drcroubie :
Can anyone remember over a year ago (Just pre-Core2 launch)?
These forums were filled with exactly the same sort of comments, but with AMD/Intel names reversed.
No, i'm not suggesting that history will repeat and AMD will pull out a core2 squasher (although that would be good for everyone, especially consumers), but as always, no company is stupid enough to put out benchmarks and roadmaps that they themselves don't believe they can stick to.
Yes and no. Intel spread the BS thick and heavy prior to C2D, but I dont recall Intel having a Henri Richard equivelent who came out saying 'these bench marks lie, we'll never do anything like that' and then presenting equally false benchmarks. Intel was full of it when Athlon was tanning their fannies, but in one years time AMD and the fanboys hit us with quad core for dummies, followed by the 'ultimate enthusiast' machine, the 'AM2 will beat Intel'(fanboy hype) the 'brisbane will beat C2D' (fanboy hype), the brisbane paper launch, and the all the greatly varied but unproven numbers for Barcelona, and at least one missed introduction. Not to mention the "something really big is coming from AMD" which turned ot to be a ~1"x ~1 1/2" Phenom logo on an F1 drives helmet
drcroubie :
But look at the facts.
The upper Athlon X2s 5600~6400 compete on the same scale as the mid Core2s 6300~6500, the winner depends on what particular benchmark you happen to be running with. Add to that the Athlons tend to be slightly cheaper (especially when adding a Motherboard cost, cheapest Core2 motherboards i've seen are way higher than the cheapest AM2s), gives AMD a definite price/performance edge in the lower-end market (which is a lot bigger than the high-end gaming market that Intel dominates). (and my supplier puts an X2 6000 as cheaper than a C2D 6320).
Absolutely! But remember, it hasnt been consistantly like this since C2D was introduced. When C2D hit the market, the X2s cost a fair bit more than their C2D counterparts. The fastest AM2 at the time, the X2 5200 (which was never in stock) cost nearly $150 more than the E6600 which was significantly faster. Prices and value have seesawed dramatically over the past 16 months with the value crown changing hand several times as AMD and Intel have exchanged salvos in the price war.
drcroubie :
Phenom X2 will NOT be slower (per clock) than any Athlon X2 currently out (otherwise, there's no point in releasing it, duh), which may crank it up to competing with the Core2 6600+s (obviously dependant on when they come out as to what Intel has out as competition. Sooner the better for AMD, obviously).
True, however, if it costs significantly more than AM2, but only delivers only a middlin perfromance boost, why bother buying it? Lots of claims from AMDs marketing machine, but no real numbers to back them. Who knows how fast it will be?
drcroubie :
Phenom and Opteron X4 may initially come out with some fairly lowish clock speeds that can't compete with a QX6850, but who cares? More than likely, it'll be a truckload cheaper than the Intel flagship, and it'll bring QuadCore affordability down to us masses, if Intel responds with a low-clock low-price Quad to compete, even better for us, the consumers.
Yup. But if K10 is that much cheaper, then how small are the margins going to be? AMD took back 66% of the market share they lost in Q1, but for only a 1/2% gain in revenue share which is noweher near what they lost, nor does it come close to putting them in gaining column. If they are forced to try and undersell with Barcelona, how much money will they be losing?
drcroubie :
So, back to the point, I'm rooting for AMD. Despite what others think, I believe Phenom is not the MakeOrBreak of AMD. If it whips the pants off Core2 (unlikely), AMD will just charge more for it, Intel will respond with lower prices and better models, and life will go on. If it beats Athlon X2s (which it will) but not the upper-crust of Intel's line (Extreme models), then they will just be priced appropriately and Intel will have to compete on the mid-high range as well as low-mid (which they'll do by cutting prices, and/or releasing faster models to redefine the market upwards and push AMD back to the low-end).
Only a few fools dont want to see AMD survive. But wanting and getting are 2 different things. I want AMD to survive...Ive been using thier products for years, but the information available and the PR smoke&mirrors (aka Henri Richard circus) dont suggest that Barcelona is going to smoke Intel IRT performance. I hope it does, and I would love to beleive the fanboy wet dreams that AMD is hiding something and that Barcelona will be
the CPU. Maybe AMD really has locked down the info so well that the suprise will be huge and devastating, but again the information available dosnt support that theory and in this day and age where its impossible to to protect anything even as simple as a SSN, I just cant buy that AMD has succesfully hidden a 'megachip' One way or another though, Sep 10 is rapidly approaching, and everyone will have the answers we've been waiting for.
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