AMD designed Zen 2 with more competition from Intel in mind

In a new article, AnandTech analyzes the performance promises of AMD's upcoming Zen 2-based platform. The consumer chips are expected to hit the market on July 7th and the company stated at its recent Tech Day event that the Zen 2 roadmap was actually designed with more competition in mind. AMD basically said that when they designed this product, they expected the launch would intersect with "a very competitive 10nm chip" from Intel. That didn't happen, as Intel is still stuck with its 14nm nodes.

It should also be noted that at multiple times during AMD’s recent Tech Day, the company stated that they are not interested in going back-and-forth with its primary competition on incremental updates to try and beat one another, which might result in holding technology back. AMD is committed, according to its executives, to pushing the envelope of performance as much as it can every generation, regardless of the competition. Both CEO Dr. Lisa Su, and CTO Mark Papermaster, have said that they expected the timeline of the launch of their Zen 2 portfolio to intersect with a very competitive Intel 10nm product line. Despite this not being the case, the AMD executives stated they are still pushing ahead with their roadmap as planned.