Well that's that. For the first time in history, one CPU maker has the other one beat in EVERY SINGLE METRIC. When AMD was at its worst, it still had better performance/price than Intel despite losing in everything else. Now AMD has Intel beat in single and multi-thread performance, power efficiency, gaming and price over all four platforms (mobile, desktop, HEDT and server) and at the same time, AMD STILL has the better performance/price ratio because despite being better in every way, AMD CPUs are STILL cheaper to buy (even with the $50 increase) and you don't have to pay extra for a decent cooler!
I never thought that I'd see this day come (and I've been using a home PC regularly since 1986) but I sure am glad that it has. The little silicon manufacturer that was almost bankrupt five years ago has stormed back and pummeled Intel into the dirt. No one can describe AMD as "Not as good as Intel but cheaper" any more because now that gaming's gone, there is literally nothing for them to grasp at but straws. Now people will have to describe AMD as "Better than Intel but cheaper" which is exactly how you win a market.
Intel won't die and Intel won't stop so this competition will go on for a long time which will be good for ALL of us!
On the ATi side, that little 3-game teaser shows that RDNA 2 is NOT going to be a letdown by any means. Steve Walton measured an average FPS of 72 in Gears 5 with the RTX 3080 at 4K Ultra and as far as I'm concerned, if Steve says it, take it to the bank!
AMD showed that ATi's new card (and I found it odd that they didn't say which one) beats the RTX 3080 in Gears 5 by 1fps! Now, I'm not delusional. I know that this is not what anyone would call an actual win but it does show where ATi was aiming when they came out with RDNA 2 and they DEFINITELY hit the target! Normally, I wouldn't take much stock in a company's own benchmark but this is a simple display of the average frame rate in a
specific game at a
specific resolution using a
specific graphics preset. You can't fake that.
EDIT: It has now been revealed that ATi was using the built-in benchmark like (apparently) everyone else so that only adds to its validity.
I tell ya, 2020 has been a terrible year because of SARS-CoV-2 but we can still consider ourselves lucky because never before in our beloved industry has competition ever been so healthy. When GPU competition was healthy, CPU competition wasn't. When CPU competition was healthy, GPU competition wasn't. Now, FINALLY, we have both at the same time! When I think of how long I've waited for this to happen (decades), I get all giddy!
I would say that 2020 is the greatest year that the PC industry has ever seen despite all of the current hardships and we are all lucky to be living in it. ?
EDIT: It appears that it was in fact the RX 6800 XT and not the RX 6900 XT(X) that was teased. Here's a math equation for you:
R9-5950X + RX 6900 XT + October = RED OCTOBER
