Intel launches anti-Mac ads on Twitter

Salamande · Feb 12, 2021

I'd like to mention an attitude that I've seen a lot over the years about the whole "Mac gamer" stereotype that I don't think is really warranted.

The definition of "gamer" is much, much broader than it's ever been. You don't have to play the latest AAA games to be an enthusiast. I play games like Disco Elysium, FF XIV and Baldur's Gate titles that run great via Rosetta 2 on M1 (and I'm on an Air). As much as I dislike the word "gamer," I'd say anyone who regularly enjoys games like that are just as hardcore as anyone who plays Apex or whatever. There are also many other even less intensive games like Lucas Pope's stuff (Papers Please, Obra Dinn) or yes, even Rocket League, which are both popular and critically acclaimed by the mainstream and people on boards like this one.

Let's not get hung up about what "gamers" want. There are a lot of people playing games these days, and they care about different things.

Kelsdesu · Feb 12, 2021

Haha intel having a ' Come to death row' moment!

lunarworks · Feb 12, 2021

Salamande said:
I'd like to mention an attitude that I've seen a lot over the years about the whole "Mac gamer" stereotype that I don't think is really warranted.

The definition of "gamer" is much, much broader than it's ever been. You don't have to play the latest AAA games to be an enthusiast. I play games like Disco Elysium, FF XIV and Baldur's Gate titles that run great via Rosetta 2 on M1 (and I'm on an Air). As much as I dislike the word "gamer," I'd say anyone who regularly enjoys games like that are just as hardcore as anyone who plays Apex or whatever. There are also many other even less intensive games like Lucas Pope's stuff (Papers Please, Obra Dinn) or yes, even Rocket League, which are both popular and critically acclaimed by the mainstream and people on boards like this one.

Let's not get hung up about what "gamers" want. There are a lot of people playing games these days, and they care about different things.

The "gamer" identity has been completely up its own ass for a very long time.

My Steam library on my iMac, which performs reasonably well for me, has a whole lot of content I'm backlogged in. (Not to mention that massive itch bundle I purchased.)

mattiewheels · Feb 12, 2021

CloudWolf said:

Incidentally, I read those new ads in John Hodgman's voice.

Johnny Blaze · Feb 12, 2021

exMage said:
Is it fear or is it pure distilled salt?

It's fear.

When apple removes something usually the competitors do the same. Sure they mock them first but then everyone falls in line.

collige · Feb 12, 2021

The ads are technically true and kinda clever imo but the desperation and saltiness is just dripping off them.

Salamande said:
or yes, even Rocket League,

Sorta kinda not really

Fuchsia · Feb 12, 2021

I do appreciate the aggressive 90s era inspired advertising strategy.

Bold move. Let's see how it pans out.

Deleted member 9330 · Feb 12, 2021

Wow, can't believe Intel is so scared of as lifestyle brand.

Fat4all · Feb 12, 2021

its me, John Q. Gamer, please pass me the Rocket League Ball, I'm open

Deleted member 9306 · Feb 12, 2021

I mean I'm an Intel stan no matter what... but these ads are stupid. The people who buy macs aren't usually the type to even give a fuck what type of processor they have, most of them just want Macs no matter what, Period. You're never going to buy them over, just focus on making better processors so you don't lose more of the PC Enthusiast and Gaming crowd.

Mega cringe. Sorta regretting buying an intel cpu last year...

The Real Abed · Feb 12, 2021

Damn did I wake up in 2003 this morning? We really going back to this petty shit? lol

They're scared. Especially if Microsoft starts pushing for ARM as well.

lunarworks said:
Apple's still using Intel processors in iMacs, Mac Pros, and some MacBook Pros. The transition away from Intel was expected to take a couple of years. There's likely some really awkward phone calls going on this morning.

I bet this gets them to push the transition a bit faster. Bye, Intel. Maybe focus your energy on stepping up your speed bumps faster so you can catch up to Apple again. Man I can't wait to see what an Apple M-based Mac Pro or high end MacBook Pro can do.

345 · Feb 12, 2021

Pwnz said:
As someone that has loosely paid attention to CPUs because I manage a software build cluster and have since 2010, my general impression is that Intel has been mismanaged in R&D for about 20 years, and they've managed to get away with it because they've monopolized the CPU server market and got lucky with AMD failing to offer a competitive product between amd64 and Ryzen.

You can see evidence of this when Intel failed with Netburst/Pentium 4 to quickly reach 10 GHz CPUs. They ended up rolling back to the Pentium 3 architecture and have been iterating on that since. Shortly after core 2 duo, their last good release was Sandy Bridge, and at that point they were entirely focused on somehow making x86 CPUs directly competitive with ARM in power consumption. While they made large strides, they simply aren't in the same tier as ARM chips.

