Can AMD Ever Beat Intel?

Let's be frank: AMD's processors aren't as good as Intel's, by and large. Intel's processors have offered better total performance and better performance-per-watt ever since the days of the Core 2 Duo, with few exceptions. If we set the way-back machine to 1999, the story is different. Intel's dominance was seriously challenged when AMD released the Athlon, which crushed the latest Intel chip (the Pentium III) in just about every performance test you could throw at it. This kicked off a major speed race, but AMD held its own and generally outperformed Intel through the introduction of the Athlon 64.Computerworld

The above is only an excerpt. You can read the full article here.

I am definitely no expert and am at best a closet PC gamer but I do enjoy reading up on this stuff every now and then and would like your opinions on this piece if possible. It will probably help to know about this stuff when I eventually build my first PC and the like. So, what do you guys have to say about this?

That quote is very true, AMD's Phenom II CPU's perform roughly the same as core2quad Intel CPU's, since then though Intel has introduced two whole new architectures into the field.

Current Sandy Bridge CPU's are considerably better than AMD's offerings, they use less power, overclock a LOT further, have slightly better features (turbo boost 2.0). For a while now AMD has only been relevant because they keep slashing their CPU prices.

Now, when Bulldozer CPU's are released this MIGHT change. As of now though we have no idea how well they perform or how much they will cost (remember that AMD CPU's have only been cheap since Intel has been pwning them).

Either way I hope AMD Bulldozer CPU's can compete with Intel's offering, hopefully they will be better :)

Don't know, but my next rig will have to have massive cpu power, and lots of ram 12gb should be fine, if its still on ddr3 and hasn't moved on by then

I do a lot of gaming, and my phenom II quad at 3ghz does just fine for most of that... So if I were just a gamer, I probably wouldn't go Intel just to save some money..

That being said I am not just a gamer, I compose and record music on my pc as well. So the extra CPU power will shine in this department, as well as the RAM and yes and SSD would really shine here!

Right now Intel's offering stomp anything AMD offers for my particular needs, though I will just use my phenom until some really power 8-12 core cpus come out that are super fast, I estimate a year or so before we start seeing them (maybe a tad longer, maybe).. Now I do not know if I will go intel on my next rig, depends on who is offering what kind of power and what kind of price.

Do I think Intel can be beat by AMD... Sure if intel gets complacent, and AMD works their butts off it could happen again. Remember though Intel has the major marketing (far more so than AMD) which dramatically effects sales (don't be naive and say it doesn't) and sales dramatically effect pricing, and the cost they can fork-out on the new models before they make a return on their investment!

[QUOTE="Computerworld"]Let's be frank: AMD's processors aren't as good as Intel's, by and large. Intel's processors have offered better total performance and better performance-per-watt ever since the days of the Core 2 Duo, with few exceptions. If we set the way-back machine to 1999, the story is different. Intel's dominance was seriously challenged when AMD released the Athlon, which crushed the latest Intel chip (the Pentium III) in just about every performance test you could throw at it. This kicked off a major speed race, but AMD held its own and generally outperformed Intel through the introduction of the Athlon 64.Hexagon_777

The above is only an excerpt. You can read the full article here.

I am definitely no expert and am at best a closet PC gamer but I do enjoy reading up on this stuff every now and then and would like your opinions on this piece if possible. It will probably help to know about this stuff when I eventually build my first PC and the like. So, what do you guys have to say about this?

I remember those days quite well, it also started intel on absurd paper launches. Intel would release a processor months and months before anyone could buy one anywhere just so they could say they were ahead of AMD.

AMD can beat them again, the problem is last time that AMD was beating intel in the performance department Intel did a lot of illegal things to keep AMD from rightfully gaining market share. (Costing AMD incedible amounts of revenue it could have pumped into R&D, which is why we have the performance disparity we have now)

Bulldozer is looking to be to the i7 what the athlon 64 was to the prescott p4. Hopefully, this time AMD can gain some market share since Intel now knows it's not worth it to play dirty (about $4 billion in settlements and fines)

Right now Intel's offering stomp anything AMD offers for my particular needs, though I will just use my phenom until some really power 8-12 core cpus come out that are super fast, I estimate a year or so before we start seeing them (maybe a tad longer, maybe).. Now I do not know if I will go intel on my next rig, depends on who is offering what kind of power and what kind of price.

