It Took You Long Enough, Intel
Twile
"Well, I'll say this to Intel: Took you long enough. If I find the gains of the Core 2 Duo impressive compared to the Athlon 64 it's only been because of Intel's complete inability to do more than hover around AMD's level of price/performance/etc. Ideally we'd be seeing these sort of gains regularly, but ever since Intel proved unable to do come up with something like this for the past 2 years, AMD hasn't been particularly motivated to improve either it seems.
Let's be honest here. It's a new product line, competing with something AMD started making years ago. Should we be SURPRISED that it has better performance, efficiency, power savings, etc? No, we should absolutely expect this with new products."
What Impact Will Core 2 Duo Make?
BaronMatrix
"I remember saying - alog with several actual INDUSTRY people that Core 2 may face higher prices because of demand."
Kirsby
"In the bottom of the line AMD don't have the same size of "pocket" as intel. Which means that intel can "survive" a long "scale" war."
Patrick: That might be true, but let's not forget that Intel's manufacturing advantage comes at a price: With every new generation (65, 45, 32 nm) the fabs will be even more expensive. You are forced to earn considerable money before you can spend it to keep the cycle going.
Xsandman
"While AMD will drop prices, i HIGHLY doubt they will be able to drop them enough to be competitive with Intel and STILL make a profit. With AMD still using 90nm, it costs them more to make their chips."
Will There Be an AMD/Intel Role Reversal?
UK_GANGSTA
"Conroe seems good, probably the best thing intel released since the pentium 3, but i must say WOT THE HELL ARE AMD DOING?? They have known this was coming for at least a year I say, and they have just sat still, slugged around and done f*** all about it, now they say K8L will be here in 2008. This looks like the Netburst-k8 war again, but with the companys being the other way around!"
Shaboozie
"Its amazing to me that E6600 at around $300 beats AMD's top of the line chip in almost every test, especially the gaming tests. I think Conroe is a huge comback for Intel and will keep them on top for a good while just as the 6800 series did for Nvidia. AMD will find a way to slightly meet or surpass Conroe before too long, but Intel will come right back. It feels like these two are reversing roles or something."
Patrick: I've been thinking something silimar. As Intel has a 9-12 months lead over AMD when it comes to new manufacturing processes, it should be able to introduce processors with higher core counts earlier (the Kentsfield quad core is scheduled for early 2007, if not for end 2006). If you cannot double the core count at the same time, a clock speed increase could probably be a temporary solution... although I don't believe this is likely.
Please Don't Be So Mean To AMD!
SunAngel
"Pat/Bert: Did you guys have to be so mean to AMD in the title? ... Core 2 Duo Knocks Out Athlon 64. How much more insensitive could you guys have been to AMD? We all have known this was coming, yet to instigate and humiliate AMD's position is absolutely unbrotherly and coldhearted. I beg of you not to cause any more shame and pain to AMD until their corner has thrown in the towel."
Patrick: Dude, you seem to be quite a sensitive person... I cannot see where we are humiliating AMD? There's nobody laughing. Athlon 64 was knocked out at the high end, even across the board, and that's the honest truth. It's knocked out, not beaten to death! I should rephrase to "Core 2 Duo Launch Raises Suicide Rate Among AMD Fanboys."
