Wednesday, December 4th 2019

Amidst Intel CPU Shortage Woes, Dell Reportedly Looking Into AMD Alternatives

That news title should come as a surprise to no one, and extends to most other PC makers who are affected by Intel's inability to keep up with demand on its 14 nm (+++++?) node. News of Intel's factories being outputting less than the entire professional and consumer markets are required has already been covered multiple times and in multiple ways. Sand steps Intel has taken to mitigate this issue whilst trying to solve its 10 nm execution woes range from moving chipset production up from its 14 nm nodes to 22 nm to free capacity, increase production capacity over the already installed one, and even outsource some of its silicon manufacturing to other players in the industry. However, these measures won't actually take effect in the availability equation in a heartbeat, and of course PC makers such as Dell, who has already revised its revenue forecast and placed the blame on Intel, are looking to alternatives.
Dell has already had some products based on AMD designs, but most of the company's lineups, irrespective of market, are based on Intel platforms. That they are considering AMD is obvious; all other makers are surely doing that, especially considering the overall value proposition from AMD CPUs. Dell CFO Tom Sweet, for one, told yahoo Finance that they are "Evaluating AMD" as a partner, and that they expect Intel's shortages to only by fixed by the second half of 2020. Should AMD be able to entrench themselves as a viable alternative (which they already are; but companies do take their business relations seriously, and they would do so even more when it comes to Intel), then they could carve themselves a space that would then be difficult for Intel to recover. or, of course, this news may serve only as a way for Dell and other manufacturers to put some pressure on Intel to achieve better materials acquisition deals - Intel is bound to be eager not to let AMD penetrate the market as much as their chips deserve to.
Sources: Yahoo Finance, via Tom's Hardware
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44 Comments on Amidst Intel CPU Shortage Woes, Dell Reportedly Looking Into AMD Alternatives

#1
john_
If Dell is not getting the number of CPUs that it needs from Intel, then we are talking about huge problems for Intel.
I mean, at Intel it should be like this :
"Give Dell what it wants, then give Apple what it wants and finally split whatever is left to the others"
Posted on Reply
#2
mtcn77
Wtf is this pandering to Intel, if I may say so?
Posted on Reply
#3
thesmokingman
Fkn Dell, finally realizing the subsidies hurt their bottom line cuz they lose customers. Wake the hell up Dell. Sell cpus that people want.
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#4
INSTG8R
Vanguard Beta Tester
Finally...
Posted on Reply
#5
theGryphon
mtcn77Wtf is this pandering to Intel, if I may say so?
You need to throw up the Koolaid to understand ;)
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#6
mtcn77
theGryphonYou need to throw up the Koolaid to understand ;)
I'm NARCAN® the aggression inhibitor.
Posted on Reply
#7
theGryphon
mtcn77I'm NARCAN® the aggression inhibitor.
Good one :laugh:
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#8
NZKshatriya
If Dell could send me a replacement board for my Area-51m, with a x570 chipset and uses the same GPU form factor....
I'd take it.
xD
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#9
dj-electric
The plot thickens.
Losing OEMs to AMD is sort of a huge deal, it was a very sacred thing for them so far.
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#10
notb
dj-electricThe plot thickens.
Losing OEMs to AMD is sort of a huge deal, it was a very sacred thing for them so far.
Not happening. But Dell is allowed to play this game. It may work.
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#11
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Intels stretched themselves too thin.
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#12
CrAsHnBuRnXp
thesmokingmanFkn Dell, finally realizing the subsidies hurt their bottom line cuz they lose customers. Wake the hell up Dell. Sell cpus that people want.
The average user dont know what they want other than a computer that can do what they need it to do.
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#14
trog100
people that buy dell may well not be that technical but i think they prefer "intel inside"... old habits take a lot of shifting..

trog
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#16
ncrs
notbThis is a low-volume gaming desktop. Dell's issues are in laptops and enterprise segment.
They also have Ryzen-based Optiplex 5055.
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#17
xrror
ncrsThey also have Ryzen-based Optiplex 5055.
Note that the Optiplex 5055 can not be configured with anything more than 4 cores if you want to keep it an AMD box. And no, it's NOT because the 5055 is restricted to only using APU's. It's because any 6 core (12 thread) or more Ryzen directly competes with Intel where it hurts.

When the 5055 was first announced, it was going to launch with the Ryzen R5 1600 as the mid-range config. I know this because our university was wanting to buy 50 of them to evaluate for updating all of our classrooms. After about 3 months of our sales rep being told that the 5055 was still undergoing validation, and that yes we still explicitly wanted to try the ryzen processors - we will still wait... our rep was told that the 5055 was canceled as not being "financial viable" for Dell, but magically we were offered "equivalent" Intel for $300 below normal cost.

And sadly since we are a state entity, we had to take that offer as lowest bid + we were out of time to spend fiscal year.
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#18
Redwoodz
notbThis is a low-volume gaming desktop. Dell's issues are in laptops and enterprise segment.
Low volume yet they used AMD, what does that tell you? They used AMD where they didn't have to. Times are changing bud, and the 10nm fiasco will last for years.
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#19
Th3pwn3r
I really don't think this is really news to AMD or Intel. If you can't supply a customer with what they need then they are forced to get what they need elsewhere. Simple as that.
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#20
DeathtoGnomes
This speculation is a warning to Intel, changing the revenue forecast is a huge deal to stock holders and pointing fingers at Intel is a means of using Intel as a financial scapegoat

its also a fishing game to see if Dells with AMD installed would be acceptable.
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#22
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
OEMs want a fast processor with iGPU. The 3400G is nice, but falls behind the i5-9400 and i5-9500 on CPU performance (possibly the fastest-moving CPU option in business desktops). "Renoir" is freaking Intel out, because it has "Zen 2" IPC. Intel is praying it doesn't have more than 4 cores, because then AMD will beat the Core i5 both in CPU and iGPU performance.
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#23
trog100
yakkIntel hush money not enough this time Dell? :rolleyes:
hush money wont work if you cant supply the goods :)

trog
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#24
fancucker
Can they guarantee the same QC with AMD platform/chips? Memory, voltage and stability issues still abound with Ryzen 3000
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#25
notb
RedwoodzLow volume yet they used AMD, what does that tell you? They used AMD where they didn't have to. Times are changing bud, and the 10nm fiasco will last for years.
They offer both Intel and AMD variants of these. What's wrong with that?
It's easy to offer 2 different platforms in a large desktop. This is not the segment Dell has supply issues. Desktop CPUs are abundant for the sales potential this gaming line has.

And Dell has been using AMD CPUs often, so I don't understand what this changes.
In fact, Aurora lineup replaces Area 51, which was the flagship PC for previous gen Threadripper.
ncrsThey also have Ryzen-based Optiplex 5055.
This is currently only available with A10 APU and it's been like that for a long time.
I don't know why. Maybe AMD can't supply enough CPUs as well? :)
Posted on Reply
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