[citation][nom]therealcold187[/nom]I buy Intel CPU and AMD Grapic cards so I don't hate AMD they just don't make good CPU any more. The last AMD processor I bought was a AMD Athlon XP 3200+ back when the P4 were crap but now Intel has left AMD in the dust and I see no chance of AMD coming back into the game.[/citation]
But AMD continues to sell these devices in volume, so they must be doing something right. Also, that Athlon XP 3200+ being your last AMD CPU..that's a really old product (I had a 3000+ too and recall trying to spread thermal paste on that tiny core lol). I'd recommend using a Phenom II. If the Phenom II is out the race, then so is Core 2/ i3/i5..because that's what it's competing with. Someone recently asked me to build them a GTA IV rig and the results show the Phenom II x4 was kicking some serious FPS, putting it near or even at the top of the pile and for a very good price.
Then there's AMD's longevity. The Phenom II is also compatible with old boards dating back to the AM2+ socket era, boards that have chipsets like the AMD 785G with it's very good multimedia capabilities. All this at a good price, allowing you to build a system on shoe-string, one that can easily cope with a lot of today's software demands.
People might slag off AMD, but it's AMD parts that drive the competition. I myself still use AMD products and have no reservations regarding performance, stability or power efficiency. I can get a board and choose from a wide variety of parts, from ultra-low power devices to 6-core monsters. All with minimal downtime. With clients, what I save in not splashing out on the latest Intel CPU's, I pass onto other areas: power supplies, memory and quality case fans.
I really don't see the point in rushing out to buy a controversial socket technology just because it's the fastest..it will no doubt be replaced by something that's faster. AMD may be competing on price more than it is with top-of-the-range performance, but I think that is playing it smart especially when you look at the great advances AMD has made in other areas such as GPU and APU technology. I know AMD is not the performance king, but neither are a lot of Intel systems..people still seem perfectly happy to use them
I also think AMD is coming back in a big way, by developing several technologies rather than just focusing on one technology alone.