That is certainly true of any market - competition is wonderful! As long as it's fair, of course. The last time, Intel went full mafia.
I'm reasonably confident AMD will take a clear lead in 2019. Intel will certainly fight back strongly, but for the short term, AMD has to make hay while the sun shines.
Agreed! :) I am looking into getting a new computer for my work and I'm going to build it, and Ryzen right now seems like the best option, the fact that the AM4 socket will be in use for at least 4 years is very encouraging :)
AMD have always been good with that! They only move to new sockets when they need to. AM4 looks it'll be supported till DDR5 comes out (AM5 then). A fresh change from Intel, who seem to have a new incompatible socket every year or two...
That's the second reason I didn't pull the trigger on an intel based system before, now with coffee lake, I was tempted again, it is a very powerful processor but it's just more of the Intel shenanigans we're used to seeing now, coffee lake has the same LGA 1151 socket as the previous Z270 chipsets, but will only work on Z370 chipsets because older Z270 boards are "electrically incompatible".
Knowing that I can get a Ryzen system now, and update the processor in three to four years time with something that will be way superior and not have to buy a brand new motherboard for it to work helped me to stop and do the research.
As soon as I have saved up enough I'm getting a Ryzen system.
And all of this not even taking into account the threadripper vs X299 discussion, which is just as crazy/disconcerting :)