A massive power and CPU load decrease in Zstandard is a big win for Intel. AMD has been racking up major pluses in the enterprise space, with RAM, PCIE and core count advantage. Showing that <i>any</i> Intel is faster at such a major CPU load task is a big deal.<p>That's not to detract from everything AMD has done, but hardware is only the first step. Software that properly uses the features your hardware provides is just, if not more, important.<p>I love the fact AMD is pushing Intel so much. Pre-C2D days were amazing because we had two vibrant, innovative companies pushing to the edge of possible; trying to out-do each other. Pre-Ryzen was a horrible time. Do you want to spend $500 to upgrade from a 4-core intel 4000-cpu to an intel 5000-cpu? You'll get DDR4 and 1% IPC.<p>Now we get massive IPC, clock speed, ram and PCIE improvements on a regular basis. Competition is great, especially for the consumer.