Well, if you have 4 cores that can run 32 IPC versus 8 cores that can run 44 IPC, I would think, even with less efficiency of code processing, you'll flat out get more operations out of the AMD chip, versus the intel.
He's right on that everyone here has been using "IPC" incorrectly and out of context. IPC is not how fast a CPU is, its an engineering term used to measure the efficiency of the integer processor and used almost exclusively in RISC uArchs. In x86 it has no meaning for one very simple reason. x86 Instructions have variable execution time with most requiring more then one clock cycle to actually execute. RISC design's on the other hand almost always have 1 cycle execution times for all instructions, they is why they use explicit load / store instructions rather then combined instructions. This limit is actually what had many of the original RISC design's beating out the x86 ones for performance (SPARC / PPC / MIPS) until Intel made the Pentium. That CPU did something unique in that it wasn't an x86 CPU, it only emulated one. Internally it was a RISC processor that had a front end x86 decoder / scheduler bolted on to trick the system into thinking it was an x86 CPU. Using this technique Intel was able to put the functional equivalent of multiple processors inside a single logical CPU that could then rapidly execute multiple instructions. The last true x86 CPU was the i486 era CPUs.
That is all important to keep in mind because when your trying to count instructions you need to specify
which instructions your wanting to count as their not all the same. AMD and Intel both have different internal microprocessor languages, the real instructions being executed are masked from the OS and so we have no idea what exactly is going on inside (not without access to confidential engineering information). One particular instruction make take longer on one CPU then on another. AMD's BD in particular has a very sensitive cache access method that could easily destroy performance if not handled properly.
Anyhow the take away from all this is to stop using the word "IPC". You can simply say processing efficiency, or single core capacity. Capacity would be the proper term to use as it describes the maximum amount of work able to be done, either by a single unit or by the whole entity. Also do not use clock as a measurement of anything involving two different CPU designs. For the above reasons clock rates have dramatically different impacts depending on the design. The two best metrics are per cost and per energy used as they describe what the user / integrator is paying for that capacity.