AMD pokes fun at Intel's Core i7-8086K with new giveaway

Back in the beginning of the month, Intel announced a new Core i7 processor, the i7-8086K, which celebrates the 40-year anniversary of the company's 8086 processor. Being a limited edition and a special release, Intel decided to give away 8,086 of them. Now, AMD is firing back at Intel's celebratory release with a giveaway of its own, but with an interesting twist.

AMD is allowing those who received the free Core i7-8086K processor to exchange it for the company's own Threadripper 1950X. To be selected, you'll need to be one of the first 40 people to complete a series of steps, which the company says it will explain on June 25, at 1pm EDT. Then, you can exchange Intel's processor for AMD's much more powerful one, provided you still have it in the box. The company's announcement says the company is ready to lead the way for x86 processors in the future:

Our competitor recently kicked off a sweepstakes to celebrate the first 40 years of the x86 processor by giving away 8,086 limited edition processors.

We appreciate the advancements they’ve helped drive with the x86 architecture over the last four decades. But, we’re ready to take it from here. That’s why we’re giving 40 performance-hungry enthusiasts in the U.S. an opportunity to celebrate the next 40 years of high-performance computing by trading in their commemorative processor prize for our CPU that enables you to work, play and create with heavy metal.

The Threadripper 1950X has a lower base clock speed of 3.2GHz (with boost speeds up to 4GHz), compared to the 4GHz on the Intel's offering (which can be boosted up to 5GHz), but the red giant's processor has an overwhelming 16 processing cores and 32 threads, while the Core i7 has just six cores and 12 threads. AMD's offering also has just over 40MB of cache, while Intel's is limited to 12MB. It should be noted, however, that the Threadripper will require a X399 motherboard, which will set you back over $300 if you don't already own one.

You can check out the official announcement page here, which is where further information will be provided. Be sure to read the full terms and conditions of the giveaway as well.

Source: AMD via Tom's Hardware