Intel 14nm vs AMD 7nm

[SRussell]

All of AMD's current processors are running at 7nm and they have taken the crown without much competition from Intel in the HEDT market. Intel is curnning out processors at 14nm where they seem to have hit a wall. They are ramping up at 10nm.

Will AMD hit a performance wall much earlier than Intel? At what point is Xnm beyond current manufacturing technology and will force AMD to use 3D stacking?

Does Intel have a future competitive advantage because they have a longer roadmap since they have not announced anything at the 7nm scale?

 

[Patrick]

Everything is going multi-die and we are likely to see different processes used in each package.

 

[Evan]

Ok so it’s kind of clear that Intel 14nm is more like Samsung, tsmc, glofo 10nm.
But then the Intel 14+++nm is really aimed at performance so maybe not so tight in terms of space to make headroom for performance.

I wouldn’t read much into a nominal process node and instead look at work per core at a given power Budget.

 

[BlueFox]

Process size is not consistent between manufacturers. Intel's 10nm is double the density of TSMC or Samsung at what they call 10nm and still marginally better than their 7nm process.

 

[ReturnedSword]

I would only take the process node size as a general guideline. Intel 14nm is quite good. Intel's main issue is the base architecture has hit its limits. An indication is how hard it is for Intel to increase core count and the insane reported thermals of Comet Lake-S.

The age of monolithic processors is over. Going forward there will be an emphasis on chiplets connected by an I/O hub. It's likely that we'll start seeing heterogeneous chiplets as well (e.g. a general processing chipset + graphics/AI chiplet).

That being said, I haven't made so many purchases of AMD hardware since the Socket 939/940 days and a large purchase of Opteron 165/170/175 at the time. My last AMD purchase before the last few years was an AMD K10 way back in 2009. Currently I'm replacing every Intel system with AMD as I go along.