That wasn't really the surprising point to me, I didn't really expect them to compete with intel. What was disappointing to me was its performance compared to some of the higher end phenom chips. Personally I was just hoping for a reasonable upgrade with a boost in performance, but I don't see it.
No Processor from AMD is worth spending cash on, the x6 are fine to a point, but the 125 watt tdp is a turn off particularly when it can't compete with i5 and i7 in single threaded apps. Now the Bulldozer is a bigger turn off since it offers nothing over the AMD Phenom II x6 and in some cases is inferior. Realistically why would you buy any processor from AMD right now when an i5 2500k is at about USD$200 ? If Southern Islands GPU's aren't top of the line in terms of performance then I think AMD will go bankrupt, they can't recover Bulldozer and Intel will kill them. AMD will end up about 2 years behind Intel and they are not in a healthy financial position. So much for competition and low prices, AMD deserve what's coming to them.
I disagree. I think a lot of their processors are more than adequate for 90% of the population, considering that a vast majority never get past word processing or games that aren't played from a browser. I'll continue to put them into PC's I put together for friends and family, knowing what the'll be used for. One of those posted article saids AMD's aim was to "hold the line." So to speak. And I guess in that regard they did, there older processors will still make their way into budget builds. What I've gathering is that the wait and hype was too much. Even some Intel fans I've come across gave up gloating and expressed disappointment in the competition. Agreed. Though I'm not sure about the bankrupt part, I think it would take more than bulldozer to send them down that road.
What price point do you see AMD processors being competitive ? When Ivybridge arrives Intel can sell that for whatever they want and drop Sandy Bridge prices and kill AMD. Also I never said Bulldozer alone will bankrupt them. I mentioned Southern Islands GPUs, those will be the Radeon 7xxx series. If that turns out crap like Bulldozer then AMD will not have a good source of income.
I've got to agree with R29k. Sandy Bridge has proven so successful for Intel that one can only expect Ivy Bridge to go yet further. AMD are in a bad position against Intel and really should up their game . I sincerely hope they do. After all what's a marketplace without competition ? Having said that , I'm so impressed with my i7 that I'm unlikely to go AMD.
The next Bulldozer revision due in 2012 is said to be around 10 percent. 10 percent better on crap is still crap! Say if Bulldozer is the 'base' speed, of 100, and Sandy Bridge is 110 (I'm being generous in saying the i5-2500K or i7-2600K is 10 percent faster), then Piledriver will be 110, the same speed as the current Intel, and Ivy Bridge will be 132. If you go further and make it 20 percent difference, Piledriver is still 110, and Ivy Bridge will be 144, so 31 percent faster. Not to mention Ivy Bridge TDP will be what, 77W or something? Piledriver will still probably be 125W. AMD really need to pull something out of the bag with the Piledriver, 10 percent won't cut it. Realistically they need probably 40 percent for people to even contemplate the CPU, and they'd need the 3rd gen in 2013 to do a lot more than just 10-15 percent better again.
The writing is on the wall AMD are dead in the processor game until their next new architecture, assuming they make it that far. The ATi business will have to do very well to keep them afloat.