AMD...

Of course, Intel is "better" since they are bigger and more expensive. But if people don't need the newest top notch thing AMD is alright. It's not like normal office PCs suffer from an AMD (and make companies lose much time while working and thus losing money). The world needs AMD to have another "big" name besides Intel. They have pushed Intel some times in the past and outperformed them with clever clones.

Just depends on your PC using which one is fully better for you.

That's probably why (quad core). Most software doesn't work with multiple cores at all and OSs barely start to. It's great we have this nowadays but developers can't really handle it. Writing algorithms that work is quite easy. Writing them to work with two or even more cores to speed up is a crazy hassle. The OS alone won't help putting the commands on multiple cores if the code is not written for it.

As I run emulators the obvious choice (for me personally) is intel. With an overclocked Sandybridge 2500k @4.4 I don't think there is much that can't be run at full FPS on PCSX2 or Dolphin.

It might take AMD years to catch up to Intel for emulation given how poorly Bulldozer turned out :(

It depends on more than just saying Amd or Intel. Purpose and price points are more relevant.

Everything is accurately priced now, honestly buying something at random in your desired price range will do.

Intel all the way, the bulldozer was the blunder of the century.

intel

For desktop or gaming rigs, Intel. For laptop, AMD APUs.

But you really can't go wrong with neither

your friend tells lies, unless he was talking about a laptop with intergrated graphics, as that is one area that AMD beats Intel, intergrated grahpics.

If you are going to have a dedicated GPU then intel wins in terms of game performance. Not that there is a lot of difference between the two at most price points, until you get to the high end where Intel pulls way ahead in terms of performance. Most games aren't CPU bound anyway, unless you have a enthusiest level GPU and a low res like 1080p.

As for AMD vs Intel it depends on the price point and what you are using the system for. But if you want a high end system then Intel are the defacto choice. For a laptop (non gaming) or HTPC AMD is pretty hard to beat tho.

Depends on time, at the time of Intel Core2Duo I would probably buy that one, it's so well made that my friend can still use it today and run many newer games without big problems (yeah Crisis might be problem but it's a water drop in whole sea)
However today I would buy AMD Phenom or something similar from AMD brand because of few things:
- They can be easier overclocked (not that I need it now)
- They have a bit lower start power than INTEL counterpart but overall structure works way faster
- They nicely work together with their GPUs (Radeons I mean)
- Great compatibility, I can put same CPU into few diffrent CPU-Slots without problems, they will still work fine
- Better price
- Less temperature (at winter I had 18-20 C degrees)

The last one is somewhat negative at the same time, I can't warm my hands when they will be cold xD