Intel has launched its 13th Gen CPU lineup with unlocked K-series models for gamers, overclockers and enthusiasts desktops. While mainstream laptop and more PC models will follow, it’s interesting to now highlight those who want the absolute best performance. With the effects of the pandemic fading and global supply chain shortages, gamers now find themselves with an array of options, but do they have the urge to upgrade? Gadgets 360 caught up with Akshay Kamath, Director – PC Customer Sales (India) at Intel on the sidelines of the 13th Gen launch in India, to talk about the current state of PC gaming, the hardware ecosystem, and what the company is doing to motivate you to upgrade.
Gadgets 360: How is it going post-pandemic? We saw a period of unexpected demand, then prices were out of control and supply chains were in shambles. What is the prediction for the near future?
Akshay Kamath: Overall for Intel as a company, we have this IDM 2.0 strategy for Intel Foundry Services. We’re investing in building our future-ready semiconductor capabilities, and I’ve heard remarks from our CEO that clearly outline the vision we want to be in the next 3-4 years. We are ready to grow in this direction. In terms of the trends we’re seeing in India, obviously in the last 2-3 years of the pandemic there’s been a huge uptick in learning and working from home, and I think it makes sense this year as schools and offices have opened up. That was to be expected; However, we still see huge potential to continue the PC momentum in India. The reason I would say there are some trends that we’re seeing over the longer term. One of them is gaming, and you realize that over the last five to six years or more, the growth trajectory of gaming has been fantastic. We are seeing new players entering the funnel. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen mobile gamers start playing PC games. Good healthy growth in gaming products led to good growth in desktops as well this year.
Another factor, I think, is the increased awareness of the importance of the PC in India. So there was this perception of India as a low-cost market. I guess we can say that is no longer the case. In a pandemic with prices going up due to all the limitations of the ecosystem, we have seen people choose to buy the stack and are willing to not compromise when it comes to buying machines just because they realize that for their kids education or for their personal business, a good powerful computer is important.
So we saw a more balanced mix of premium systems and thin and light systems. More laptops sold today are thinner and lighter than ever before. One more thing we see is the way people interact with computers. They are more invested, more involved in the way they interact with their computers, and perform more tasks and activities on it. This means that they find it more relevant.
Also, I think we’ve seen shortening of modernization cycles in India. A full batch of laptops and PCs purchased within the past three years will be updated in the next two years. Newer systems, better technology, and better form factors have the potential to keep the PC’s momentum going.
Gadgets 360: Has things changed in terms of demand for the sector, whether it’s people buying at home, or offices buying in bulk? What has changed and what is shown?
Akshay Kamath: In the last 2-3 years of the pandemic, laptops have clearly been the winners. Many people used to buy laptops because they had to work from home, but now this year we are seeing a resurgence in desktop computers. I’d say laptops are now increasingly thinner and lighter, so they’re here to stay. A trend towards insurance premium is also observed in India. People are becoming aware of the kind of performance they get at the price point when they buy a laptop or desktop computer. I think there is a growing awareness about trade-offs or compromises. Obviously, I would say that gaming continues to be one of the growing segments in India and will support the growth of gaming laptops.
Gadgets 360: What’s the current split in demand between, say, unlocked K-series CPUs, regular desktop and laptop models, and even earlier Celerons and Pentiums?
Akshay Kamath: We don’t have an answer as to a breakdown of what the demand for PCs in India looks like across sectors, but I can say we are seeing good demand for gaming. For example, we may have seen the fastest ramp of K SKUs globally when we launched the 12th generation, and at the end of 2021 we shipped one million K SKUs. I think with the 13th generation we’re on our way to overcoming that. So we see K CPUs on a healthy trajectory. We obviously have a lot of partners that are bringing out motherboards based on the 700 chipset. We expect the demand momentum to be very good for our 13th Gen CPUs in India as well.
Gadgets 360: How is Intel reaching out to the gaming and overclocking enthusiast communities in India? Compared to other countries, it’s still small niches here, with only a few online small group and gaming PC vendors. Even those who want a gaming desktop might not be confident in building one or buying the parts. Is there a gap in access to them and is Intel doing anything to grow this market in India?
Akshay Kamath: Awareness of computer games in general is increasing in India. I think the reason why you can see it taking so much longer compared to the rest of the world is because we are a huge market for smartphone games. The vast majority of gamers in India today are still gamers; This is where they started. But as these people mature and start moving on to better experiences, they’re definitely thinking about computers, whether it’s an entry-level laptop or building their own desktop. We are doing our bit to promote this. And obviously we also have extensive industry relationships, so a lot of games like Call of Duty, etc. benefit from the performance improvements that we’ve had with 13th generation.
Take, for example, social media. There are a lot of content creators and YouTubers posting right? And there is a growth in esports. Many people in India today follow esports hence the growth in PC gaming. I would say it gets there. It’s definitely heading in the right direction, but it will take some time to mature.
