[citation][nom]gnesterenko[/nom]@jdamonEhh, Intel made a booboo. THey are big enough (and the market is uninformed enough) to absorb it this time around, but they did. The booboo is Nahelem (did I spell that right?) released in the consumer market/desktop segment with its socket change, triple channel memory (useless for home applications). Don't get me wrong, the processors are monsters, but the problem is, they are still monsters - and they will remain that even with SandyBridge out. By creating these monsters, they gave AMD free reign in the value segment (where the $ is at) and what allowed AMD to come back from the brink in the last few years.Now, Intel realizes this, and hence, Sandy Bridge. Lower power, dual channel, integrated graphics, and cheaper. Sure, new sockets again, but that's to be expected from Intel by now. With these offerings, Intel's got AMD in the cross-hairs again - they are trying to recover from the BooBoo (and will succeed, probably). However, AMD beat them to the punch with their Fusion chips which have been recently benchmarked and are awesome. Intel still has the performance crown - AMD has nothing to match the 6-core i7s - and hence there has been no progress in this segment. Competition is moving to the value segment, and as I've said, by persuing Nahelem, Intel let AMD gain significant ground in this middle segment. Being an AMD fan, this makes me very happy (and it should make Intel fans happy too as competition is good for everyone). Hopefully, Intels new focus on the middle ground and AMD's excellent performance in this segment will allow AMD some time to breathe and allow them to catch up again in the performance sector with Bulldozer-derived Zambezi... hopefully...So in conclusion, Intel goes for performance, gets it, AMD gives up on performance, nails the middle/low/server segments, Intel realizes that's where the $/growth is at, abandons performance (letting the platform stagnate), and chases AMD into the middle/low segments, but too little too late as AMD releases a new generation before Intel does, so now they are going to be 4-6 months behind.I think the most amusing part about the Booboo however, is that despite Intel letting the platform stagnate, they are upping the high-end chips every once in a while with new extreme editions (at $1000/pop) - even though they are simply results of improved yields and quality of said yields. This allows them to make up for the booboo (again, at $1000/chip!!) by milking the crowd that actaully is silly enough to upgrade every time something faster comes out."The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."[/citation]
Nahelem was a huge success on desktops. Remember LGA1156 and LGA1366 are both Nahelem based architectures. LGA1366 was never meant for general home applications, but more power users and enthusiasts.
Intel didn't give AMD free reign, look at their low end pentium's and the heavy marketing convincing people they need something faster. Alot of people go for laptops over desktops and I don't know about where your from but here in Belfast most laptops use i3 processors. Only in the last 3 or four months has any of the retailers actually started using AMD processors in more than one model. Builders and people in the know like yourself will go AMD for value but the consumer knows intel. Intels marketing machine has far from let AMD have free reign of the budget sector.
I understand what your saying but I disagree with it. Yes Intel should be worried about AMD's Fusion APU's but its not as black and white as that. Intel are expanding into SoC markets and atoms are being adopted for lower power useage and even smart phone market. Bobcat will eventually challange in that market but both atom and bobcat have their uses in the server market.If anything performance, value, low end just doesn't hold up anymore for describing the market since the lines are getting blurred.
You also can't blame intel for wanting to make money selling their processor for $1000 after all they are a buisness and I seem to remember AMD doing something similar with a dual core...... Its what the market can bare and you always pay a premium for new tech especially at the top end. A six core intel challenges server boards and brings another option to power users than xenon settups which are far more expensive. Personally a hex core on LGA1366 that can be overclocked than their better binned but fundamentally even more expensive xenon brothers.
Theres more to performance than raw power. Efficiency, integration of GPU, are intels plans for this tock. I donno where your getting the idea intel has abandoned performance. ATM AMD need more cores to match intel in performance. They may focus less on raw clock speed but they're still gonna give top end performance unless AMD's bulldozer pulls something out of the bag. In which case we won't know till its benched and in any case Intel won't sit still and roll over. If anything AMD is behind (how long after intel did 45nm come out?) and their performance is only that of intel's now discontinued core2! Yes AMD will release first, but it will have to make up the performance gap before its ahead as well as counter intels next release.Thats alot of ground to make up!