While it has been a sort of unspoken truth that AMD has ceded the performance cup to Intel over the last couple years, they’ve instead provided an extremely compelling value option, with their processors doing nearly the work of the more expensive Intels for far less money. The new Phenom II processor was to be the keystone in AMD’s new Dragon platform, and while the other features of the platform are still great, it looks like the new processor isn’t going to bring any competition to the table.
Recent tests at two of my favorite hardware sites, TweakTown and HardOCP, put the Phenom II at just over the old Phenom, and just below Intel’s best Core2s. Ouch. If it weren’t enough that it doesn’t beat what it’s replacing by much, it can barely hit the performance levels of last year’s Intels. And that’s without mentioning the Core i7s, which of course cost twice as much, but show such a huge performance lead that you start wondering which is actually the bargain.
The rest of the Dragon suite of features is still worth looking at, though. It may still be that your system would run better with AMD hardware, depending on what you’re doing. But given the performance gap, that group is distressingly small. Here’s hoping AMD’s still-very-competitive video cards will keep them solvent until they can pull out something bigger in the processor arena.
Update: A commenter points out Anandtech’s review, which is considerably more favorable (I should have included it to begin with). Still, I see my own processor (a Core2 Duo E6750) competitive with the Phenom II on most of their tests, and that’s not exactly tops. I should also mention that the Phenom II is supposed to be a fantastic overclocker.
If you take price into account the phenom II’s are very competitive to their intel counterparts.
Obviously a $200-300 processor isn’t going to match up with a $500-1000 processor.
My favorite site for benchmarks etc is anandtech -
“The part that Phenom II actually competes with is the Core 2 Quad Q9400 (and perhaps the Q9550; more on that later), ”
Go to http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3492&p=1
For a comprehensive review of AMD’s new chips and how they compete with Intel’s lineup.
Thanks for that, I should have put it in there. I’ve updated the post.
This is no good, it’s been a while since AMD has come out with a competitive cpu. One that had comparable performance at a much better price. I’m too much of bargain seeker and AMD has long been an awesome bargain.
Intel has been making 45nm cpus for over a year and this is AMD’s 45nm first lineup…
Thanks for dousing the fact that the Phenom II will work with present Phenom boards to provide a welcome upgrade. No wait, it’s not mentioned on the post =(
It’s in the overview of the Dragon platform (link in the 1st para). I try to keep things concise and not restate info that’s linked. It is relevant though, thanks for mentioning it here.
Money is a big consideration these days with tech stuff, so considering the cost savings, AMD is still right in the race. As stated, AMD has already conceded the “roadrunner” cup to Intel, pretty much.
The only hope for AMD now is the fusion of CPU/GPU they have been working on since the merger… unless Intel beats the to that punch as well… then they are dead.
Jon
http://DreamClue.com …get the message!
As others pointed out, AMD have been out of the higher end of the market for a while now.
For the consumers, this mean that we get cheap AMD processors just like it was the case before the A64 came out.
However, for AMD, this means that they are back to losing money just like they were before the A64 was released.
In the end, AMD needs a competitive processor and not competitive by price. How long can AMD afford to lose money?