Lach0121

AMD's 8-core Bulldozer CPU's should available within a year :P

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

Right now Intel's offering stomp anything AMD offers for my particular needs, though I will just use my phenom until some really power 8-12 core cpus come out that are super fast, I estimate a year or so before we start seeing them (maybe a tad longer, maybe).. Now I do not know if I will go intel on my next rig, depends on who is offering what kind of power and what kind of price.

Tezcatlipoca666

AMD's 8-core Bulldozer CPU's should available within a year :P

within 2 months even

[QUOTE="Tezcatlipoca666"]

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

Right now Intel's offering stomp anything AMD offers for my particular needs, though I will just use my phenom until some really power 8-12 core cpus come out that are super fast, I estimate a year or so before we start seeing them (maybe a tad longer, maybe).. Now I do not know if I will go intel on my next rig, depends on who is offering what kind of power and what kind of price.

GummiRaccoon

AMD's 8-core Bulldozer CPU's should available within a year :P

within 2 months even

I prefer not the first 8-cores (they will be out in a matter or months)... I mean a more mature 8-core, I am sure the Bulldozer will be great, but I will just use my phenom II for a little longer until some more mature 8-core cpus come out, Intel or AMD, just whoever offers the better price/performance/power ratios.

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="Tezcatlipoca666"]

AMD's 8-core Bulldozer CPU's should available within a year :P

Lach0121

within 2 months even

I prefer not the first 8-cores (they will be out in a matter or months)... I mean a more mature 8-core, I am sure the Bulldozer will be great, but I will just use my phenom II for a little longer until some more mature 8-core cpus come out, Intel or AMD, just whoever offers the better price/performance/power ratios.

By more mature what do you mean?

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

within 2 months even

GummiRaccoon

I prefer not the first 8-cores (they will be out in a matter or months)... I mean a more mature 8-core, I am sure the Bulldozer will be great, but I will just use my phenom II for a little longer until some more mature 8-core cpus come out, Intel or AMD, just whoever offers the better price/performance/power ratios.

By more mature what do you mean?

Well I can give you an example, Phenom ... Phenom II. I just simply do not want first generation 8 core cpu's I will wait for them to become (faster, and more efficnient) mature...

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

I prefer not the first 8-cores (they will be out in a matter or months)... I mean a more mature 8-core, I am sure the Bulldozer will be great, but I will just use my phenom II for a little longer until some more mature 8-core cpus come out, Intel or AMD, just whoever offers the better price/performance/power ratios.

Lach0121

By more mature what do you mean?

Well I can give you an example, Phenom ... Phenom II. I just simply do not want first generation 8 core cpu's I will wait for them to become (faster, and more efficnient) mature...

AMD has had long enough to get it right, they've been working on it for years. and all the paperwork they released about energy saving and efficiency is pretty good. But i do agree, it will obviously get better.

That'd make sense to me except that the bulldozer is the mature version of the multi core type architecture, built from the ground up. The athlon x2 and the phenom I & II are basically athlon 64s, just more of them. Obviously the architecture is different than the k10. But the k10 and k8 are incredibly similar. The huge increase in performance was going from k7 to k8. We'll see a huge leap forward again here.

The Bartons were the most mature version of the socket A processors, yet the very first athlon 64s destroyed them every way.

Similarly the Core2 and the core i are the same architecture. I don't know a single person that jumped on the core2 that regrets it, same with athlon 64. I do know a lot of people that feel robbed after buying prescott's, the most mature pentium 4s.

As expected, I hardly have a clue as to what's going on in this thread. The gist I am getting is that, since AMD is the underdog along with them offering the lower prices for what are still quality products, the company also gets more love amongst the more knowledgeable. Am I right?

As expected, I hardly have a clue as to what's going on in this thread. The gist I am getting is that, since AMD is the underdog along with them offering the lower prices for what are still quality products, the company also gets more love amongst the more knowledgeable. Am I right?

Hexagon_777

Price/performance ratio.

People want the most for their money, if they have 150 bucks, a phenom II will perform stellarly. If they have 300 bucks, a sandy bridge will be awesome.

It's all about how much they have to spend and they build the best machine for that.

[QUOTE="Hexagon_777"]

As expected, I hardly have a clue as to what's going on in this thread. The gist I am getting is that, since AMD is the underdog along with them offering the lower prices for what are still quality products, the company also gets more love amongst the more knowledgeable. Am I right?

GummiRaccoon

Price/performance ratio.

People want the most for their money, if they have 150 bucks, a phenom II will perform stellarly. If they have 300 bucks, a sandy bridge will be awesome.

