Scotteq, if you read my comment and added comparison...
I did read your comment - And Tom's covered their journalistic behind by clearly stating in the beginning of the article that they were unable to obtain a Barcy Quad. Engineering sample or otherwise. Yet the readership/membership
*really* want to know how these things stack up against each other. So what do you do? Leave AMD out entirely and get flamed for poor journalistic standards because you didn't include them? Or do you do your best to provide the content your readers demand with the best you can get your hands on, and then get flamed for poor journalistic standards because you were forced to include a poor~er performing product in the comparison? Do you run the comparison and risk AMD's marketing folks getting p*ssed off at you for somehow "making" their stuff look bad? If AMD gets mad, will they not provide product for future testing? Or do you use your position with the readership at large to make the case that AMD *really* need to get performing product into consumer hands?
Quite frankly, I am of the opinion that it's far better to publish the results of the best
(Product X versus Product Y) that you are able to obtain. Explain clearly what it is, why the comparison was made, and why the results look as they do. Then let the chips fall where they may.
{No Pun Intended, I assure you....} This is how people make their buying decisions, after all: We look for the best we can obtain with the money we have to spend.
I understand your point - It may... Hell - almost surely, would have been better from AMD's perspective had Tom's left AMD out of the comparison altogether. But that's not what the member/reader~ship want to see. We want to see Brand A's best going head to head with Brand I's best.
Maybe next time Toms could do a $300 Processor/$150 Mobo/identical memory/identical HDD test, or something. I know it could be made to sound like a backhanded comment, but I would expect to see more comparable results given the way AMD is currently positioning themselves in the market. And that'd go some way towards neutralizing Intel's advantage in outright performance.