Intel’s Behavior Is Pathetic – Core i9 10980XE Review [video] | Hacker News Reader

Intel’s Behavior Is Pathetic – Core i9 10980XE Review [video]

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101 pointslawrenceyan31 comments

Intel is very good at embargo's.

Like the embargo's on the vulnerabilities in their chips that they never fixed. https://mdsattacks.com/#ridl-ng

Or the numerous Spectre and similar class defects that no doubt were known by engineers and not allowed to be disclosed. Or any number of things that have deserved them the cpu.fail site.

Intel is a national security risk, a corporate security risk, and personal security risk.

Monopolists generally become lazy over time, which is why the discipline of competition is crucial. I've been solidly pro-AMD for this reason for years, and Intel's incompetence and desperation has exceeded even my biased expectations.

To those saying this is drama out of nothing, please just note this isn't the first time Intel is doing it, and in recent months they have dialled all these marketing moves right up, and Linus isn't the only reviewer complaining.

The saddest part is that I still dont see AMD gaining ground much. While they seems to be doing well in consumer desktop market, but the Desktop market today are tiny. And they get some love on their Mobile SoC from Vendors only because Intel could not supply or guarantee them with shipments.

On the more profitable Server side, even the best estimate suggest AMD could get up to ( only ) 10% of the Server Market Shipment by end of 2020.

I guess a lot of people are only using AMD as their bargaining chip.

Seems to me that everyone's behaving exactly as expected - a company doing slightly shady things with an NDA and an adult Youtuber is acting like a child for clicks and likes.

Linus might have a valid point, but jesus christ I can't stand the style of his videos in the slightest. We don't need this "drama" style of YT nonsense with tech videos, thank you.

I agree. Linus even made a video about his own clickbaity thumbnails. His basic message was "sorry, I know it's dumb, but clickbaity stuff makes more money. Simple as that". If anyone wanted to see what a race to the bottom looks like, it's called "YouTube face".

So in what sense should we give him a pass for that and not give Intel a pass for things that make them money?

I think you can walk away from this hating both Linus and Intel if you so choose.

I don't love everything about LTT but I am impressed with the company Linus has built.

Idk, this is one of the things that don't get me upset. It seems overacted but then again it makes the message pretty clear, which I find interesting for a full time YouTuber that reviews stuff. Usually they try to play nice with everybody and everyone to not ruin potential future sponsorships. Or risk not getting invited to exclusive release events/press conferences. Or not getting those review samples plus NDA ahead of time anymore.

His videos keep popping up in my feed and I keep ignoring them because every single one has a breathless title and click-baity thumbnail. I've seen buzzfeed ads that were less irritating.

> We don't need this "drama"

Speak for yourself. I don't mind when reviewers use emphasis.

Intro

Sponsor aka AD

"Review" of product he got for free aka AD

LTT store merch AD

Another sponsor

You've just experienced 95% of LTT content

I suggest the SponsorBlock browser add-on, the creation of which was, from what I hear, inspired by LTT videos:

https://sponsor.ajay.app/

I 100% agree, there's a valid point to be made but the performative outrage is juvenile and frankly embarrassing

(note for downvoters: it's Linus that I was calling out in this comment, not the person who replied to me!)

We are not Linus' audience.

I don't get it. Of course Intel would make sure their releases are timed as well as possible with the competition, especially if they are at a technical disadvantage (so need any other advantage).

I don't see how it affects tech reviewers though? Isn't it good that both lift their embargos at the same time, so they can review and compare both products? Reviewers know that the AMD products that need to be compared with the new Intel 10xxxXE wil come out shortly after the Intel, so any serious review will just need to wait to be able to compare?

No reviewer or comparison will be published comparing the intel 10-series to the previous AMD gen just because they lift an embargo a day earlier?

Intel set their embargo date to a day before AMD's embargo date, so early Intel reviews can't include numbers against AMD's next generation CPUs. (That would violate AMD's embargo.)

My thought here was that AMD should have just moved their embargo back... but some reviewers would not have been prepared for that and we'd instead be watching a video about how AMD screwed them and they'll never review an AMD product again.

Intel was smart here. 99% of reviewers will not complain about this. LTT could have waited a day to release their review, but chose not to; exactly what Intel desired. Sure, he called them "chickenshit" but if you want to buy a new CPU today, you have no data about AMD's offering but you do see that Intel's 9th gen products are half the price now.

