"Seeing has how clock for clock the intel cpu is a bit faster they are prices very evenly. Now dual core:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz 80W $102.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W $119.99"

Read some reviews. Intel is still more expensive, and at least 15% slower... come on...

Intel is and always will be overpriced.

I was always an Intel fan, but with the price/performance benefits AMD offered I made the switch.

But pricing IS becoming more competetive. The Q9550 and PH II 955 are pretty much identical prices, and performance is almost even as well. AMD finally has something they can raise the price on and be proud of... I suppose...

I say if you're spending less than $220 on a CPU buy AMD, if you have money for more, then Intel has a lot to offer.

You must live in a place where taxes are quite high on intel. Because they make cheap CPU's in addition to their monster fast ones. Take a look:

Q8200 2.33GHz 1333FSB 95W $159

PhenomII X4 810 2.6GHz 125W $169

Seeing has how clock for clock the intel cpu is a bit faster they are prices very evenly. Now dual core:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz 80W $102.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W $119.99

Again very similar given that clock for clock intel is faster. Now for bargain Bob's basement blowout sale:

Intel Celeron E1400 Allendale 2.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual Core $49.99

AMD Athlon X2 7550 Kuma 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core $49.99

Again pretty even given that intel is a bit faster clock for clock. Intel also provides a very mature chipset, I never run into stupid problems with it, unlike the chipsets I have experienced in the Athlon 64 days which turned me sour towards AMD platforms. All prices were from newegg.

people should boycott intel products because of their fascist approach to fair play - i.e. no fair play and their concept of pricing - i.e. massive £ per mhz overpricing in return for lethargic response times.
if the punters stopped buying, intel would have to eat humble pie or suffer the fate they deserve.
i dont buy overpriced intel tat and i discourage everyone i know from doing so.

If AMD can hurry up and get onto 32nm they will have a real chance at really making some money. Seeing that AMD just got to 45nm means that's not going to happen. Till then they are still hemorrhaging cash even with these sales. That's what happens when you forget your core business (CPU's) and focus on crap like flash memory. Not to mention failure to take their chipset business seriously.

AMD is performing far better today than they have over the last 2 years. While AMD is clearly not competing against Core i7 there is no know doubt that they excel at performance vs price where they do compete. How many people can afford Core i7 -which currently stands at 1% of Intel’s sales? A Phenom 2 platform would cost significantly less than Core i7. And while Core i7 is faster than any AMD CPU the gain from 8 ‘virtual cores’ are probably less than 1% for general usage, how many programs actual use 8 threads.

At the end of the day AMD needs to do its best to increase performance massively for its next-gen processor for its own and for our sake or we will all end up paying Core i7 prices for Intel Atom-like performance.

Your trying to sell BS wrapped in packaging marked facts. For starters (and only for starters I might add) the socket 775 you praise Intel for keeping so long spawned many INcompatible chipsets.

Newer socket 775 CPUs kept coming out that required faster speeds and newer features, and so the older s775 chipset wouldn't work with it even though as you so kindly point out is s775. This (captain obvious)ly required the person to upgrade the motherboard.

I've kept track closely to both Intel and AMD (since around 1996) on chipset CPU upgradability, and on average I would say AMD does have most often have a significant advantage in that regard. So basically I'm saying your praise is completely miss placed, and that you're a complete tool.

And for one last quick fact correction, 940 wasn't an upgrade path. It was the server version of 939 that required registered ECC RAM. Of course you would know that if you weren't a complete tool, as I had pointed out previously.

Oh and like Intel didn't do the same back in the Pentium days of the 478/775 sockets. And take a look now at the Core i7/i5 1366/1156 sockets. At least AMD is keeping in mind backward compatibility with AM2+/AM3. Think about that one.

*Sigh*, vondrashek rambles on about 1926 sewing machines and radios made by Ducati...or something like that. Anything but the article at hand. Dude needs a puppet to talk to.

BS, AMD are on a losing streak now, even I as a loyal AMD user saw that AMD are losing the race now.

I now have an i7 920 DO at 4GHz stable air-cooled, with 6GB of 1600 DDR3, for not much more that a comparable 4GB Phenon II 955 system, but much faster, better power consumption, and 8 virtual cores!