As that was becoming clear, AMD had already hired Jim Keller and designed a better chip (at least after 2 revs) with the Zen microarchitecture. They still have a huge grip on the server market, but honestly if they were spending the dozens of billions of dollars in R&D budget each year, we'd have new Intel chips using silicon hybrid materials and a roadmap to next gen super conductor transistors in the hundreds of GHz.

They still have time to turn things around assuming they have something major in R&D. While the new Apple chip in many ways is superior, it's still in Apple proprietary land with absolutely bullshit restrictions on virtualization and terms to build on any OEM hardware for Mac, and there probably are issues with rosetta translation layer for mission critical applications. And gamers can't really get high end GPUs with driver support to play anything major.

They could have offered 8 core chips at 5 GHz in 2015 if they had prioritized thermal design and CPU design, but it took AMD a few years later to force them too. But I think fundamentally, the ceiling is higher on Zen than Intel Core microarchitecture. They need a new design, ideally on something not 100% silicon.

you can't even really meaningfully compare the architectures at this point. intel's problem is fundamentally that it's structurally over-invested on manufacturing its own chips, which used to be an advantage, but now it's a disadvantage because its foundries have consistently failed to deliver on a new process over the past five years or so. meanwhile, AMD just takes its business to TSMC and gets a runaway lead with more efficient technology.

if intel bit the bullet and spun off its manufacturing business it'd be in much better shape. AMD would probably still get some head-to-head design wins, of course, but right now it's a completely unbalanced fight.

caff!!! · Feb 13, 2021

Lifestyle of 250W+ CPUs and selling thermal cooler kits to just say "I win" at performance. All that effort put into making efficient X86_64 CPUs to keep away the RISC demons are for naught while AMD beats you at your own game.

Jonnax · Feb 13, 2021

lunarworks said:
Apple's still using Intel processors in iMacs, Mac Pros, and some MacBook Pros. The transition away from Intel was expected to take a couple of years. There's likely some really awkward phone calls going on this morning.

“We are giddy”—interviewing Apple about its Mac silicon revolution

Craig Federighi, Johny Srouji, and Greg Joswiak tell us the Apple Silicon story.

arstechnica.com

They've pretty much said that they're done with Intel for new designs in an interview.

FaceHugger · Feb 13, 2021

Eh, whatever, I doubt most consumers care let alone know what kind of processor is in their PC / device.

AHA-Lambda · Feb 13, 2021

Zyrokai said:
You know what really sucks? Those of us who prefer Macs and hate Windows but want to play PC games. It's an eternal struggle.

Yes, it's the main thing that's held me back from using Macs. Considering how popular they are it's still sad that the gaming scene on Macs is so downright bad

Temp_User · Feb 13, 2021

Intel is really trying to make this into a PC vs Mac thing when it is really about Intel vs AMD vs Apple. They are being kicked-out in Mac space by Apple and they are being kicked-around in PC-land by AMD.

orava · Feb 13, 2021

Yes macs are trash, but this is not the way intel.

supernormal · Feb 13, 2021

I mean this was Apple's whole schtick. It doesn't fare as well now, but if anyone should be able to take an ad like this it's Apple.

Vuze · Feb 13, 2021

Kinda embarrassing, they must be scared shitless to start some sort of conversion campaign like this for a line-up of devices with a single digit (I think?) market share.

Earvin Infinity · Feb 13, 2021

strudelkuchen said:
AMD is crushing Intel and Apple is making their on Mac CPU/chips.

Sad times for Intel.

+ Microsoft developing their own ARM-based chip for their servers and Surface.

Intel should really just focus on making a good product right now.

Grug · Feb 13, 2021

Corporations exaggerating the quality of their product in relation to their competitors.

MildShock.gif

Not sure why people are getting so emotionally invested in something that happens every day in every consumer market.

In any case, trying to gain back the ground they have lost in terms of their technology isn't something they can do overnight, it will take years. In the mean time they are answerable to the short term quarterly focus of investors and shareholders and whether people think Intel are scared or whatever, the only real short term fix while they sort their shitty R&D out is marketing and spin to salvage what revenue they can from their current product lines.

They are certainly reaping what they have sowed but I don't quite grasp how personally people here are taking it. It's just businesses doing what businesses do.

