Intel's Core i7: Blazing Fast, But Crippled O/C

[BluTrain]

Only a moron sells cheap when people would pay more.

Unless you want a completely legal monopoly on the processor market. Which is probably what they would have if there is no reason to buy another brand of processor. Looks to me like people may begin to consider AMD again...

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Unless you want a completely legal monopoly on the processor market. Which is probably what they would have if there is no reason to buy another brand of processor. Looks to me like people may begin to consider AMD again...

It all boils down to price/performance ratio combined with overall performance.

If AMD can provide a competitive pricing at mid-performance level and do so with stable products (this has always been an issue with AMD based setups) it can take some market share. But as long as it can't compete with Intel at all in high performance products Intel can set their pricing pretty much how they please.

So the consumer has the option either to suffice with midlevel performance or pay premium to get top performance.

[drdeathx]

The Q6670 and Q8850 out perform AMD's quads and are priced under $200. So the mid level quads are competative from Intel. AMD has a lot of work but they may not make it throught the economic struggle. Duo core is the same story. AMD is still behind. Time will tell.

[1701E]

One thing to consider is the ratio of gamers to average PC users.  Only gamers really need that raw power, an an average user will simply go for what a Tech store suggests, or the cheapest thing available.  Thus most times an average user will go AMD due to price, over the Intel raw power.

[drdeathx]

Nice point 170       

[TilDeath]

Here is an article with the i7s with realworld benchmarking done.  They at stock run circles around the the Quads. Don't forget that the BIOS has not been fully expanded as of yet.  Just like the 790i chipset when it first came out, it was a pain to OC.  With the release of the eVGA 790i FTW Digital OCing is much easier and reaching a stable system is not hard on air or water with 1+gh pushing of processors.  But again you have to have good memory and a properly cooled system to achieve awesome benches.
One of my systems has a Q9450 in it at 3.9gh stable on air and running in the mid 40's underload.

Benchmark reviews http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=63&limit=1&limitstart=0

[TilDeath]

The Q6670 and Q8850 out perform AMD's quads and are priced under $200. So the mid level quads are competative from Intel. AMD has a lot of work but they may not make it throught the economic struggle. Duo core is the same story. AMD is still behind. Time will tell.

Agreed but the best OC quad i still the Q6600.  Easy to hit 4gh and beyond.