The end of Intel

And now it is time for a second doom post and this time it is about Intel. According to new data Intel was aware of defects in their processors starting from 2022 but they didn’t recall their product and they didn’t let anybody know about this issue. Many people wasted a lot of their time trying to figure out what was wrong and later came to the conclusion that it was a processor issue.

Instead of doing the right thing and helping their customers to solve this issue by simply replacing defective processors, Intel blamed motherboard manufacturers stating that they provide too much power to their CPU.

I had to state that power delivery was always problematic for Intel platforms because Intel does not post clear specifications about what should be safe settings. Moreover, when they tried to do so, it was very hard to understand what they meant and it looked like they were just trying to hide the truth there. Lastly, they continue to silently change this specification.

But as I wrote before it wasn’t a power issue with motherboards because even server motherboards had these issues and they are using extremely conservative settings due to stability and cooling requirements.

Anyway, even though motherboard vendors updated these values to recommended values, it didn’t fix anything. In fact, it looks like this made the problem only worse. And it was a moment when hell went loose on Intel.

A few software companies after spending months of hardcore research stated that there is some issue with 13^th and 14^th-generation Intel processors. NVIDIA also confirmed that there is an issue with Intel chips because some applications reported instability as an “Out of video memory” error.

Some big clients of Intel started to blame Intel and stated that Intel selling defective processors because they had to RMA a lot of sold processors. Many popular YouTube channels that review computer hardware released statements that they do not recommend to use of Intel processors until this issue is fixed.

Then and only then Intel finally admitted that the issue that later was appointed to issue in their microcode. But they are trying to downplay it stating that this affects a very small number of processors. But as we know some companies reported up to 50% of processors having this issue. Of course, it is not as bad but researchers stated that up to 25% could be affected one or another way. All of that leads to people losing confidence in Intel and this requires a bit of explanation.

A long time ago they were saying: “Nobody got fired for buying IBM”. It means that even though IBM products were quite expensive they were very reliable and it was safe for businesses to buy them. The opposite was true as well. Buying something else had some monetary benefits but also associated risk and as a result, the person who bought non-IMB products is risking their career. This led to the case that for many IT people, IBM was a safe choice and this is how that saying was born.

Sort of the same was with Intel. It was a safe choice for people who buy equipment for big companies and they don’t even check AMD alternatives because for them it is an unnecessary risk without any reward.

But then everything changed. People in big companies started to experience serious issues. Issues that considerably impact the productivity of employees. Suddenly IT people have a lot of problems they have to deal with and AMD systems look quite appealing to them. In the end, many of them actually moved to AMD because every hour of downtime costs a lot of money. Moreover, risk vs reward is now reversed. Now it is risky to buy Intel products.

All of the above created a snowball effect and many clients stopped buying Intel systems until Intel resolves all these issues. But what is worse is that Intel didn’t confirm this for a long time and it looks like they confirmed it only after it became obvious that their processors definitely had some issues.

Also, they constantly edit the text they already published without any indication of what actually changed. For example, they wrote that the oxidation issue didn’t affect any products and then changed that statement later to “that only a small number of instability reports can be connected to manufacturing issue”. And unless you re-read the whole page you will not notice this change.

They didn’t state when they fixed it, they didn’t provide any clear way for customers to identify if their processor is affected by an oxidation issue even though it is a very simple thing because every processor manufactured after the day they confirmed the fix, is not affected by oxidation issue.

Another nail in the coffin is that there are already several class action lawsuits against Intel because people quickly realized that Intel knew about this issue a long time ago but decided not to do anything about it hoping that it would go away by itself.

All of that crushed Intel stock a few weeks ago and it looks like it was the worst day in the whole of Intel's history. At the same time, Intel CEO stated that they had to “chop some wood” which means to fire people which looks like 12 000 to 19 000 people. Interesting word choice I would say. Also, they will cut on “fruits and beverages” for their corporate employees. Yes, this definitely will save them from financial troubles.

Currently, Intel stated that they will release an update in the middle of August but it will require at least two months to make sure that there are no new issues and that the problem is actually fixed.

And what is quite bad for Intel is that some chips already degraded beyond any kind of fix. As a result, after they apply the fix, it will obviously not help and these people will state that the fix does not work. It will create a secondary wave of disappointment and frustration.

In conclusion, Intel is not planning to do any type of recall and it looks like they are planning to fix this problem at the expense of customers. Yes, they will replace processors of the most annoying and vocal customers and that’s it. For the rest, it will be their payment for the privilege of buying Intel.

Moreover, it is clear to many that Intel cannot be trusted. They provided a lot of statements that were silently changed later. Intel didn’t answer any inconvenient questions and simply ignored them. There is no help from Intel and they prefer to hide the ugly truth instead of deal with it. All these problems could easily lead to the end of Intel.

This is a huge contrast with AMD which replaced processors when some motherboard manufacturers oversupply power to their processors and as a result -  fried them. Reputation takes a lot of time to build and it is very easy to lose.

I’m sure that even in the best case for Intel AMD became way more popular than now. And it is probably a reason why they decided to delay the 9000 series to make an ideal release because it is a golden opportunity for AMD. Also, they demonstrate to the public how any issues should be handled and that customer satisfaction should be a top priority.

I personally think that what Intel is doing is typical corporate behavior of people who absolutely don’t care about the company and for them, the company is just a place to work and get money. When the company collapses they will move to a different company and will do exactly the same. They are not proud of what they or their company do. All they care about is their career and how much money they get.

P.S. I got a lot of information from different sources but most of it came from this Gamer Nexus video.