Shiz Padoo · Feb 13, 2021

Intel? Are they still going?

i like big butts · Feb 13, 2021

It's a dumb ad because it doesn't even target the market that the M1 processor devices are in the process of killing: the premium ultra thin road warrior laptop market.

We're basically seeing Intel put up a straw man argument in advertisement form. Until Intel can compete in long battery/adequate performance/low emissions, I don't see why the majority of people in the premium ultra thin market would even contemplate a PC model. The difference is too substantial and most aren't even the type to care about software compatibility or touchscreens on laptops.

That's the crazy thing about the new M1 MacBook Air. It's thermally decent, is silent, battery life is great and the performance for 99% of tasks is competing with Intel's actively cooled processors.

TooFriendly · Feb 13, 2021

supernormal said:
I mean this was Apple's whole schtick. It doesn't fare as well now, but if anyone should be able to take an ad like this it's Apple.

The difference is that the apple mac vs pc ads actually had a sense of humour and worked as effective marketing.
These intel ads attempt some wordplay, but they aren't entertaining or endearing in any way.

GO PC

i like big butts · Feb 13, 2021

The thing about the Mac vs PC ads was that there was an element of truth in those ads. A lot of people were dealing with both hardware and software troubles during that time.

Apple eventually streamlined the computing process considerably for most end users by providing enough software that they would use pre-installed and basically having a no questions asked warranty solution. I do remember their in-store warranty handling to be particularly generous while under the control of Steve Jobs.

The main one I remember during my University days was the handling of PDFs. Apple's Preview could do most of the PDF messing around most end users would want, for the longest time you didn't really have a good free and obvious option. From memory, the obvious option was to buy Adobe Acrobat. If there was a free option in the early 2000s, I didn't know about it.

I would never buy an Apple desktop but there's a good reason why that marketing campaign was reasonably successful or at least resonated with people.

Quacktion · Feb 13, 2021

90's are back ba-BY!

Karateka · Feb 13, 2021

Dirt McGirt said:
It's fear.

When apple removes something usually the competitors do the same. Sure they mock them first but then everyone falls in line.

This logic doesn't work here though because Windows only other option is amd whose performance is maybe a little better but not much. OEM's aren't going to start making their own chips, they don't have the talent and experience to do so.

魑魅魍魎 · Feb 13, 2021

Should intel be more worried about AMD than Apple?

Biggersmaller · Feb 13, 2021

Karateka said:
This logic doesn't work here though because Windows only other option is amd whose performance is maybe a little better but not much. OEM's aren't going to start making their own chips, they don't have the talent and experience to do so.

It's a mess right now, but Windows runs on ARM. Microsoft aims to build on that, but it needs more native software support and x86 emulation needs to improve. Which will happen as market share widens and processors improve.

Jonnax · Feb 13, 2021

Karateka said:
This logic doesn't work here though because Windows only other option is amd whose performance is maybe a little better but not much. OEM's aren't going to start making their own chips, they don't have the talent and experience to do so.

Windows has arm support.
Microsoft is currenttly using Qualcomm chips in some of their Surface like.

Qualcomm makes arm SoC for most android phones. They are a significant player.

Ethical Hedonism · Feb 13, 2021

Intel is an absolute behemoth that won't go down so soon or so easily, but it is so satisfying to see that they acknowledge they have competition now.

lunarworks · Feb 13, 2021

i like big butts said:
The thing about the Mac vs PC ads was that there was an element of truth in those ads. A lot of people were dealing with both hardware and software troubles during that time.

Apple eventually streamlined the computing process considerably for most end users by providing enough software that they would use pre-installed and basically having a no questions asked warranty solution. I do remember their in-store warranty handling to be particularly generous while under the control of Steve Jobs.

The main one I remember during my University days was the handling of PDFs. Apple's Preview could do most of the PDF messing around most end users would want, for the longest time you didn't really have a good free and obvious option. From memory, the obvious option was to buy Adobe Acrobat. If there was a free option in the early 2000s, I didn't know about it.

I would never buy an Apple desktop but there's a good reason why that marketing campaign was reasonably successful or at least resonated with people.

The other factor is the Mac vs PC ads were coming from a scrappy underdog fighting for a share of the market. These ads are from the industry leader, terrified of cracks starting to form.

Karateka said:
This logic doesn't work here though because Windows only other option is amd whose performance is maybe a little better but not much. OEM's aren't going to start making their own chips, they don't have the talent and experience to do so.

If Microsoft gets Windows on ARM working effectively, all that needs to happen is for one of the big three enterprise-focused OEMs; Dell, HP, or Lenovo; to offer an ARM-based lightweight Windows laptop that lasts all day, and things will happen quicker than you realize.