It's all about how much they have to spend and they build the best machine for that.

That'd make sense to me except that the bulldozer is the mature version of the multi core type architecture, built from the ground up. The athlon x2 and the phenom I & II are basically athlon 64s, just more of them. Obviously the architecture is different than the k10. But the k10 and k8 are incredibly similar. The huge increase in performance was going from k7 to k8. We'll see a huge leap forward again here.

The Bartons were the most mature version of the socket A processors, yet the very first athlon 64s destroyed them every way.

Similarly the Core2 and the core i are the same architecture. I don't know a single person that jumped on the core2 that regrets it, same with athlon 64. I do know a lot of people that feel robbed after buying prescott's, the most mature pentium 4s.

GummiRaccoon

First off, the reason the more mature ones have the more people that have regret, could largely be explained due to they were upgrading from something of the same architecture P3 to P4, wouldn't yeild that much upgrade, and have a higher chance of having more people feel robbed... I am coming from a phenom II (not a problem for me)

Secondly I will research full and well long before I buy, so that shouldn't be a problem..

Third any logic at all will tell you the first 8 core cpus are not gonna be the best 8 core cpu...

Lastly even if the Bulldozer is the best cpu out (and coming out for a while, when I decide to build my new rig) Then that means with all the other ones, it will have gone down in price, due to it being out longer....

If this still doesn't make sense to you, then you just might have a problem with people having a problem getting the Bulldozer when it launches. Either way, there is sufficient information for you to understand, if you don't then it is all on you.

they did it back in the Athlon64 days, I dont see why they cant pull it off again with bulldozer and the enhanced bulldozer later this year.

AMD CPU's are not available in my country so I hope they dont beat intel or else I'll be left jealous.:cry:

I use intel cpu for my main rig since they can't be beat for power. However I wholeheartedly wish AMD to produce a cpu thats on par/better than what Intel has on the table. AMD's market share right now in the pc market is less than 20%. If the market share went up to around 50% for both companies then we would see some really awesome and really cheap cpu's on the market, it would be some sort of paradise for pc builders, something like how the video cards we have now are so kick ass because AMD and Nvidia have equal market share in graphics cards.

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

That'd make sense to me except that the bulldozer is the mature version of the multi core type architecture, built from the ground up. The athlon x2 and the phenom I & II are basically athlon 64s, just more of them. Obviously the architecture is different than the k10. But the k10 and k8 are incredibly similar. The huge increase in performance was going from k7 to k8. We'll see a huge leap forward again here.

The Bartons were the most mature version of the socket A processors, yet the very first athlon 64s destroyed them every way.

Similarly the Core2 and the core i are the same architecture. I don't know a single person that jumped on the core2 that regrets it, same with athlon 64. I do know a lot of people that feel robbed after buying prescott's, the most mature pentium 4s.

Lach0121

First off, the reason the more mature ones have the more people that have regret, could largely be explained due to they were upgrading from something of the same architecture P3 to P4, wouldn't yeild that much upgrade, and have a higher chance of having more people feel robbed... I am coming from a phenom II (not a problem for me)

Secondly I will research full and well long before I buy, so that shouldn't be a problem..

Third any logic at all will tell you the first 8 core cpus are not gonna be the best 8 core cpu...

Lastly even if the Bulldozer is the best cpu out (and coming out for a while, when I decide to build my new rig) Then that means with all the other ones, it will have gone down in price, due to it being out longer....

If this still doesn't make sense to you, then you just might have a problem with people having a problem getting the Bulldozer when it launches. Either way, there is sufficient information for you to understand, if you don't then it is all on you.

I have no problem with people waiting. However, there are already 8core and 12 core cpus out. But waiting for the 2nd iteration because "it will be better" doesn't make sense. Every release will always be better.

And people regretted the prescott because it was a peice of junk.

they did it back in the Athlon64 days, I dont see why they cant pull it off again with bulldozer and the enhanced bulldozer later this year.

theshadowhunter

Depends on how you look at it. For gaming only AMD has no big disadvantage to Intel. With SB though AMD needs to pull a 64 on Intel and bring back the glory days. I can not wait to see how their new CPU tech performs.

I'm running an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ on my 2nd machine...still runs great :)

*+

Neither company "beats" the other.

• If you need the bleeding edge and have deep pockets, Intel "wins."
• If you want a high-value processor, AMD "wins."

AMD has competed on this basis for over a decade and very rarely have their CPUs completely outclassed Intels. I use an AMD in my home theater PC and a Core 2 Duo in my primary PC. No need for favoritism! :D

Boz

Neither company "beats" the other.

