It should be painfully obvious by now that we're reaching the limit of how many instruction per clock-cycle an x86 cpu can generate. Core i7 is way too big, runs too hot and uses way too many transistors for what typically amounts to a neglible advantage over Phenom II or Core2(and STFU if you're going to say "I encode video", because Avivo will wipe the floor with your i7). The only thing left is adding more cores, and GPGPU. IMHO, the forthcoming 6-core(and dual-chip 8 and 12 cores...), ATIs GPGPU technologies, and the 32nm dieshrink of Phenom II should easily keep AMD competetive in the meantime.