The future of Intel vs Amd for Gaming

When you talk about gaming with Intel and AMD you have to look at the big picture. Usually the big picture refers back to the price of said item.

Intel is what you buy for performance and bragging rights. Believe me, I know Intel is incredible, but AMD has them beat from what I see at the moment. While Intel does have the Performance factor on them, AMD has the low cost and still very high end CPUs that aren't that much less than an i7. In addition to this, AMD owns ATI now and that alone gave them a boost. Since ATI is the leading Graphics Card brand, what with how popular the 4XXX and 5XXX series are and since the 5970 is better than the Nvidia "equivalent", AMD has Intel beat for the moment.

However, while AMD may in fact be creeping up on Intel and/or slightly ahead in this manner, you can't discount the fact that Intel has made strides that far outstrip AMD's capabilities. The Intel Atom processors for example. They already have a dual core that's 1/8th the size of a normal chip and it operates at 2.2ghz! It's only a matter of time until they create a quad core at that size. AND get this, Intel Atom is a SIDE PROJECT! While they are indeed pouring a lot of their money into it, the majority is going to the i7 research and funding. I don't know if the AMD "Hexacore" will beat the current i7s out but I know that it'll add to the list of things for Intel to overcome... which they will with flying colors.

This may seem like a really odd opinion but I was an Intel user up until about a year ago when I bought my first AMD chip and saw how cheap it was and that I didn't see that big of a performance drop, if any. I still have massive respect for the Intel and i7 users and envy all of you.

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AMD will be back and Intel knows it. AMD and Intel need to make it affordable for our businesses and for the consumers.

As of right now the CPU market is good. Best it's been in years. Prices are coming down so many of us can afford a PC or laptop.

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It's also basically a 486 with hyperthreading and more modern x86 extensions. The Atom is not an impressive processor when you consider that it and the chipset it usually comes with is outstripped in power efficiency and performance by Via's Nano.

Until on-die GPU co processors really take off, I consider the performance of the CPU market to have pretty much plateaued, as for most things, CPUs are already more than powerful enough.

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You do realize that you can't be biased to one side of the spectrum here right?

The Atom processor isn't impressive compared to a Phenom II persay, but it IS impressive that they already have a dual core that out-performs most MOBILE processors out there, and is 1/4 the size of the mobile version. I love AMD, but you can't keep beating around the bush. People tend to see through the blinds and see the world behind your words.

The Atom is the first glimpse of the future ahead for computers. The first step is always, "Let's see how fast we can get it.", then it's "Let's see how small we can make it.", and then it's, "Let's see how many we can combine to work as one." and then it repeats.

AMD will always be my first choice, but I always keep in mind that Intel is ahead and will always stay ahead.

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What does the Atom out-perform? It's the slowest x86 processor being mass produced for the consumer market, besides maybe the Via C7.

I think the size of the die is somewhat impressive, but the performance isn't that great. I think Via's nano is more impressive because the Via chip, made by the smallest of the three x86 manufacturers, out performs Intel's chip.

If Via had performance close to AMD and Intel, I'd go VIA all the way.

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+1 AMD has a long road ahead