LOL, you tried making any sort of logical comment on the [H] forums? Isn't that like going to HondaAcura.NET and extolling the value of a Hyundai Genesis?
Seriously though, AMD did better than I expected them to given what they started with. Working from the same basic K8+ architecture that has now been named K10 plus the additional cache, silicon tweaks and fixes and here we are at near-Penryn speeds. Not bad guys, not bad. And you can use it on AM2 systems, that's even better.
I don't believe Phenom II and i7 are really competition -- they're in two different performance and price classes; only the hardcore geeks are going to make the connection. In terms of what Joe and Jane user might go buy at a Best Buy, AMD already had plenty of opportunity for market share even before PII. But the combination of this extra speed bump and the overclockability should finally give them that "halo" of performance that has likely otherwise tainted their offerings to laypeople who don't really understand what they need anyway.
Seriously though, AMD did better than I expected them to given what they started with. Working from the same basic K8+ architecture that has now been named K10 plus the additional cache, silicon tweaks and fixes and here we are at near-Penryn speeds. Not bad guys, not bad. And you can use it on AM2 systems, that's even better.
I don't believe Phenom II and i7 are really competition -- they're in two different performance and price classes; only the hardcore geeks are going to make the connection. In terms of what Joe and Jane user might go buy at a Best Buy, AMD already had plenty of opportunity for market share even before PII. But the combination of this extra speed bump and the overclockability should finally give them that "halo" of performance that has likely otherwise tainted their offerings to laypeople who don't really understand what they need anyway.