News - AMD's new Phenom X4 processors promise sky-high speeds. Should Intel be worrie

[badass]

I think that's rather short sighted of you
If AMD goes down, someone bigger buys them. Someone probably with cash to maybe spend on R&D. Unlike the current AMD.

Like the other person, I simply hope for cheaper processors. I don't care if that makes one company go bust.

[Biscuit]

I very much doubt these CPU's will have any impact on Nahalem whatsoever, they will remain top end super parts which are untouchable for AMD at the moment. i doubt the AM2 socket will ever truley beat out the top end Intel chips if they really want a chance at that they need to bring something really new to their architecture.

it may have an effect on the price ranges upto £170. If the performance is near to C2 parts and they can do a 30-50% overclock then with the added memory bandwidth over core2 they could be on with a winner!

Im interested to see how they use their new manufacturing process with the low power envelope to compete with the atom CPU. No doubt they have something on the roadmap with their 'Balanced Computer' mindset.

[kalniel]

Like the other person, I simply hope for cheaper processors. I don't care if that makes one company go bust.

Badass quoting badass?

If AMD go under then that's the end of an x86 competitor - the license can't be transfered to any new owner. End result will be more expensive processors.

[mercyground]

i7 may be nice but my next pc will be a AMD Deneb with a 4800 card and more than likely a 790 board for the overclocking.

I sure as hell will not be ransoming a kidney for a £300+ i7 mb then shelling out $$$ for DDR3 and an even more expensive i7. DDR3 is already expensive. With the requirement for voltage limited DDR3 the memory manufacturers will add another premium on top again.

I'll take my slower but vastly cheaper system thanks.

[aidanjt]

Meh, it's not even the price of CPUs that are scandalous, if anything, CPUs are quite reasonable compared to days gone by. But, just look at the price of motherboards. 6 or 7 years ago you could get a very high-end motherboard for £90, now they're almost £400.

[handscombmp]

I want them to be good so they drive down prices but i don't want AMD to go under.
If intel had control progress would be slower along with higher prices.

[Biscuit]

Meh, it's not even the price of CPUs that are scandalous, if anything, CPUs are quite reasonable compared to days gone by. But, just look at the price of motherboards. 6 or 7 years ago you could get a very high-end motherboard for £90, now they're almost £400.

Yeah but the functionality and quality of the extra features was nowhere near as good as it is now. Back then you had to have far more add in cards.

I know this doesn't justify it completely but still.

[aidanjt]

Yeah but the functionality and quality of the extra features was nowhere near as good as it is now. Back then you had to have far more add in cards.

I know this doesn't justify it completely but still.

I can't say I really agree, the recipe is the same, a drive controller (or two), onboard sound, and bunch of usb ports. The only difference now is you have a more bloated and buggy BIOS, and 2Kg of copper hanging off various components.

[Biscuit]

Bloated, yes maybe but more buggy... i havent noticed any difference over the years to be quite honest.

7-8 years ago onboard sounds was crap (if you got it) onboard internet ports (be it modem or ethernet of whatever varient) was rare.

I think now whilst the top end motherboards may be 400 odd pound, you can usually get something perfectly suitable with the equivalent feature set of what a top end board wud have been back then for around 100-150.

Im with you on the copper thing tho, they take it way too far nowerdays!

[aidanjt]

Bloated, yes maybe but more buggy... i havent noticed any difference over the years to be quite honest.

Don't get me wrong, it's not as if older boards *never* had BIOS bugs, it's just that before broadband proliferation and the explosion of users connecting to the internet, manufacturers had an incentive to maintain standards compliant BIOSes and try to get it right before the ship the boards. These days if the deadline passes it ends up getting shipped as-is and support just direct users to their download site to grab BIOS updates.

7-8 years ago onboard sounds was crap (if you got it)

It still is, mostly, if you still use analogue speakers.

onboard internet ports (be it modem or ethernet of whatever varient) was rare.

I didn't find them to be that rare really, particularly when you paid more than £60 for an ATX board, they were already becoming quite fashionable on mATX boards, too.

I think now whilst the top end motherboards may be 400 odd pound, you can usually get something perfectly suitable with the equivalent feature set of what a top end board wud have been back then for around 100-150.

Yeah, I agree, but if you look at i7 boards you're starting at £200, and they don't even have a memory controller anymore.

[Tidus]

Cherry-picked engineering samples reaching nice overclocks isn't anything new.

If these CPUs were anything special AMD would be screaming it from the rooftops, which they aren't....so i wouldn't hold out too much of a hope.

AMD weren't 'screaming from the rooftops' before they released the 4800 series, Intels i7 isn't much of an upgrade for most people with a relatively new Intel prcessor (expecially gamers) and the price puts it into a different league all together with the MB and Tri channel DDR3, If Deneb can give some good competition to the C2 range then its good for them and customers who would rather spend money on an expensive graphics card and lots of DDR2 memory, I don't trust rumours but its a good sign that the potential customers are excited over an upcoming product, I'm looking forward to a hexus review when it's released.

As far as motherboards go the price is much too high and good quality sound cards can be bought for a good price now and you can carry them over to your next board.

[Zhaoman]

it's always exciting to hear about possible 'messiah' releases that might bring AMD back from intensive care, but i think everyone has a right to be sceptical after what happened when Phenom was originally released. Promises didn't turn out well at all. But Tidus has got a very good point here. If AMD produced C2D results at their current prices then the smart upgraders among us would no doubt be flocking to them. But they need to do it before i7 prices come down - Another small window of opportunity for AMD? where oh where have we heard that before...

[jonskyline]

Good on AMD, after all if it wernt for them Intel would have no competitors meaning that prices would be through the roof.

[Biscuit]

f AMD produced C2D results at their current prices then the smart upgraders among us would no doubt be flocking to them. But they need to do it before i7 prices come down

AMD have made it pretty clear that they are not intending to compete with the i7 parts, they dont seem to have the ability to do so at the moment. I cant see intel bringing down the prices of their highest end parts until there is something to threaten their position as such.
I whole heartedly prey that im incorrect and that the AMD parts are good enough to tear away enough of the high end buyers from intel forcing them to bring the prices down... i just cant see it happening.

[magneticman]

Eagerly anticipating benchmarks

wondering how the whole clockspeed thing will end up this time, C2D's with the same clockspeed as their AMD counterparts completely kicked arse..

[adder]

Why there only two major manufacturers, why not like 10 or more that would be even better for consumers.