AMD to cut prices

[Burky]

My point is this time AMD have become a budget company, as their top products are simply waay below the speeds of intel.

Go and check out some of the results over at Xtremesystems, they are amazing.

And people are not overreacting to Conroe.
If you look at cpu benchmarks, like Super-pi, you see that people with Conroe's are getting 12-15 seconds when they are overclocked, and like was said by Dyne, they overclock like Mzo's mom.
My processor is one of the fastest AMD ones, and it gets 29 seconds on that benchmark.

If I were given the chance again, I would have waited 6 more months on my XP rig and got a Conroe.

[stormy]

My point is this time AMD have become a budget company, as their top products are simply waay below the speeds of intel.

Go and check out some of the results over at Xtremesystems, they are amazing.

And people are not overreacting to Conroe.
If you look at cpu benchmarks, like Super-pi, you see that people with Conroe's are getting 12-15 seconds when they are overclocked, and like was said by Dyne, they overclock like Mzo's mom.
My processor is one of the fastest AMD ones, and it gets 29 seconds on that benchmark.

If I were given the chance again, I would have waited 6 more months on my XP rig and got a Conroe.

You're kidding, a new processor is faster than an old processor?

Your comparison is like saying Xbox360 is faster than Xbox. Intel already migrated to a next gen process, and AMD is still on the old process. This definatly gives Intel an advantage at the moment, and people buying now should get Conroe if they want the fastest system. But AMD will align thier pricing structure to fit into the new price/performance scale. That's why it was dumb to say a $500 Conroe outperforms a $1200 FX-62. The FX-62 isn't going to cost $1200 when Conroe is out. You will still get the performance you pay for no matter which chip you buy, this move is AMD fitting that curve. They'll migrate processes and relaunch thier own chips that match or beat Conroe and cost $1200 again.

AMD has always been the budget company. Last generation they happened to get a huge design win, but they still know where they fit into the marketplace. Traditionally the budget players have never been the first to migrate processes, and it's no surprise than Intel is moving forward before them now. I already stated in the last thread that i don't see anything in Conroe that AMD can't match once they go to 65nm. This is a 6 month to 1 year gap imo, but I haven't looked into thier roadmap to see for sure.

[Burky]

I don't think AMD has been the budget company as far as the latest generation is concerned. From what I've seen the majority of people seem to be using AMD X2 and Dual Core Opterons, for the reason that they're superior to the AMD counterparts.

My point is AMDs next big thing is just AM2 right now, which means that they've totally lost their position as the dominant company, as AM2 isn't that great, and won't be great for quite a while I don't think. When are they moving onto 65nm?

And those benchmarks were insanely better, it wasn't just some tiny few seconds shaved off there.

[stormy]

I don't think AMD has been the budget company as far as the latest generation is concerned. From what I've seen the majority of people seem to be using AMD X2 and Dual Core Opterons, for the reason that they're superior to the AMD counterparts.

You need to amend that to say the majority of enthusiasts. Intel is the dominant brand by far. They are insanely larger than AMD, and have tons more capital. That's why they're able to move forward before AMD, they even own thier own fabs. They get to spend more on R&D and marketing too. Last i read Intel didn't even consider AMD thier primary competition, they are more afraid of the semi-conductor giants like Samsung developing a proc. Intel just so happened to get embarassed bad this last round and lost the enthusiast market. It wasn't till that happened that AMD was able to charge Intel level prices

When are they moving onto 65nm?

I'd like to know as well. I can guarentee that even if it's not announced they are already working on it. Hopefully it doesn't take them too long.

I work in a company in a similiar position as AMD. We are much smaller than our competition, but last gen got a nice performance design win even as the budget brand. We don't even have a research division and our development teams are much smaller as well. We do a lot of things they don't do so we can keep costs down, our yields are much higher than thiers due to some really clever architecture. They're going to beat us to 65nm too, ours isn't even announced yet but my team is already working on it. We're a year away right now. The costs are just to high for us to be the pioneer, that's not our role and it's not AMD's role either, but for the 6 months or year we lose at the start we can (hopefully if history repeats) sustain a 3 or 4 year performance/value edge after that. I guess that is why i root for AMD, and I think they'll still compete just fine.

[Burky]

Ok, I wasn't looking at the big picture. Usually I just get my news from overclocking forums, so people either have Opterons or Conroes, not much else in between.

I'd be interested to see if they can take Intel's place again in the enthusiast market though.

[stormy]

I'd be interested to see if they can take Intel's place again in the enthusiast market though.

Very interesting. I want to see them do it too. The way i look at it is Intel lost a generation. They threw a lot of money at the problem to recover and come back with Conroe, but I want to see what AMD was working on while Intel played catch up. Last gen they were ahead of the curve on power management, processor efficiency, dual core, and 64 bit(it was the first time they were responsible for changes to the x86 instruction set). If they did nothing they're in trouble, but staying ahead of the curve in some way is how the small companies survive. They won't repeat the gap they had last gen, but i can see them maintaining some lead once they get thier products out.

[Daitokuji]

I think I'll wait until the 24th before buying my processor. If what the memo says is correct then the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ will be 169 dollars then I will get that instead of a Athlon 64 3500+