[Rob Babcock]

It looks like for the first time in a long, long time Intel may take back the performance crown from AMD, even for hardcore gaming apps.  This would be quite a coup.  If it's true my next PC might (shudder! ) contain an Intel again!  I wonder how AMD will respond?

[kfr01]

Perhaps I'm -way- out of it, but is the performance crown the "real crown" anymore?
Isn't price/performance still the "real crown" in the world of gaming and PC enthusiasts?

In other words, with unlimited money a guy could always eek out more performance (multiple processors, video cards, etc.).  However, AMD rose to popularity because they offered great performance for the price. 

Thus, I posit that while the "performance crown" might make a nice press release for Intel, it means little if AMD is able to stay ahead of intel on the more important price/performance curve. 

Thoughts? 

Also, and this may just be a result of where my current interests lie, but I feel low power / low heat / high efficiency / silent / low cost processors (including, but not limited to, notebook processors) is where the real action is right now.  Gamers will always be around, but with the absense of mainstream "killer apps," both big business and your everyday consumer is looking for practicality and portability. 

In other words, I think both Dick and Jane down the street and Acme, Inc. are starting to realize that they don't need a noisy, hot, 3ghz monster to do what they want a computer to do.  Dick and Jane want a small laptop to take to wifi spots or meetings.  Acme wants to save energy costs, reduce noise and heat, save space, and not waste money. 

Thoughts? 

[Thump553]

I almost totally agree with kfro1's position.  I personally pay very little attention to what is the cutting edge, for more often than not than not there is little practical difference between cutting edge and two or three tiers down.

Today I think most people look for smoothness of performance, quietness, price and reliability first.  For example, I've probably extended the life of my home computer (an AMD in the low 2.xx range) by putting in an additional $50 of memory.  That gave me far more benefit and enjoyment than cranking up the cpu cycle would have been.

That said, I do predict that someday cpu speed could become critical again, but not until voice recognition and vocal input become practical in PCs.  That is the next real killer app but it seems to be an elusive goal.

[dwk]

Well, I think the interesting thing about Core 2 is that it addresses ALL of the factors you guys have brought up. The Core 2 promises to leapfrog AMD on virtually all fronts:
- better performance overall
- better price/performance (although it looks like AMD will drastically cut prices to stay in line)
- significantly better power consumption than previous Intel desktop chips, due to Pentium M/Core bloodlines

I also fall into the 'low power'/quiet camp, but it really looks like the Core 2 could be the first mainstream desktop chip that brings the benefits of the laptop tech into the game - no need to putz with expensive MB's (Pentium M) or compatibility problems (Turion). Plus, it's dual-core for whatever that's worth, whereas neither the Pentium M nor the Turion are.

I'm not desperately in need of a new system at the moment, but I find the Core 2 chips interesting enough that I pushed my Mac/iMac thoughts to the back burner for now to see how this plays out.

[bprice2]

Check out this article from PC World:  http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,126342,pg,1,00.asp

[nathanm]

Voice recognition a killer app?  Why?

[jermmd]

Voice recognition a killer app?  Why?

In medicine, voice recognition will be huge for dictating charts and test results. Right now the reliability and learning curve are inhibiting its wide spread use.

Joe M.

[kfr01]

Voice recognition a killer app?  Why?

In medicine, voice recognition will be huge for dictating charts and test results. Right now the reliability and learning curve are inhibiting its wide spread use.

Joe M.

I think reliable automated dictation would be useful to some degree in just about every industry.  However, I think the kind of speed, reliability, and low learning curve we're talking about is still years off to be viable for many businesses.  Killer app it might be, but I don't think it is the "next" one.  Unfortunately, not even close.  Let's face it, many employees in many small/medium/even some large businesses are still cursing their relevant Office 2000 application.  Word won't format correctly, macros are futsy and break, Dick from accounting's Excel XP file with a macro won't quite work on Jane's Office 2000 laptop.  Business wide document management is a nightmare.  Etc.  No, I think we're a long way off from meaningful widespread voice recognition.  There are more fundamental problems to be solved first.

In business, I personally think the next big thing is a move back to server-based apps cleaning up a lot of this muck.  Now that the pipes and terminals are fast enough for interactive and graphic rich user interfaces, and the cost of servers has come down, this seems like the way to let Dick and Jane get back to work.

[shokunin]

While Core 2 will probably bring perfomance back to Intel, who is on top is almost pointless since most consumer applications have not be designed for smp to take advantage of multiple cores.    Benchmarks are one thing but most applications need to be rewritten to take advantage of multi-core.

In the IT world, as server density has increased and the rise of virtualization (EMC's VMware) on the distributed platform, lower power consumption and lower heat is what Intel badly needs.  Even then, AMD's hypertransport bus architecture will probably still be better due to memory controller and bus of Hypertransport.

[Rob Babcock]

Gamers are a flaky bunch- even the ones that don't need max horsepower still dream of it.  Having the undisputed champ under your hood is major bragging rights.  True, price per dollar sells procs, but I think your 'street cred' also helps sell them.  For a long time gamers have known that AMD's processors were unassailable, so it would be a major black eye if the hardcore propellerheads were to leave AMD in droves.

Not that they will, of course.  I myself would love to get the top AMD for a "bargain" price if they start slashing prices.  Even so, the Socket 939 is at the end of its lifespan so I'd be leery of sinking much money into that 'set with the new one right around the corner.

[Rob Babcock]

The slashing has begun!  Looks like Newegg is selling the hi-po AMDs for about 50% off already.