Overall, 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most competitive and exciting years in recent processor history, with compelling options arriving for consumers across every market segment. February could mark another significant milestone with the anticipated release of Intel’s next-generation Xeon 600 series (codenamed Granite Rapids-WS) targeting the professional workstation market. However, the year’s most crucial consumer battle will unfold in late 2026 with the arrival of Intel’s Core Ultra 400 series (codenamed Nova Lake) and AMD’s competing Zen 6 (codenamed Medusa) chips.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom\u2019s Hardware. Although he loves everything that\u2019s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-11/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Zhiye Liu News Editor, RAM Reviewer & SSD Technician Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
LordVile They operate their own fabs. How about “lower prices” and chipsets/sockets that don’t become redundant in 18 months Reply
Gururu Was watching GN video on Sparkle ARC card production and it answered some questions I’ve always had about who buys all of these computer parts. You hear all the time for example that ARC sales are horrible and I always figured the lowly B570 was collecting dust on shelves. I imagine the same with all these core ultra products. But geez, seeing Sparkle shipping hundreds of B570s a day by air at $20 a pop to the U.S. alone was eye opening. Seems no matter what Intel, AMD or nVidia make, they sell. Reply
txfeinbergs LordVile said: They operate their own fabs. How about “lower prices” and chipsets/sockets that don’t become redundant in 18 months I think you probably meant "obsolete". That said, I can count on zero hands the amount of times I have upgraded a CPU in my already existing computer so I don't really hold that against Intel. I will be switching back to AMD again though for my next build in March. Reply
LordVile txfeinbergs said: I think you probably meant "obsolete". That said, I can count on zero hands the amount of times I have upgraded a CPU in my already existing computer so I don't really hold that against Intel. I will be switching back to AMD again though for my next build in March. Redundant – “No longer needed or useful” I went from a 2600 to a 5800X3D on my last system on a board that launched with Ryzen. The longevity of AM4 and 5 is a major draw vs intel. Reply
User of Computers Gururu said: Was watching GN video on Sparkle ARC card production and it answered some questions I’ve always had about who buys all of these computer parts. You hear all the time for example that ARC sales are horrible and I always figured the lowly B570 was collecting dust on shelves. I imagine the same with all these core ultra products. But geez, seeing Sparkle shipping hundreds of B570s a day by air at $20 a pop to the U.S. alone was eye opening. Seems no matter what Intel, AMD or nVidia make, they sell. MLID got you there, huh? yeah he makes it seem like if a product isn't constantly sold out it's a terrible product that nobody's buying. Reply
logainofhades Doesn't matter if it is competitive if nobody can buy the ram to go with it. Reply
EzzyB txfeinbergs said: I think you probably meant "obsolete". That said, I can count on zero hands the amount of times I have upgraded a CPU in my already existing computer so I don't really hold that against Intel. I will be switching back to AMD again though for my next build in March. Yes. I've been building PC's since the mid 80's. Not once have I bought a new CPU to place in an existing board except for a 486 that simply quit working. There has always been sufficient gains in other new technologies to make it worth while to simply replace the whole motherboard at least. Reply
Gururu EzzyB said: Yes. I've been building PC's since the mid 80's. Not once have I bought a new CPU to place in an existing board except for a 486 that simply quit working. There has always been sufficient gains in other new technologies to make it worth while to simply replace the whole motherboard at least. I think I upgraded a CPU on the same motherboard once in the 90s. It was either a Pentium 90 to a 120 or a 120 to a 200. Never again after that. Reply
logainofhades EzzyB said: Yes. I've been building PC's since the mid 80's. Not once have I bought a new CPU to place in an existing board except for a 486 that simply quit working. There has always been sufficient gains in other new technologies to make it worth while to simply replace the whole motherboard at least. I have done it several times, but I don't as much as I used to. Reply
UnforcedERROR EzzyB said: Yes. I've been building PC's since the mid 80's. Not once have I bought a new CPU to place in an existing board except for a 486 that simply quit working. There has always been sufficient gains in other new technologies to make it worth while to simply replace the whole motherboard at least. I've been building since the 90s and have, on a number of occasions, swapped to a new CPU instead of a full rebuild. This happened most notably with Athlon chips. I didn't consider it again until current-gen Ryzen came out, as my q6600 and 6600K lasted more than 10 years combined. That said, Ryzen's scaling is a large reason they've taken market share from Intel (along with performance parity). At current pricing for PC components the draw to upgrade every other year is dwindling for most consumers, so having an avenue to upgrade without dropping large amounts of money is enticing. I think it's silly to overlook simply how expensive computing has become in the past 10 years. This isn't the 90s, and early 2000s, upgrades are incremental rather than exponential. It's simply foolish to look at the current economics of the situation and be dismissive about the consumers. That mindset is exactly what caused Intel trouble in the first place, make no mistake. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intels-comeback-weapon-to-fight-amd-reportedly-drops-this-spring-core-ultra-200k-plus-and-200hx-plus-cpus-set-for-march-or-april-launch#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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