Nvidia vs Intel launch 2020

tl;dr

Nvidia was a chad shrek flexing. Intel was a salty jealous boi calling names.

Nvidia RTX 30 series

Given that RTX 20 series launched back in 2018, a refresh in the product was somewhat expected. But the unexpected high performance increase was a happy surprise for everyone:

tl;dw: you get the best performing card in previous gen for USD$499 in new generation. Nvidia also flexed 8k@60fps with RTX 3090 (ie. Titan).

Well-announced

I can't find anything wrong with the Nvidia launch video. It is focused, the tech is well described (just deep enough) and features are presented well.

Nvidia later on released more gameplay comparison videos to further solidify their performance claims.

Why is it so much better vs last gen?

I have a couple of theories:

1. RTX 20 sales were underwhelming and Nvidia wanted to regain attention.
2. Rumored AMD's Big Navi performs on par with RTX 3070 (ie. on par with RTX 2080Ti). Check out Moore's Law Is Dead video regarding rumored Big Navi performance.
3. Nvidia is trying to prevent PC customers from switching to new console generation.

Whatever the reasons are, performance-per-dollar seems to be amazing with RTX 30 - which is obviously great for consumers.

Intel Tiger Lake

Intel is losing CPU market share to AMD. Steam HW survey reflects this in PC gaming market. Recent AMD laptops dwarves Intel alternatives in performance and battery life. AMD server hardware is significantly more tempting even in layman's view.

Intel, not surprisingly, decided to steal the show from AMD - who announced the octa-core 4800U about 8 months ago:

Textbook of bad announcements

The product stack seems solid and powerful. But unlike Nvidia's reveal, entire video tone can be summarized as 'jealous boomer whining'.

Literally 5 minutes in, Intel is name-calling AMD as imitators. I am guessing Intel is calling out AMD's CPU naming scheme. Then, does copying AMD64 instruction make Intel an imitator? How about Intel coping bigLittle design (ie. Intel glue)? Anyway, only imitators use benchmarks, but Intel plans to be the best in benchmarks (watch 05:04 of the video for a good laugh).

I don't want this post to turn into '10 pages how Intel is unproductively whining', so I'll just stop here.

To be fair, I get that Intel is scared of AMD. I'd also want to drive AMD out of mobile market while they are still new before desktop history repeats itself in mobile.

Easy things Intel can fix

I'd never accept my work presented in such an unprofessional presentation. I am sure many Intel engineers agree. I think Intel can fix this easily:

1. Pre-record the announcement. None of their talent has good stage performance.
2. Stop mentioning AMD, ever. The best way to make a man-child behave is by removing the trigger.
3. Don't follow-up on AMD's announcements. AMD also does petty things in their presentations (misleading graphs, for example - which Intel definitely did here).

Two announcements, one winner

I think the videos got more eyeballs than usual thanks to 2020 being the year of staying indoors and few releases - ie. Intel's PR failure got amplified thanks to COVID. That said, if there wasn't Nvidia's announcement, Intel's failure would not have looked this bad.. May be not.