Kensation · Feb 13, 2021

HanzSnubSnub · Feb 13, 2021

Lump said:
Well yeah, intel processors can power a rocket launch by forcing a unit's fans to spin up fast enough to propel it to the moon in order to cool off their chips, so I guess they're right.

Lmao

Cow · Feb 13, 2021

That video is absolutely hilarious. Why would somebody with 1.6m subs do such obvious shilling? I know he has to say paid promotion, but did he really have to make it so obvious with the shilling? It is hilarious.

I understand a company being scum, but to see a YouTuber with so many subs do this is MADNESS. How much is he getting paid to tank his channel?

CrudeDiatribe · Feb 13, 2021

Fliesen said:
edit: Also, the 2nd Tweet is just wrong. Photoshop for iPad Pro exists.
And what's "flipping through photoshop thumbnails?" And how's using the trackpad not using my thumb? And why would you use your thumb on a touch screen and not your index finger? ... i am so confused.

iPad Pro is not a Mac, though.

They probably meant Lightroom. They don't think of the trackpad because apparently no one on a PC uses the trackpad unless there's a gun to their head.

lunarworks said:
I wonder how hard it would be to switch their remaining x86 Mac Pro roadmap over to AMD. It wouldn't be the first time Apple switched suppliers over a petty dispute.

I doubt an appropriate CPU and system architecture (e.g. where the memory and GPU(s) are) is that far out to make such a change worthwhile.

The Real Abed · Feb 13, 2021

Jonnax said:
“We are giddy”—interviewing Apple about its Mac silicon revolution

Craig Federighi, Johny Srouji, and Greg Joswiak tell us the Apple Silicon story.

arstechnica.com

They've pretty much said that they're done with Intel for new designs in an interview.

Do they have a stockpile of Intel processors to use until they replace all their non-updated machines? Until then they still need to get their stuff from Intel.

Karateka · Feb 13, 2021

Cow said:
That video is absolutely hilarious. Why would somebody with 1.6m subs do such obvious shilling? I know he has to say paid promotion, but did he really have to make it so obvious with the shilling? It is hilarious.

I understand a company being scum, but to see a YouTuber with so many subs do this is MADNESS. How much is he getting paid to tank his channel?

Do you think YouTubers are your friends?

Weltall Zero · Feb 13, 2021

As someone who much prefer PCs to Macs, this is downright embarrassing. "Flipping Photoshop thumbnails with your thumb"; the fuck? It's not the 80s / 90s anymore; you just look childish and scared of your competition with shit like this.

RisingStar · Feb 13, 2021

This is embarrassing.

Cow · Feb 13, 2021

Karateka said:
Do you think YouTubers are your friends?

?

No. I think a YouTuber with 1.6m subs would have the common sense not to do this. It makes no logical sense for him to do this.

MercuryLS · Feb 13, 2021

Cow said:
?

No. I think a YouTuber with 1.6m subs would have the common sense not to do this. It makes no logical sense for him to do this.

The payout must have been good, dudes been a sellout for awhile. Not the first time he took a pile of money from a company to essentially shoot a commercial.

HamSandwich · Feb 13, 2021

I did go PC and I went with AMD.

Thanks intel!

Deleted member 20892 · Feb 13, 2021

Grug said:
Corporations exaggerating the quality of their product in relation to their competitors.

MildShock.gif

Not sure why people are getting so emotionally invested in something that happens every day in every consumer market.

In any case, trying to gain back the ground they have lost in terms of their technology isn't something they can do overnight, it will take years. In the mean time they are answerable to the short term quarterly focus of investors and shareholders and whether people think Intel are scared or whatever, the only real short term fix while they sort their shitty R&D out is marketing and spin to salvage what revenue they can from their current product lines.

They are certainly reaping what they have sowed but I don't quite grasp how personally people here are taking it. It's just businesses doing what businesses do.

yeah same

MegaManTrigger · Feb 13, 2021

This is so cringe. Intel should worry about the state of their cpus instead of bashing another corporation lmao.

This is like a player in a fighting game who trashtalks but gets perfected by opponents every single time.

Jonnax · Feb 13, 2021

The Real Abed said:
Do they have a stockpile of Intel processors to use until they replace all their non-updated machines? Until then they still need to get their stuff from Intel.

Intel aren't going to stop selling to Apple.
Why would they need a stockpile?

elLOaSTy · Feb 13, 2021

Something tells me 16 inch laptops arent too far away if these ads are coming out, and thank goodness. My retina 2015 wont make it through the year

Intel launches anti-Mac ads on Twitter

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