Intel co-CEO Michelle Johnston has asserted that Snapdragon-powered laptops are affected by high return rates. Although there is an absence of hard data on the matter, it is hard to deny that ARM-based Windows PCs have a long way to go before being considered a match for the market dominance by x86. Update: Qualcomm has responded
Decent only if you look at raw performance for the price compared to other MSRPs.
When you scratch beneath the surface a little and see what they’re having to do to keep up with the 3 year old low end Nvidia and AMD parts (that are due to be replaced very soon), it paints a less rosy picture. They’re on a newer, more expensive node, use a fair bit more power, and have a larger die size by quite a bit than their AMD/Nvidia counterparts.
Add to that Intel doesn’t get the discounts from TSMC that Nvidia and AMD get, and I’m doubtful Battlemage is profitable for Intel (this potentially explains why availability has been so poor - they don’t want to sell too many).
While it’s true the average buyer won’t care about the bulk of that, it does mean Intel is limited in what they can do when Nvidia and AMD release their next generation of stuff within the next few months.
You kinda missed the most important detail: they’re competing with the mid-range (and yes, a 4060 is the midrange) for substantially less money than the competition wants.
I know game nerd types don’t care about that, but if you’re trying to build a $500 gaming system, Intel just dropped the most compelling gpu on the market and, yes, while there’s an upcoming generation, the 60-series cards don’t come out immediately, and when they do, I doubt they’re going to be competing on price.
Intel really does have a six month to a year window here to buy market share with a sufficiently performant, properly priced, and by all accounts good product.
My main complaint isn’t with the performance, but the missed opportunity to release a higher SKU with more RAM. 12GB is enough for gaming with their performance, but adding more would open up other uses, like AI or other forms of compute. Maybe they still will, idk, but I would be totally willing to upgrade my AMD GPU if there was a compelling reason beyond a little better performance. Give me 16 or even 24GB VRAM for $300 or so and I’d buy, even if it’s not “ready” at launch (i.e. software support for AI/compute).
As of now, the GPU is well placed for budget rigs, but I think they could’ve cast their net a bit wider.