• If you need the bleeding edge and have deep pockets, Intel "wins."
• If you want a high-value processor, AMD "wins."

AMD has competed on this basis for over a decade and very rarely have their CPUs completely outclassed Intels. I use an AMD in my home theater PC and a Core 2 Duo in my primary PC. No need for favoritism! :D

Boz

Bozanimal

[QUOTE="Bozanimal"]

Neither company "beats" the other.

• If you need the bleeding edge and have deep pockets, Intel "wins."
• If you want a high-value processor, AMD "wins."

AMD has competed on this basis for over a decade and very rarely have their CPUs completely outclassed Intels. I use an AMD in my home theater PC and a Core 2 Duo in my primary PC. No need for favoritism! :D

Boz

JohnF111

In terms of market share has amd ever surpassed intel at any point in time? DJ_Headshot

[QUOTE="JohnF111"][QUOTE="Bozanimal"]

Neither company "beats" the other.

• If you need the bleeding edge and have deep pockets, Intel "wins."
• If you want a high-value processor, AMD "wins."

AMD has competed on this basis for over a decade and very rarely have their CPUs completely outclassed Intels. I use an AMD in my home theater PC and a Core 2 Duo in my primary PC. No need for favoritism! :D

Boz

Daytona_178

AMD has the Phenom 3.6Ghz at about £140

Intel has the 3.3Ghz 2500k at about £165.. Intel costs more but gives you more in return in terms of performance and not just Gigahertz.

K8 (Athlon 64) was the last truly "new" AMD architecture to hit the market. At that point in time, they mopped the floor with Intel's offerings. That continued until the Core 2 came out.

I see no reason to think that AMD couldn't retake the overall performance crown. Bulldozer will be their first completely new architecture since K8 came out. Since AMD took the lead in performance with their last new architecture, why not this time? I'm not saying that they will, but I don't see why they couldn't.

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

That'd make sense to me except that the bulldozer is the mature version of the multi core type architecture, built from the ground up. The athlon x2 and the phenom I & II are basically athlon 64s, just more of them. Obviously the architecture is different than the k10. But the k10 and k8 are incredibly similar. The huge increase in performance was going from k7 to k8. We'll see a huge leap forward again here.

The Bartons were the most mature version of the socket A processors, yet the very first athlon 64s destroyed them every way.

Similarly the Core2 and the core i are the same architecture. I don't know a single person that jumped on the core2 that regrets it, same with athlon 64. I do know a lot of people that feel robbed after buying prescott's, the most mature pentium 4s.

GummiRaccoon

First off, the reason the more mature ones have the more people that have regret, could largely be explained due to they were upgrading from something of the same architecture P3 to P4, wouldn't yeild that much upgrade, and have a higher chance of having more people feel robbed... I am coming from a phenom II (not a problem for me)

Secondly I will research full and well long before I buy, so that shouldn't be a problem..

Third any logic at all will tell you the first 8 core cpus are not gonna be the best 8 core cpu...

Lastly even if the Bulldozer is the best cpu out (and coming out for a while, when I decide to build my new rig) Then that means with all the other ones, it will have gone down in price, due to it being out longer....

If this still doesn't make sense to you, then you just might have a problem with people having a problem getting the Bulldozer when it launches. Either way, there is sufficient information for you to understand, if you don't then it is all on you.

I have no problem with people waiting. However, there are already 8core and 12 core cpus out. But waiting for the 2nd iteration because "it will be better" doesn't make sense. Every release will always be better.

And people regretted the prescott because it was a peice of junk.

The 8 and 12s out now are not worth getting.... OF course waiting for the 2nd iteration makes perfect sense, because I don't want to upgrade right now .. THERE IS NOTHING OUT NOW THAT IS WORTH UPGRADING TO. If I am going to spend the money to build an expensive new rig... (I will wait until it is worth it to do so) going from my phenom II quad up to an Icore7 would be a waste of money and resources!! I feel that going to the bulldozer anywhere near the time that it comes out, would result in the same.... The reason this doesn't makes sense to you, is all on you!

I do not have to explain myself anyway.... Its simple... There will be better cpus to come out... So I will wait for them to come, my current one is still running pretty strong..... you can try to understand, or let it keep going over your head.. Either way...

K8 (Athlon 64) was the last truly "new" AMD architecture to hit the market. At that point in time, they mopped the floor with Intel's offerings. That continued until the Core 2 came out.