> Intel set their embargo date to a day before AMD's embargo date, so early Intel reviews can't include numbers against AMD's next generation CPUs. (That would violate AMD's embargo.)

Yeah I got that, but does "early intel reviews" really mean "reviews done in the first day"? Does anyone even care about waiting a day? Is it such a mad rush to push reviews online?

I guess intel could also use it themselves in their marketing "look, 10980XE is faster as AMD" (even though that's only true for 1 day) and that I agree would be a little shady. But for reviewers and tech sites? Just wait a week if you want to compare? If your clicks go down because you wait 48h with a review to make it properly, that sounds like a serious problem...

> LTT could have waited a day to release their review, but chose not to;

To make a review is cool. You can just finish it with "Spec and perf comparison will follow in 3 days". You don't necessarily need to include bar charts comparing Intel to anything AMD just because you make a review.

> Is it such a mad rush to push reviews online?

From what I hear, yes. The first video with a review get all the initial clicks, and is therefore recommended over all later reviews, since they have a higher click count. This compounds, and any later review is essentially doomed to obscurity.

> If your clicks go down because you wait 48h with a review to make it properly, that sounds like a serious problem...

Yes, many people have complained about this phenomenon on YouTube, but YouTube does not seem to want to change it.

> Is it such a mad rush to push reviews online?

Yeah, it's a huge deal. You want to be selected by The Algorithm to be the authoritative review, and being early appears to help.

Is that good? Nope. Can the reviewers change this system? Not easily. So here we are.

TL;DW?

Intel rushed their new CPU's to come out before AMD's new CPU's. So they can only compare these new intel CPU's to the older, slower AMD CPU's, making intel look better in comparison. THIS is important BECAUSE its ALWAYS the first reviews that gets the most attention, they will be the first results in any search because they have more views. and they can only compare to the old AMD stuff because its not out yet. SO intel is trying to fool uninformed people, into thinking their stuff is better then it is, its a dirty tactic, because most people won't know the difference, they'll search for the intel CPU see the reviews showing how it performs against the old stuff and think its better then the current Threadripper. basically what they always do, sneaky tactics to get more mindshare against their competition instead of making better products.

Original comment by "xenonnati" (https://tinyurl.com/tygknwt)

In this case, I'm seeing a lot of similar responses and some simply waiting to push comparative data to later in the day release.

I'd be surprised if most articles don't footnote the newer Threadripper chips or update their articles. I've seen very few articles not comparing or mentioning them at the very least. Especially since most reviewers already had them for comparison. Actual 3950X stock seems to have been harder to come by.

So basically some reviewers are angry because they're "forced" by the market to release reviews before they get all the data or they'll lose out on money. Yet somehow, we're supposed to blame Intel for releasing their product from embargo early in order to make more money.

Well, there is a shitty rule enforced by the "market" (the "market" is named Google, by they way, I guess we can use its real name), and Intel is exploiting it to misinform their consumers.

So yes, Intel act is shady. Google and the reviewers also are, but it does not exonerate Intel.

That's not a dirty tactic at all, that's just how you compete, it's called first-to-market. They're not trying to fool anyone, they just have a product on the market that's better than the other products on the market at this point in time.

That's a dirty tactic no matter how you sugar it.

Intel let reviewers go live with their Core i9 10980XE reviews half a day before Threadripper 3970X/3960X was able to go live (that was planned for a while) so that early reviewers wouldn't be able to compare it against the (superior) AMD offering. Linus just blurs the Threadripper benchmark values in the charts and tells you to watch the upcoming review...

Reviewers want to publish their reviews immediately when they're allowed to, or else they'll lose views (and income) to other reviewers that published first.

Intel, knowing they won't look good compared to the new AMD processors, set their embargo to end a couple of hours in advance of AMDs.

Since they scheduled it this way, the initial reviews of Intel's processors aren't allowed to talk about the AMD processors yet. They can't include benchmarks comparing Intel's new chip against the competition released on the same day.

Said benchmarks look pretty rough for Intel.

Oh gawd this was so satisfying to watch. Intel has grown into such a despisable company. They have such low expectations for buyers intelligence, that it's insulting

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