TEAM
31-10-2007, 08:56
While its good to see AMD still throwing punches back at the hulking behemoth of Intel, how many times can "Little Mac" go for the same left hook and expect it to even cause a grazing blow? Lets face it, while the K8 architecture pummeled Netburst back in the Megahertz War a few years back, its now obsolete, decimated by the Core2 gang and Big Boss Quad.
With AMD lagging behind with the Athlon design, the R600 family lost to an unclear future, and Intel's retaliatory price cuts in full swing with Penryn lurking on the horizon, what's the company to do after awakening the slumbering microprocessor giant?
Even with X2's down to around 70 dongs, the appeal of the low price is not enough to garner enough new buyers. When Joe calls up his tech savvy buddy for some advice, he's going to learn that Core2 crushes the X2 and that AM2 is on its way out already. When Jane gets her new OEM laptop, it's going to have a nice C2D sitting pretty in the socket. Word of mouth alone on the electronic frontier is enough to secure Intel its share of your building budget.
Despite all that, AMD continues to remain optimistic despite its dismaying Q2 reports (which are actually up!), flaunting Barcelona as it's saving grace Core2 Smasher. Even while well aware that Barcelona hasn't even been released yet...and that the desktop variant Agena won't be around until the annual holiday system building bonanza. So with the Intel's monster E6850 throwing its weight around, and the Q6600 under 300 frogskins, what is AMD's response?
If you've been keeping up with the current trends, the best course of action might be to step up production on the Phenom line, get Barcelona out the door and prim up Agena proper as it's going to be the judge the performance of Phenom. When the flagship proves its mettle in the line, its going to be the deciding factor of hype and purchase for the smaller "escorts" even if they fall behind their price competition; just ask the guy with the 8600GT.
Instead, AMD decides to take one last crack shot at Intel, with this 6400+. A whopping 200 megahertz over the 6000+ and double the L2 cache, for almost $100 more. Its not the fact that the 6000+ can be had for $170 now, it's not the fact that the 6400+ has reached its overclocking limits, and nay, its not even the fact that at the estimated price range of ~$230 is encroaching on Quadcore territory... its the fact that AMD is actually spending out to prepare, manufacture, package, market and ship these processors instead of diverting those much needed funds to the Phenom line up. And the real kick in the behind is it's STILL about 15% behind the E6850 at stock according to current reports. Lets not even discuss Core2's overclock right out of the box nature. At the same price you could get a E6600 and whip the pants off the 6400+ with a modest overclock.
AMD, what are you doing?! Yes, sure..your only lineup is a 2 year old architecture that cannot compete with the Core2, and we all know that Intel bends you over its knee for a good spanking right now. But still, taking the money used to promote and bring the 6400+ to market could be put to better use. Its pretty much useless at this point in the game and at that price range, why bother when you can have 4 cores instead of 2? If you punch at a wall long enough, and hard enough...sometimes you only break your fist. Come on AMD, I rooted for you this long, even forked out extra to have one of the Athlon 64's placed in my first custom computer instead of a P4, at least back up what your saying about Phenom and quit horsing around and spending extra just to release a new X2 that cant compete. Hopefully the rumors of this processor are just that, and instead of giving us AMD fans ANOTHER stopgap processor you'll get on the ball with Phenom and deliver power where promised. But after looking at the hype surrounding R600, and now the hype with Barcelona, I'm not ready to expect too much. My casebadge may just say Intel this time next year.
_________________
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With AMD lagging behind with the Athlon design, the R600 family lost to an unclear future, and Intel's retaliatory price cuts in full swing with Penryn lurking on the horizon, what's the company to do after awakening the slumbering microprocessor giant?
Even with X2's down to around 70 dongs, the appeal of the low price is not enough to garner enough new buyers. When Joe calls up his tech savvy buddy for some advice, he's going to learn that Core2 crushes the X2 and that AM2 is on its way out already. When Jane gets her new OEM laptop, it's going to have a nice C2D sitting pretty in the socket. Word of mouth alone on the electronic frontier is enough to secure Intel its share of your building budget.
Despite all that, AMD continues to remain optimistic despite its dismaying Q2 reports (which are actually up!), flaunting Barcelona as it's saving grace Core2 Smasher. Even while well aware that Barcelona hasn't even been released yet...and that the desktop variant Agena won't be around until the annual holiday system building bonanza. So with the Intel's monster E6850 throwing its weight around, and the Q6600 under 300 frogskins, what is AMD's response?
If you've been keeping up with the current trends, the best course of action might be to step up production on the Phenom line, get Barcelona out the door and prim up Agena proper as it's going to be the judge the performance of Phenom. When the flagship proves its mettle in the line, its going to be the deciding factor of hype and purchase for the smaller "escorts" even if they fall behind their price competition; just ask the guy with the 8600GT.
Instead, AMD decides to take one last crack shot at Intel, with this 6400+. A whopping 200 megahertz over the 6000+ and double the L2 cache, for almost $100 more. Its not the fact that the 6000+ can be had for $170 now, it's not the fact that the 6400+ has reached its overclocking limits, and nay, its not even the fact that at the estimated price range of ~$230 is encroaching on Quadcore territory... its the fact that AMD is actually spending out to prepare, manufacture, package, market and ship these processors instead of diverting those much needed funds to the Phenom line up. And the real kick in the behind is it's STILL about 15% behind the E6850 at stock according to current reports. Lets not even discuss Core2's overclock right out of the box nature. At the same price you could get a E6600 and whip the pants off the 6400+ with a modest overclock.
AMD, what are you doing?! Yes, sure..your only lineup is a 2 year old architecture that cannot compete with the Core2, and we all know that Intel bends you over its knee for a good spanking right now. But still, taking the money used to promote and bring the 6400+ to market could be put to better use. Its pretty much useless at this point in the game and at that price range, why bother when you can have 4 cores instead of 2? If you punch at a wall long enough, and hard enough...sometimes you only break your fist. Come on AMD, I rooted for you this long, even forked out extra to have one of the Athlon 64's placed in my first custom computer instead of a P4, at least back up what your saying about Phenom and quit horsing around and spending extra just to release a new X2 that cant compete. Hopefully the rumors of this processor are just that, and instead of giving us AMD fans ANOTHER stopgap processor you'll get on the ball with Phenom and deliver power where promised. But after looking at the hype surrounding R600, and now the hype with Barcelona, I'm not ready to expect too much. My casebadge may just say Intel this time next year.
_________________
bat control (http://www.vamoosevarmint.com) free speed up pc software (http://www.freefixit.net)