I see no reason to think that AMD couldn't retake the overall performance crown. Bulldozer will be their first completely new architecture since K8 came out. Since AMD took the lead in performance with their last new architecture, why not this time? I'm not saying that they will, but I don't see why they couldn't.

hartsickdiscipl

The 8 and 12s out now are not worth getting.... OF course waiting for the 2nd iteration makes perfect sense, because I don't want to upgrade right now .. THERE IS NOTHING OUT NOW THAT IS WORTH UPGRADING TO. If I am going to spend the money to build an expensive new rig... (I will wait until it is worth it to do so) going from my phenom II quad up to an Icore7 would be a waste of money and resources!! I feel that going to the bulldozer anywhere near the time that it comes out, would result in the same.... The reason this doesn't makes sense to you, is all on you!

I do not have to explain myself anyway.... Its simple... There will be better cpus to come out... So I will wait for them to come, my current one is still running pretty strong..... you can try to understand, or let it keep going over your head.. Either way...

Lach0121

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

The 8 and 12s out now are not worth getting.... OF course waiting for the 2nd iteration makes perfect sense, because I don't want to upgrade right now .. THERE IS NOTHING OUT NOW THAT IS WORTH UPGRADING TO. If I am going to spend the money to build an expensive new rig... (I will wait until it is worth it to do so) going from my phenom II quad up to an Icore7 would be a waste of money and resources!! I feel that going to the bulldozer anywhere near the time that it comes out, would result in the same.... The reason this doesn't makes sense to you, is all on you!

I do not have to explain myself anyway.... Its simple... There will be better cpus to come out... So I will wait for them to come, my current one is still running pretty strong..... you can try to understand, or let it keep going over your head.. Either way...

brownwhale

And there WILL be more powerful 8core and 12 core cpus than the bulldozer PERIOD. If I don't plan on completing my build for another year and a half- to- 2 years, then there will more than likely be a more powerful cpu out, or right around the corner, which I could wait a couple of months on.....

I am not saying by waiting the bulldozer will be more of an increase in performance :roll:.. I am waiting to build that rig for multiple reasons, (ssd drive price drop, new RAM types, maybe even a new Windows) so When I go to build this Rig, I will go with whatever is more powerful/and reasonably priced at that time... Bulldozer or not!

Wow, just wow. How can you sit there and pull numbers out of thin air, that I am supposedly thinking of? Who is the one making the assumptions here?!?

Is this really that hard of a concept to grasp?

Reading comprehension is great, and useful....

For the last F'in time, My phenom II will last me until there is somethign more powerful than bulldozer and Icore7 PERIOD....... Anyways I am done banging my head against the wall in this thread.

Looks like I might have caused a massive derail :P

Umm... yeah anyway. All AMD needs to do is match SB and they're OK. If they beat SB, and there is no reason to believe that this is impossible, they will also be good. They have done it before and they can surely do it again... if not with Bulldozer then at a later time.

Looks like I might have caused a massive derail :P

Umm... yeah anyway. All AMD needs to do is match SB and they're OK. If they beat SB, and there is no reason to believe that this is impossible, they will also be good. They have done it before and they can surely do it again... if not with Bulldozer then at a later time.

Tezcatlipoca666

@lach You never said you were just simply happy with the performance you have for the time being. That is perfectly understandable. What you were describing is what we call the "waiting game" which is what people do sometimes because computer components come out regularly that are faster and faster, typically you see that with graphics cards.

"I was gonna buy this gen, but the refresh is coming in 6 months, I'll just wait until then"

six months later

"Oh the new series is coming out with all new features, only 6 months away, I guess I'll wait"

six months later

"Oh the gpus with the more mature process are coming out in just a few short months, I guess I can squeek by until then"

I am about to upgrade to a pII 955 or 965, and I probably won't get a BD until diablo 3 comes out (so I can give my pII to my wife)

@lach You never said you were just simply happy with the performance you have for the time being. That is perfectly understandable. What you were describing is what we call the "waiting game" which is what people do sometimes because computer components come out regularly that are faster and faster, typically you see that with graphics cards.

"I was gonna buy this gen, but the refresh is coming in 6 months, I'll just wait until then"

six months later

"Oh the new series is coming out with all new features, only 6 months away, I guess I'll wait"

six months later

"Oh the gpus with the more mature process are coming out in just a few short months, I guess I can squeek by until then"

I am about to upgrade to a pII 955 or 965, and I probably won't get a BD until diablo 3 comes out (so I can give my pII to my wife)

GummiRaccoon

I could of elaborated on that part a little more I guess :?

