only Intel chip on our list of best processors at the time of writing, even if it was delivered at a cost in terms of power usage. The lack of PCIe 4.0 support was also a sticking point across the entire 10th gen series.
And of course, as the end of 2020 approached, AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors burst onto the scene, leaving Comet Lake silicon really out in the cold. Initial sales of the Ryzen 5000 models have been truly impressive, and Intel is now even further behind in the desktop CPU market.
An answer is needed, and it comes in the form of Rocket Lake chips, but these won’t appear until early 2021 (finally bringing PCIe 4.0 support). The first leaks are promising, but we are talking about 2020 here, not next year. And in 2020, Intel lost more ground to AMD in the desktop arena, which it could not afford, and Rocket Lake should enter the fray as soon as possible next year.
What’s also worth a final note here is that there was no sign of new high-end desktop processors (HEDTs) from Intel this year, or even any whispers that they might arrive in the near future. The status of potential next-generation HEDT chips remains a mystery.
Tiger lake shining brighter
However, as you may already know, the crucial territory for Intel is not desktop CPUs, not that they are not important, because they definitely are, but the laptop market is where you really are in terms of most of the processor. sales. And this is where the chip giant remains dominant, but Intel is losing some ground to AMD in the notebook arena, slowly but surely.
The Ryzen 4000 mobile chips proved to be a powerful challenge in early 2020, appearing on the scene starting in March with great impact and ushering in a series of affordable laptops that offer great value for money in terms of performance. These AMD-powered laptops certainly made an impressive impact throughout 2020, and Intel didn’t have a response until the end of the year, when Tiger Lake (in a 10nm process) was released.
Fortunately for Intel, the Tiger Lake chips are impressive pieces of silicon, even though these mobile CPUs outperformed quad-core chips, and AMD’s Ryzen 4000 lineup offered 8 cores. While AMD may be the best option for those who need a portable device for heavier workloads and applications that use multiple cores, Tiger Lake is a better proposition for basic computing tasks and indeed gaming, where the integrated Xe graphics from Intel help a lot, though the mileage will. vary depending on the exact game.
Generally speaking, there’s not much between Intel Tiger Lake and AMD Ryzen 4000 – it’s a picture of relative strengths and weaknesses, and roughly trade hits. Which chip might be best for any given laptop buyer depends on their exact use case, as well as the exact CPU model (and its TDP) they’re looking at.
In short, Intel has done almost enough here, especially considering that the availability of laptops with high-end Ryzen 4000 CPUs is still very unstable, but it is more of a drawing-level case with AMD in terms of performance for 2020. The problem is that the Ryzen 5000 mobile chips are right around the corner; in fact, they are expected to be revealed in early 2021 at CES, offering huge performance increases if rumors are anything to go by.
However, looking briefly to the future, laptops with those AMD CPUs inside may still be a good way to go. As for when Intel’s backlash will come, we don’t know, although we do know that the Alder Lake chips in the pipeline will be a big change sometime later in 2021 (theoretically). Also, the 8-core Tiger Lake chips are planned to arrive first, which should address those multi-core performance issues.
GPU possibilities
Intel wasn’t just about processors in 2020, of course, with Tiger Lake using Intel’s new Xe technology for integrated graphics, to good effect.
Of course, Intel has plans for discrete GPUs, and the first model of its kind, DG1, was released this year. DG1 is officially known as Intel Iris Xe Max and is a discrete graphics solution for notebooks. It was introduced in late 2020 with laptops including the Acer Swift 3x and Asus VivoBook Flip TP470, beating out Nvidia’s MX350 mobile GPU, but without setting the world on fire (or offering much more than onboard Xe Graphics, for that matter).
All eyes are really on the high-performance model, which will be DG2, and in October, Intel officially launched this robust discrete GPU that will try to take on AMD and Nvidia graphics cards in the PC enthusiast market. So yeah, this is the heavyweight game card, and it’s officially ‘alive’. But we know next to nothing about it, except that it will implement hardware-accelerated ray tracing, unsurprisingly, and testing has only just begun, so this is one to watch out for for 2021.
Athena evolves
This year, Intel moved forward with its Project Athena initiative to offer high-quality laptops that meet certain specifications, such as having a long battery life and certain performance requirements in terms of being highly responsive laptops (waking up very fast when you open the lid, for example).
In 2020, Intel effectively developed this standard and introduced the Evo laptops. There are new requirements for these machines, including having one of the aforementioned Tiger Lake CPUs with Xe Graphics, and at least one Core i5 model, as well as meeting other connectivity requirements (such as having the latest Wi-Fi 6 on board and a Thunderbolt port 4).
That’s a welcome move, and from what we’ve seen anecdotally online, users have been impressed with the responsiveness and performance of these Evo machines.
Conclusive thoughts
Intel in 2020 has been a company that is surviving rather than thriving, and sadly, there are potentially bigger struggles ahead. In July, Intel admitted further delays in moving to a 7nm process with its CPUs, and that third-party foundries would be used to make chips in the future (including GPUs). There are some big questions about how it will develop and how Intel will secure production capacity, because the major foundries are already really busy with orders from companies like AMD, Apple, Qualcomm and more.
Let’s not forget that in 2020 Apple also brought its own custom ARM-based M1 chips to the Mac, which will replace Intel’s silicon over a two-year transition period – a major loss in terms of future orders (and a hit substantial public relations).
Intel seems to be consistently one step behind AMD on the processor front, seemingly unable to catch up and losing a lot in terms of desktop CPUs. Laptop chips aren’t in the same dire straits, and Tiger Lake, plus Intel Evo laptops, were stronger developments in 2020, but the catch is that AMD is about to take the next step forward with Ryzen mobile APUs. 5000. Leaving Intel potentially further behind, once again.
Another positive note is that Rocket Lake desktop CPUs look promising for gamers, potentially with big clock speed gains hitting the headlines and a huge architectural upgrade (even if this silicon is still stuck at 14nm). Rocket Lake may arrive early enough in 2021 to at least stop the rot in the battle against Ryzen 5000 desktop chips in relatively timely fashion.
However, next year should also bring the next generation of Core chips for desktops and laptops, and Alder Lake could be decisive for Intel. The company needs something revolutionary and Alder Lake is reportedly making radical changes, apparently taking a big.LITTLE approach.
Intel really needs this to be something special, and for laptops it could be – the benefits of battery life should be huge. However, the relevance to the desktop world seems questionable at the moment, it certainly has us scratching our heads, and AMD too, but perhaps at this point, it makes sense for Intel to focus more on staying in the field of laptops.
