Intel Calls Out AMD For Using Old Cores In New CPUs In “Core Truths” Marketing Playbook, Is This “Real-World Performance” 2.0?

Intel has released a new customer playbook known as "Core Truths"  that calls out AMD for using old CPU cores in its latest Ryzen CPU lineup.

According to Intel, the "Core Truths" playbook is designed to help customers spot half-truths that are put out by the competition such as AMD. It includes a total of four "Core Truths" in which Intel tries to explain to customers the differences between its Core lineup and the competition's Ryzen line of CPUs.

Starting with the first "Core Truth", Intel states that AMD is shipping a dated CPU architecture in its Ryzen 7000 lineup of processors. The chip used as an example here is the Ryzen 7520U which is a Mendocino CPU based on the 6nm Zen 2 core architecture. The Zen 2 core architecture was first released in 2019 on the 7nm process node with Mendocino "Ryzen 7020" series getting an update to a 6nm process node. The chip also houses an RDNA 2 core architecture.

While we agree that AMD's naming scheme for its latest mobile CPUs is very confusing, the same can be said for Intel's new naming scheme which features similarly named SKUs with varying architectures. The 1st Gen Core CPUs feature the Raptor Lake CPU architecture while the 1st Gen Core Ultra CPUs feature the Meteor Lake CPU architecture.

Following is how AMD segments its Ryzen 7000 CPU lineup:

Following is how Intel segments its 1st Gen Core (Ultra) CPU lineup:

Intel also goes ahead in comparing the AMD Ryzen 5 7520U "Mendocino" CPU with its own Core i5-1335U "Raptor Lake" CPU. The performance figures show Intel's chip offering an 83% uplift in terms of performance. Mendocino CPUs are designed for entry-level laptops and retail mostly in the sub $500 US segment. The second "Core Truth" pretty much is the same thing, calling out AMD for the use of its latest Ryzen 7000 branding while shipping older architectures under the family.

In one more example, Intel states that "Not all cores give you the best overall performance". Here, the company compares the Zen 2 "Mendocino" and Zen 3 "Cezanne" against 12th-Gen Alder Lake chips & Zen 3+ "Rembrandt" and Zen 4 "Phoenix" against 13th-Gen chips. The performance figures are based on the Crossmark Overall Score test which is a single test and not representative of actual real-world performance. Intel shows its Core lineup leading against all offerings from AMD.

Another point that could be made about Core Truth #4 is that Intel employs two types of cores in its latest processors. They have a P-Core and an E-Core which is part of their hybrid and the future disaggregated chiplet design. The P-Cores and E-Cores are based on different architectures and the E-Cores are known to hamper gaming performance if proper optimizations are not in place via the Thread Director technology. Meanwhile, AMD's hybrid chips use the same ISA (Zen 4 & Zen 4C) so in this case, Intel has the disadvantage and their statement goes against them.

However one should point out that neither pricing nor efficiency which plays a major role in the laptop segment is mentioned. A lot of this "Core Truth" marketing buzz is reminiscent of its old "Real-World" Performance slides which were proven to be very misleading tests to show AMD's Ryzen Desktop CPUs as inferior products against Intel's offerings.

There is no doubt that the existing branding schemes from Intel for Core CPUs and AMD for Ryzen CPUs are some of the worst that we have seen. AMD went a step further to help customers distinguish between the Zen 4 and older CPUs by using new marketing logos on the products. But a more concise naming scheme from Intel and AMD would help customers more than just calling out each other for using similarly confusing naming for their CPUs using their new & old architectures.