11th Gen I guess is AMD's FX 9590
This is a pretty good analogy in terms of Intel having to 'crank it' to produce a product that's even competitive
on paper, as was the issue with the FX / 'dozers, though there is a bit of a difference in perspective; however far 'behind' Intel is, it's not overall in the way that FX was non-competitive right out of the gate.
Guess the question becomes will Intel coming roaring back when move to 10nm or 7nm happens like AMD was able to with Ryzen
All indications point to them having some pretty stellar architectures that... they are unable to manufacture in volume. While the question must remain open, that if Intel cannot make the transition to full-scale production at smaller nodes the stumbling giant might just fall, the chances of that situation coming to pass seem relatively remote. If other companies have been able to 'crack that nut', surely Intel can.
Right?
or have we reached a fork in the road where Intel short of break-through will remain in the passengers seat.
This relates to the former point about manufacturability, but it's worth pointing out that Intel remains in the 'driver's' seat out of sheer production volume at 14nm today. Most estimates I've come across put Intel at ten times the volume of CPUs supplied of what AMD is able to supply, and that's when AMD is being viewed optimistically.
Yes, there are many reasons one might prefer a Zen-based CPU right now over
anything Intel has available, but the truth of the matter is that the Intel CPUs are simply 'more available'. That's not as much of an issue for individual enthusiasts, but it is most certainly an issue for large OEMs as well as for enterprises.
And that doesn't touch on the platform, driver, and software support differences and even quirks and nuances that might push a particular purchasing decision one way or the other!
I'm bit curious though to see how Intel's 11th Gen does with top end 6900 XT in games at 2560x1440 - single and multi-thread games.
I'm definitely looking forward to in-depth frametime analysis of emerging platforms myself, but to be honest, I don't see the < 4MP of 2560x1440 as being that big of a challenge for
any top-end CPU these days. That's what I'm running now myself, and with a 5.0GHz 9900K, I can't say that I'm left wanting for CPU performance when it comes to gaming specifically.
I'm much,
much more concerned about the general market price and availability of GPUs and the price and lack of quality and quality control of 'gaming' monitors!
