AMD vs Intel
Intel is calling their new i7 CPU the fastest CPU in the world. For the time being it seems like a fair claim. However, early reports on AMD’s Phenom II are indicating that Intel, for the first time in a few years, may just be in for a fight. Earlier this week MyBroadband was given the opportunity to catch up with AMD’s local general country manager, Imi Mosaheb.
It has to be acknowledged that Intel CPUs over the past few years have been delivering better performance than equivalently priced AMD CPUs. Many have put this down to Intel’s early adoption of the 45nm CPU standard. AMD’s consumer parts are still sitting on the 65nm process which many have argued is generally less powerful and less energy efficient than Intel’s current 45nm process.
Mosaheb argues that the die size is not as important as Intel would have us believe. “Intel is constantly trying to leapfrog AMD by shrinking the die size. This is largely a marketing ploy and actually results in little improvement in end user experience.” says Mosaheb.
It is true that Intel is able to shrink the die size more often than AMD as they possess far deeper pockets than the green underdog. This keeps them constantly one step ahead of AMD in terms of CPU die shrinkage.
Intel’s Wolfdale CPU was launched in November 2007 in the form of the E8000 series. It demonstrated an admittedly noticeable performance increase over the 65nm Conroe it replaced. This would seem to indicate that the 45nm Die size is advantageous in terms of its performance capabilities.
Marketing ploy or not, AMD is finally launching its first consumer level 45nm CPU in the form of the Phenom II. Mosaheb confirmed that certain Phenom II CPUs will be available locally in mid January.
This is exciting news for consumers, as the Phenom II has already been reportedly overclocked to 6.3GHz using liquid nitrogen, and 4GHz using air cooling. This demonstrates significant clock speed overhead compared to the original 65nm Phenom.
Based on developments over the past few years, it seems unlikely that any Phenom II CPU will be able to match Intel’s Extreme edition i7; however, it looks as though it might at least make an important stride forward in AMD’s catch up effort.
Mosaheb says that “it is difficult to say now how the Phenom II will compare to Intel’s i7 in terms of raw performance”.
“The focus will not be on the performance of individual components, but rather on the overall performance of the platform. The system can only be as powerful as its weakest element."
AMD is planning to launch its “Dragon” platform shortly after Phenom II. Dragon will succeed the Spider platform that accompanied the Phenom, and will consist of the Phenom II CPU, an AMD 790GX motherboard and ATI Radeon 4800 series graphics card.
If the rest of the system can keep up with the HD4800 series graphics cards, and AMD price their new platform well then they may have a winner on their hands.
AMD versus Intel – give your view
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