AMD trolls Intel competition, offers Core i7-8086K winners a Threadripper 1950X instead

By Darren Allan

Remember Intel’s recent competition giving punters the chance to win one of its Core i7-8086K limited-edition processors celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first 8086 chip? Well, in what could be described as a cheeky move – although Intel might use a stronger term – AMD is offering 40 folks in the US who scoop one of Intel’s CPUs the chance to swap it for a Threadripper 1950X.

The Core i7-8086K is a 6-core (12-thread) processor that’s capable of boosting to 5GHz out of the box, the latter being the big selling point. However, AMD’s Threadripper 1950X is a 16-core (32-thread) monster which can boost to 4GHz, and retails at around $750 in the US these days (£670 in the UK, which is around AU$1,200), compared to Intel’s chip, which will set you back around $430 (£380 in the UK, around AU$680).

So yes, AMD is firmly treading on Intel’s toes here, with the move to offer winners a swap to a beefier and more expensive chip, rather than, say, launching a competition of its own. It’s what you might call disruptive marketing (although again, Intel would probably use a stronger term).

Performance parameters

That said, while AMD’s processor may bristle …read more

Source:: techradar.com – Computing Components