Intel’s New Core Ultra Branding Drops the i, Looks Like AMD’s Ryzen Branding
Intel today announced that it’s overhauling its consumer CPU branding for the first time in 15 years, resulting in a simplified naming scheme somewhat similar to AMD’s Ryzen naming scheme. Intel’s new approach will focus on ‘Core’ branding, splitting the chip into ‘Core’ and ‘Core Ultra’ tiers. We have also removed the iconic “i” from the i3, i5, i7 and i9 chip identifiers and no longer refer to processors by generation names such as “13th generation”. New badges are also included, which are detailed below. These changes will start with Meteor Lake processors hitting the market later this year, but will not be retroactive to existing chips.
Intel’s announcement comes after a new chip-naming scheme emerged a month ago when new “Ultra”-badged processors were listed in a public database of processor benchmarks. Intel’s latest rebranding follows other revamps of the company’s public image, including changes to the iconic Intel logo and jingle, the latter of which has received considerable negative feedback. Intel also recently discontinued other Intel hallmarks, such as the once well-known brands Pentium and Celeron brands. This change was also not well received.
Intel said the Meteor Lake chips were “a turning point in design, manufacturing and architecture that represent a major advancement for us and our customers,” and that the change was a result of customers’ desire to simplify the company’s branding. says there is.
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Intel will divide future chip generations into two tiers, the ‘Core’ mainstream model and the ‘Core Ultra’ premium chip, with the latter showing higher tier performance. Intel also dropped the generation designator from the brand name, but you can easily decipher it from the product number. For example, the “13” in 13900K indicates that the chip is a 13th generation model, and that part of the naming scheme will remain consistent with the next generation. Intel also has a new badge, which you can see in the album above.
Perhaps the biggest cosmetic change is the decision to remove the “i” from the Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 lines. Here’s a mockup of what the old brand will look like against the upcoming 14900K chip, and some examples of what it will look like with the new brand. formal Diagram:
- Old: Intel 14th Generation Core i9-14900K Processor
- NEW: Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 14900K
- NEW: Intel Core 9 Processor 14900K
- AMD: Ryzen 9 7950X
As you can see, Intel includes the word “processor” in their official product names as well. This is technically already present in the current branding scheme, even though no one commonly uses it at all. Not even Intel. But now Intel mysteriously inserts this word between the family designator (Core 9, Core Ultra 9, etc.) and the model number instead of at the end of the name.
When I asked Intel’s branding team about the matter, they said they “prefer” to use the term “processor” but that the real focus is on the “Core” and “Core Ultra” branding. Given that even Intel itself hasn’t yet used the existing “processor” designator, I doubt the brand new extra “processor” part will be popular. Here’s another mockup, but this time showing what the branding looks like in common usage.
- Old: Intel 14th Generation Core i9-14900K
- NEW: Intel Core Ultra 9 14900K
- New: Intel Core 9 14900K
- AMD: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
Arguably, this is probably the most common usage you’ll see in reviews and general reports. As you can see, the branding of Intel’s new mainstream chips looks very similar to AMD’s branding of his Ryzen, as there is no extra “processor” inserted in the brand string. Sure, the Core Ultra-branded parts have the “Ultra” letter added to distinguish them, but the new scheme is missing the Core i9 “i”, which makes him feel very Ryzen-y.
Intel hasn’t confirmed it yet, but we know from a mountain of external evidence that the company’s next-generation chips will have two swimlanes. It’s a Meteor Lake-based processor, an all-new 3D stack design with a new microarchitecture, and a Raptor. The Lake Refresh models use the same design and microarchitecture as the currently shipping processors, but with additional tuning to improve performance.
We spoke with Intel’s branding team to see if the new Core Ultra branding will be applied to the new Meteor Lake models while the refresh models will fall under the standard Core branding, or if overclockable K-series processors will be Ultra. I asked if it would be limited to brands. Product only.
Intel didn’t confirm that only Meteor Lake chips will be marked as Core Ultra only, but said that the tier “represents the latest innovation” and will share more details soon. So at least it’s a reasonable assumption. However, the rep said overclocking capability (K series) is not a requirement for the chip to be branded as Core Ultra.
thought
It’s certainly a bold but questionable decision to drop a brand that harkens back to a time when Intel had a near monopoly and was the undisputed performance leader for over a decade. Regardless of the focus panels or market research that Intel told us it used to study the issue, the perception that Intel was diluting the brand recognition it built in its then-hot-fought battles is clearly not going away. will also exist.
Intel’s rebranding will certainly be confusing to those who have grown accustomed to this naming scheme over the past 15 years, but according to Intel, the change will increase brand awareness among non-tech savvy mainstream audiences. It aims to improve. In fact, Intel believes that removing the “i” will put more emphasis on the “Core” brand, as it feels that it is already core to its brand equity.
Today, Intel and AMD are even more closely aligned than we’ve seen in the last decade. AMD’s Ryzen processors temporarily put the company back in undisputed leadership position, but Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake offers the best combination of performance and value for the majority of the desktop PC market. We have regained the overall lead. Yes, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 still holds the lead across the game with its premium lineup of X3D parts, but it comes with a premium that relegates it to a top-of-the-line system, so it’s not for most users.
That makes the timing of Intel’s rebranding even more confusing. Indeed, it is not uncommon for underdogs to adopt branding schemes similar to incumbents, and often leverage the dominant player’s well-known product branding to bolster their own brands. I have. That’s exactly what AMD did when it launched its Zen-powered product. Processors with the very well-known Intel-like Ryzen 3, 5, 7, 9 scheme. In fact, even AMD has adopted his chipset brand of motherboards, which is very similar to Intel.
Intel is certainly on the rise again in the desktop PC market, but its policy of truncating the familiar “i” part of its 15-year-old brand equity is sure to generate a lot of criticism. It probably wasn’t intentional, but some argue that this looks like AMD’s branding plans for his Ryzen. However, as mentioned earlier, AMD adopted an Intel-like branding scheme first, so it was difficult for Intel to simplify the branding without arriving at a similar-looking approach.
Intel said it has not yet shared all of the details of its new branding scheme, with slides showing that it is still in the decision-making process on some of the details. Given that Meteor Lake is close to launching later this year, that seems a bit dubious, but certainly those decisions have already been made. In any case, we’ll learn more about the branding scheme when Meteor Lake comes out later this year.
