The X86 alliance between AMD and INTEL didn’t cause much of a stir a few days ago when it was announced. However, some people (including us) wondered why AMD should be joining forces with Intel at a time when the Reds are pushing their advantage on virtually every front. Why then the need for such a partnership between the two giants to “promote” the X86 architecture? Please note that this article is an opinion, based on deductions and personal analysis.
Microsoft seems to be betting more and more on ARM to the detriment of X86
The element that probably decided the blues and the reds to make common cause was the launch of CoPilot PC. If you’ve got any technical background at all, you’ll have understood that any system with a decent CPU and a proper graphics card is capable of passing the pre-requisites for this label. This is even truer with an RTX-type card, where the equivalence with an NPU is literally exploded. Yet, strangely enough, this label is not granted to these PCs. Just a matter of logos, some might think. In fact, it’s a story of marketing funds, big bucks and direct aid granted to players integrating an ARM solution into their portable PCs. And yet, AMD in particular seemed to be able to deliver notebook chips capable of “the first X86 NPU for Windows H24” during the month of August. Even so, you won’t find any Copilot PCs with these processors.
SemiAccurate has been claiming for over a year that Microsoft is massively funding efforts to ensure that x86 alternatives gain ground. Until now, Qualcomm has been the mainstay of this strategy. The arrival of Intel’s Lunar Lake chips should have redressed the balance. By all accounts, they easily buried Qualcomm’s solutions in terms of power, autonomy, compatibility with market software and, of course, the power required for this label. At the end of September, our friends noticed that the newly-released Windows security patch KB5043080 significantly affected Lunar Lake-equipped systems, and only them. And what’s even more disturbing, the impact is only palpable when using a benchmark tool, Cinebench, the market benchmark for CPU power.
Something smells fishy.
Of course, we could say that we’re indulging in “conspiracy theory” on the sole basis of the statements of one (albeit highly qualified) source. But we felt it was important to mention this story in the light of several facts. First of all, this surprise association between AMD and Intel, but also the many problems we encounter in our tests of new processors, which are regularly explained by Windows upgrades. Finally, there’s the disturbing question of why a PC with the requisite processing capabilities isn’t certified Copilot by Microsoft
Honestly, in many years of benchmarking, testing and releases, this is the first time we’ve seen processors launch so disrupted. This is also why we decided to postpone our gaming tests on Arrow Lake. We’re not pro-Intel, but there are far too many inconsistencies in the results we’re getting. What’s really at stake between Microsoft and the other PC players? At the moment, we don’t know: but objectively, something’s not right.
From my point of view, Microsoft clearly has a hidden agenda. Within this agenda, the arrival of an “in-house” ARM chip is undoubtedly a step. The hype surrounding Qualcomm, but also certain disruptions in the market over the past few months, should be put in perspective with all this.