AMD needs to get a new CPU generation released or they will be toast!

Giving credit to this guy for reducing SKU's and getting things 'spaced out' is perhaps a bit misplaced.... the reason why AMD had so many SKU's in such a tight price range was the products couldn't command better pricing and arguably the 65nm process was a bit marginal and lead to more SKU's as AMD tried to squeeze both power and speed bins that were probably not high yielding (though of course AMD would never admit this). Recall the initial Barcelona parts showed up 3 speed bins lower than expected and with power higher than expected, the 65nm dual cores (the designed ones, not the disabled core ones), got delayed and then completely dropped off the roadmap. So perhaps AMD's execution on 45nm (and lack thereof on 65nm) is more responsible then a sales manager.

Perhaps Asus is selling more products because the chips are better? If the products hadn't changed, then you could argue sales manager - this is a bit thin, even for INQ standards.

Sure, the graphics and desktop is going big guns, but can you imagine the kind of revenues this Byrne fella could deliver if his mobile CPU engineering team pulled their fingers out of their butts and actually delivered him a product people wanted?

hold on a sec, what you think intel supposed to do with defective core i7, throw them in the garbage, if parts still parts are still working on the sillicon they will try to sell it ,
thats what core i3 and core i5 is .

I am totally agreeing with my friend Rak, why are we not being offered the good price on AMD processors please

I am from Pakistan which come under AMD EMEA channel. Here most AMD CPUs cost above $50 from AMD official price list, whereas Intel CPUs cost above $10 from their official price list. $145 Phenom II X3 720 BE retail price in Pakistan is $200. I do not know what sort of good business plan AMD John Byrne is implementing for Pakistan :) Who in his right mind want to pay $50 premium for AMD CPUs in Pakistan when fast Intel CPUs are available at reasonable price.

Intel's new branding explained i3 = slow&cheap, i5 = okay, but nothing special, and i7 = cost prohibitive

Have to say "Well Played" for not only pushing some decent parts into the market, but also doubling the share price.

Hats off to you Mr Byrne :~)

Intel NEW Numbers ARE Simple. Yet, Way Back, Before Ultee' Even Existed, In East, AMD Made Electronics. TV with Vacumne Tubes Had Ceramic Parts That Spewled out signal of On/Off Start Up Code, to Run Inside of Tv. How? Tricksters Put Metal Gates in Ground Up Ceramic Powder
With Little Bit of Binding Resin. looked Luike 2000F Ceramic Part Holding 140F Trannie Material, Yet it was Well Thought Out in Disquise. Time & Charges, Were even Better in Stopping Whippered Snappered of Crazy Human Operators Controling Your Telco Line.By Then FULL Blown CPU Die Was In Production & TS Telco Use, circa 1958. Called Direct Dial, Then Came Tone Dialing. Finally Princess Phones & Wall Jacks. What NEXT? Home Communication Devices? So Started 4004 Markets. YOU Can Change World. FOR Cost+.AMD Was LESS Happy About That.

Whittier Makes Telco Parts, Thats Why There Are So Many Whittier Schools Left In US. Its Long, Slow Business. Public dosn't NEED To Know Much, Just i7 X58. or UnLock Your 720, Be Geek & Gain Some Braggers Right.YourSelves, Its Game of COST. Nothing IS
Better Than $100 MainBoard that Functions as well As $450 Mianboard. Watch AMD Make those Prices Tumble.

AMD,AMD,AMD.AMDrashek #1 Permanently & Forever....

AMD are doing good work here and strangely enough, its like 5 years ago but reversed. intel have to sell parts with slower clocks and point out that they are still fast as or faster as AMD's to consumers. AMD have the marketing edge here, simply because they can levy the age old classic number advantage intel used against them for a long time!!

Sounds like John Byrne is doing a good job of making AMD's offerings desirable to manufacturers and OEMs alike. Simplifying their offerings is a good idea. Next up - it's not worth having a CPU offering every 100MHz when you're at 3GHz!

I have no idea what Intel are on with the Atom/Celeron/Pentium/i3/i5/i7 line up that isn't consistent in terms of technology.

This guy John Byrne seems to be doing some good work then... this is a typical situation where the right person in the right position does make a difference