I think we have a healthy DIY community in India; It’s just fragmented. Unlike some other markets, we don’t have big boutique names in India but the DIY community and channel community we see are healthy and strong. We work with distributors and sub-distributors in terms of selling our CPUs, so we do a lot of sharing with them and we’ll continue with 13th Gen as well.
We do a lot of marketing and participate in events all over the country. We’ve done AMAs. We are engaged in talking about and showcasing our products. You can expect us to do more along these lines as well. We want to keep the community involved in everything we do and bring about in terms of gen 13 and the future. I think awareness is growing, and obviously it takes time, but India is on the right track in terms of increasing awareness of computer games.
Gadgets 360: Any plans to confirm a combination of Intel Arc GPU with Core CPU? Will DIY retail buyers be able to take advantage of a combination of parts?
Akshay Kamath: The [Intel Arc] The products we launched work on desktop and mobile. There are some of the benefits that we have presented, and the fact that Intel CPUs and all GPUs work well together. Some technologies such as Intel Adaptix [tuning tools for OEMs] And smart power sharing between the CPU and GPU, we’ve brought to the table to make sure our Arc GPUs work well with Intel platforms. But that’s what we’ve uncovered so far. About future plans, nothing else.
Gadgets 360: What are the factors that are actually driving people now to upgrade, and what is shortening the upgrade cycle and making people buy new computers sooner than they might have before?
We have great new features. New technologies are emerging. With last year’s 12th generation, we had the performance hybrid architecture that revolutionized the leap in performance. So, if I was a gamer at that point in time and saw 12th Gen really help me improve my game and give me the fps improvement, which is so crucial in esports competitions, there was a compelling reason. And it’s the same for the stuff we introduced like DDR5, PCIe Gen 5, and so on. We have significantly improved overclocking tools. We have been improving Extreme Tuning Utility for a long time; It’s free. Anyone can download and use it in their system. It gets even better with the 13th Gen, with a per-core tuning interface and a one-click speed optimizer. So if you’re a beginner and want to overclock but are scared, guess what? You can buy a 12th or 13th generation computer and you can do it easily. So these technology features also help in making that decision to upgrade your PC.
On the other hand, laptops are getting more and more powerful – not just for gaming, but even laptops that are thin and light. So we introduced our P-series platform last year with the twelfth generation. We’ve introduced our Evo platform, where it’s not just about CPU performance, but we work with all of these ecosystem partners, whether they’re display vendors, OEMs, or ISVs. etc., to give an overall experience to the end user. Evo was, as I say, a revolutionary. You’ve seen a lot of stylish designs and this is really important for a lot of mobile phone users; Those young professionals who want the system to look cool. It’s light, plus it’s fast. It is when you open the lid. It’s instantaneous, they don’t want to wait for anything.
In general, I would say that the ecosystem has really caught up. Most of the laptops you see are thinner, lighter, and sleeker than they were, say, five years ago. Interaction with personal computers and laptops has increased dramatically in the past few years. Now a lot of people are also creating content, so a lot of individual or amateur content creators are editing their own videos. Now, if you want to do this, you need to perform.
Use cases evolve, engagement increases, and above all, the technology available from the ecosystem now provides reasons to buy and upgrade.
Gadgets 360: AI and machine learning were envisioned as the next buzzwords and growth drivers, but now people are using features without necessarily knowing they are AI-based, such as image upscaling or background noise cancellation. Is there any traction for these features, and has Intel’s approach to driving AI changed, considering the removal of the AVX512 from the 12th generation onwards?
Akshay Kamath: Artificial intelligence is now integrated into a lot of technologies; Platform and applications. So much so that it is almost invisible to the end user. With Evo, we use AI for dynamic noise cancellation, and that started as a feature of the 3rd edition specification. This is an advantage for end users. They probably won’t look up [specifically AI-powered features]. This target audience is looking for a simple solution for a use case. How can I hold a conference call in a noisy coffee shop without sacrificing battery life, so that the caller on the other end has a good video conference? And they found it [a particular laptop] It gives them dynamic noise cancellation, so they find an important use case.
This is by using the artificial intelligence built into the Evo’s specifications, in the processor. We have been providing AI instructions since generation X (Ice Lake). With the 12th and 13th generation, we made the decision to focus more on the data center side. The E cores on Gen 12 and Gen 13 do not support AVX512 but if you look at client workloads, AVX2 and VNNI are more than adequate. For truly high-end use cases, the AVX512 is required and we continue to offer this in our data center products.
So I would say that AI is now everywhere. It’s part of the use cases we serve and also part of the improvements with the 13th generation. We use ML technologies for cache and thread manager optimizations, and we implemented a new dynamic prefetching algorithm for the L2 cache using ML technologies with real-time telemetry during normal operations. End users will care about the use case. We provide that using artificial intelligence that we have built into the system.
Some responses have been shortened and slightly edited for clarity.
Disclosure: Intel sponsored reporters’ trips to the event in New Delhi.