I understand that, sorry I blew up been a little stressful as of late, no reason for me to take it out on here on you guys.

No I am not really playing the waiting game, half of the reason for the wait is the parts I mentioned, as well as I want this current rig to last me a bit longer, (2 and a half years so far) I aim to get about a year and a half to 2 more years out of it... By then there will be more powerful stuff out (and even in the slight chance there isn't, the price on this stuff thats about come out, would have dropped), That is what I was saying, and hopefully by then the SSD price drop, and whatnot..

I am not waiting simply to wait for something because it will be more powerful, I am happy with my current rig, but do see the limitations of it, with all that I want to do (and the more I get into the music, I see the more power I will need for it, especially with the software coming out as of late, as well as the software that is right around the corner).. But it will hold me over to take care of other financial burdens, so I can save up for it, Wait for newer technology, and hopefully massive price drops on the SSD.

@BrownWhale I apologize to you too, I didn't bother to read or respond to what you wrote (easier to calm down and apologize that way).. Its just been a rotten few days.. Mixed with anger problems... My GF tells me that I need to work on my people skills, lol obviously.

Who knows when Its all said and done, I might end up with a bulldozer 8 core, or something.. Don't know, kinda too far off to tell, I am sure Intel will come out with something between now and then... Hell AMD might come out with something after the Bulldozer (between now and then).

[QUOTE="Tezcatlipoca666"]

Looks like I might have caused a massive derail :P

Umm... yeah anyway. All AMD needs to do is match SB and they're OK. If they beat SB, and there is no reason to believe that this is impossible, they will also be good. They have done it before and they can surely do it again... if not with Bulldozer then at a later time.

mitu123

you really think AMD would release bulldozer, 6 months AFTER sandy bridge and not have better performance overall? I sincerely doubt it, especially since bulldozer is not based on their older architecture but a completely new one. They probably reverse engineered intels cpu, copied the best bits and made their own cpu better. :D

[QUOTE="mitu123"]

[QUOTE="Tezcatlipoca666"]

Looks like I might have caused a massive derail :P

Umm... yeah anyway. All AMD needs to do is match SB and they're OK. If they beat SB, and there is no reason to believe that this is impossible, they will also be good. They have done it before and they can surely do it again... if not with Bulldozer then at a later time.

blaznwiipspman1

you really think AMD would release bulldozer, 6 months AFTER sandy bridge and not have better performance overall? I sincerely doubt it, especially since bulldozer is not based on their older architecture but a completely new one. They probably reverse engineered intels cpu, copied the best bits and made their own cpu better. :D

[QUOTE="Computerworld"]Let's be frank: AMD's processors aren't as good as Intel's, by and large. Intel's processors have offered better total performance and better performance-per-watt ever since the days of the Core 2 Duo, with few exceptions. If we set the way-back machine to 1999, the story is different. Intel's dominance was seriously challenged when AMD released the Athlon, which crushed the latest Intel chip (the Pentium III) in just about every performance test you could throw at it. This kicked off a major speed race, but AMD held its own and generally outperformed Intel through the introduction of the Athlon 64.Hexagon_777

The above is only an excerpt. You can read the full article here.

I am definitely no expert and am at best a closet PC gamer but I do enjoy reading up on this stuff every now and then and would like your opinions on this piece if possible. It will probably help to know about this stuff when I eventually build my first PC and the like. So, what do you guys have to say about this?

With similar memory controllers, AMD Phenom II still has 3 X86 instructions per cycle(front-end) while Intel Nehalem/Sandybridge has 4 X86 instructions per cycle(front-end).

AMD Bulldozer module has 4 X86 instructions per cycle(front-end). AMD's Bulldozer is AMD's first Nehalem/Sandybridge level CPU.

[QUOTE="mitu123"]

[QUOTE="Tezcatlipoca666"]

Looks like I might have caused a massive derail :P

Umm... yeah anyway. All AMD needs to do is match SB and they're OK. If they beat SB, and there is no reason to believe that this is impossible, they will also be good. They have done it before and they can surely do it again... if not with Bulldozer then at a later time.

you really think AMD would release bulldozer, 6 months AFTER sandy bridge and not have better performance overall? I sincerely doubt it, especially since bulldozer is not based on their older architecture but a completely new one. They probably reverse engineered intels cpu, copied the best bits and made their own cpu better. :D