Phenom

Its sad to see the long wait still leaves AMD yet again not good enough to top Intel. Here is an awesome review of Phenom & 790FX. Again AMD has had to cut prices to be able to compete with Intel in price vs performance. Opinions

I'll still buy one. I've read too many "reviews" and gotten too many different results to care what some other geek thinks about any particular product. These benchmark programs can give you radically different results with the tweaking of a few options. With no screen shots, I take the results with a grain of salt.

I didn't really think that AMD would crack Intel with their first offering. And I don't think that AMD really was shooting for that. They were focussed on integrating 4 cores on one die, and Intel decided that it was too difficult to meet their deadlines by doing so. So they slapped 2 of their already winning cores on one die for the obvious results. That's what happens when you've got twice or more revenue than your competitors.

I think AMD was smart to skip the dual core splice. I think future core's built on the quad core will be a lot more impressive than these first offerings. Its like getting up to speed slowly just to get a feel for it, then laying on the gas.

Of course, in order to do so they need $$$.

All that said, I'll still buy one. Because it will still be fast, and I'm gonna chill the hell out of it to squeeze every last MHz

They were shooting for competion, which they desperately need. I disagree here, though. They wanted to put 4 cores on one dye, but there is always a bottom line.

The dual core market is very important still. In fact, some mainstream computers I've seen in stores still have single core processors.

The problem AMD will have is if Intel keeps its lead, and has little competition, I would not be surprised if they went under, Also, depending on ATI's success.

The real problem I see is that the Phenom are not much better then the Athlon and in some cases are bettered by the previous CPU. Intel when they realized that the P4 was crap rethinked their strategy and came out with a CPU that destroyed anything in composition's with it. AMD is just getting by and not creating any real competition between the two so in the long run we the consumers are hurt because Intel can call the shots. AMD needs to do as Intel and rethink its strategy and not just improve upon older technology. Its time to go above and beyond what they have.

Come on.... what do you expect. AMD turns over less than 1.5 Billion dollars in one quarter and Intel turns over 8 Billion. I mean seriously... what do you think AMD can do with 1.38 Billion dollars. The fact that they are THIS close to Intel is quite impressive. I'm surprised nobody can see that.

They've always been VERY small compared to Intel. Credit where credit is due; they're doing an awful lot with 18% of the income. I gotta wonder what the market would look like if it were the other way around.

They don't have the operational budget to compete with Intel. They have to spend money VERY carefully, and even at that they are struggling. Intel has a healthy budget to finance all sorts of projects. AMD has to focus on more singular goals.

Besides, part of the problem with AMD Dual cores has been the lack of true enthusaist motherboards. It appears that more are interested in the 790FX chipset. DFI is coming out with their offering soon.

I think in the end, with more platform options, and the fact that you dont need to upgrade if you've got AM2 already will help sales. Because many people are interested in other things rather than the apples to apples stuff these reviews represent.

I mean the fact that alot of these review sites have such poor grammar in many of their articles suggest that its just some person writing it without neccessarily any credentials.

The new video cards are a great performer for mid range systems, and the new motherboards are great for the price/features ratio, but the Phenoms can barely compete with the Q6600 for price, performance, power usage. It's another sad launch day for AMD CPU's...

Well its not all bad. When volumes get out, these prices will go down considerably. You guys are looking at it from an enthusiast standpoint. Besides, not a ton of people are going to be buying these, and AMD still has strong offerings elsewhere. This is largely the enthusiast segment. Quad Cores won't become mainstream for a bit. Consider that this segment isn't going to post a huge % of their total revenue. I expect/hope that by then AMD will have improved the phenom by then.

But count on them being a step behind Intel for a little while.

Besides, if that statement turns out to be an accurate representation of what AMD is trying to do; I don't think it'll end all that bad. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

Ya but due to the absence of AMD's 45nm manufacturing process the Phenoms cost more than the Q6600 to produce, so if AMD sells at a comparable price to Intel they are going to be making less profit than Intel, which makes it tough for them to design an amazing chip for the future.

I have seen another review that says Phenoms are only a better value if you already have an AM2 mobo, so it's up for debate.

AMD is looking great on the mobo front, good on the VGA front, and just barely average on the CPU front.

The thing that worries me is their $5 billion debt...