http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17402
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3619

AMD's fastest ever CPU in terms of clock speed, the Phenom II X4 965 BE, has launched at $245 and performs between a Q9550 and a Q9650. It overclocks to about 4.0GHz on air.

The real question is whether it be enough to challenge Intel's Lynnfield launching later this month.

Too bad AMD's cpu's are inferior in almost every way imagineable... Price is their only strength.

^ You know its all about price vs performance, right?

Mummelmann said: Too bad AMD's cpu's are inferior in almost every way imagineable... Price is their only strength.

And how much of the market is above $250? According to Intel, 1%. So AMD is better value in only 99% of the market [look at the second chart on TR's 'value proposition' page]. If you have reason to buy i7, great, but people could improve game framerates a lot more by spending the i7 premium on a faster GPU.

What matters is AMD not going bankrupt. Otherwise Intel's prices would never come down; they would have a true monopoly.

Yes, but I always buy second best on my PC, that usually yields solid performance for two thirds of the price of top of the line, which usually only provides a 10-15% rise in performance anyhow.

Besides, if one ranks the 20 best processors out now, odds are the top ten will be Intel and the bottom ten AMD (with slight modifications of course, I remember seeing this chart on either Tom's Hardware or Hardware.no). The quality is also a lot more flimsy, I have an ATi graphics card and I'll buy ATi the next time as well but I don't think I'll ever get an AMD cpu unless they play some serious catch up very soon.

Aww, my processor's no longer AMD's best. :( I've got a Phenom II X4 955.

Time to upgrade!

Nope.
Intel makes a superior product. I buy my computers based on quality and I know you get what you pay for.

Meh, still can't take on the i7 920? AMD is failing on me.

Please point me at a single real-world case where AMD products physically fail or are more unreliable.

You sir are a victim of billions of dollars of Intel marketing. If AMD is cheaper at the same performance you should buy it. Same for Intel. During 2006-2008 Intel was clearly better value. Now AMD is.

I have no problem with AMD but for $20 more you can get an i7 so it isn't really a competition.