Intel needed more than a faster benchmark. Its 12th-generation Alder Lake chips mixed performance and efficiency cores, and Thread Director relied on Windows 11 scheduling to put work on the right cores. That made the operating system part of the product.
I wanted to see independent tests across games and everyday workloads before accepting Intel’s “best gaming processor” claim. AMD’s Q3 growth showed how much ground Intel had to regain. A launch slide wasn’t going to settle that contest.