Intel will be reducing prices as of April 22. If you are not an overclocker, this article is very helpful as it compares competing AMD/INTC chips. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/displ...re-roundup.htmlNotice AMD is matching Intel on a Price to Performance basis, However also notice that AMD has nothing that can compete with even a lowly 2.66ghz E6700.But if you are an overclocker, there is no contest even at the mid / lower levels. With inexpensive cooling (a $50 Tuniq tower), the most expensive AMD tops out at about 3.0 ghz. The cheapest C2D will go the 3.4.An overclocker that is comparing only Performance to Performance, any Intel C2D (for instance a $113 E4300) will beat any AMD (for instance a $230 X2 6000+) by 20%. For an overclocker comparing Price to Performance, the value race is a complete blowout.Intel's next price cut will be in Q4. If I remember right, the Q6700 will drop to $250. That'll be a 45nm, hyperthreaded, SSE4, quad-core running on a 1333 mhz FSB at (maybe 8X x 333 =) 2.6 ghz. They are also optimizing the core for a nice 20% performance boost at the same clock. With the smaller circuity (at 45nm), this will be one cool customer and will likely O/C to the moon. So, we have a quad core (8 threads) that will O/C to 3.6ghz (conservatively)for $250. AMD's gonna be able to compete with that? Time to get short AMD stock (short term that is). Bet 10 will get you 15! However this is NOT a "sell and hold" strategy. AMD bought ATI (remember?) and is announcing all kinds of restructuring plans this quarter. What's up with that? Consider this: If you buy this next CPU right, it will likely be the last CPU you will buy.Fusion is the next frontier. That's the General Purpose GPU (GPGPU). Within the next 2-3 years, the CPU and the GPU will fuse into a single chip (AMD's "Fusion"). Nvidia's on top right now, but long term, they're toast. So let's get rich. Along about Q4 / 08, cover the AMD bet, then short Nvidia all the way to a 10 cent-a-share buyout offer by Intel. Cover at a nickel. Retire. But watch Intel. They really will have no use for Nvidia. That 45nm shrink (then 32nm) is gonna leave lots of space on the die for their own version of AMD's Fusion. They are HaRD at work on their own GPGPU as we speak. Great fun to watch the players play ball.

How would a person go about buying some shares of AMD stock?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

Buying AMD shares might be . . . ahhh, contraindicated at the moment. Your "Stock Pick of the Day" is to Short Sell the stock. With a Short transaction, you borrow the shares from your broker, then sell them immdeiately. You are now "short" stock, and (someday) you must return it. The money from this sale goes into a (kinda) trust account. You can't touch it. The transaction closes when you return the borrowed shares to your broker. To do this, you buy them on the open market. The buy-back transaction uses the money from the trust account (first) to buy back the shares. This is called "covering." If you buy the shares back at a price that is less than you paid for them (the stock went down), you keep the difference. That becomes your money. You win. If the stock goes higher, you must pony up the difference between the trust account's amount and the amount needed to buy the shares. You loose. I predict AMD is going lower. Short 'em out. But don't forget about it. AMD will be back!Here's a link to the quad price predictions. http://www.kclanparty.org/modules.php?name...article&sid=519Intel is just being brutal. They will time the price drop right on top of AMD's Barcelona quad core intro date. Q3 or Q4? It will all depend on AMD's progress with their quadie. Woah, that's hard ball. Intel is taking no prisoners. The Intel quad I was remembering was the Q6600 at $266. That's a 2.4 ghz part at a 1066 fsb. That's a 9 multiplier. We like that. It'll go way over 3 ghz, easy.

Ok, just wondering, but, I see all kinds of people running Intel parts over 3 GHz. How come Intel doesn't do a good QC and choose a bunch and sell them at these high clock rates at high prices?Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

Marketing. Simple as that. Intel only has to provide a product that is a bit better than AMD. The top CPU has always cost $1000+. It's never mattered what that CPU was. My old P(1)-66 was $1000 at one time. Right now AMD's top dog, the 2.8 ghz X2 FX62 runs right with a 2.4 ghz E6600 C2D. Intel's 2.66 (E6700) and 2.9 (X6800) parts are just adding insult to injury. Intel's has all this core speed "ammo" loaded up and ready fire at will, but it's biding it time. There's no point in shootin' the gun if there's no target. And it's not just clock speed they have in the breach, locked, loaded and ready to fire. It's manufacturing efficiency (AKA "price"). For instance, AMD's quad core Barcalona is due in Q3. Intel will drop the price of their current $900 Q6600 2.4 quad core to $266 on whatever date AMD choses for their 1st quad core release.We are watching a very real industrial war. Kick back and enjoy. We're the winners.

>>We are watching a very real industrial war. Kick back and>enjoy. We're the winners. Yes, and Intel appears to be taking no prisoners. RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

AMD is top dog?Everything I read has Intel being on top at the moment.(?)Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

"AMD's" is being used in the possessive sense, not as a contraction; i.e., "The top dog of AMD, ...." rather than "AMD is the top dog ...." By now you know Sam would sooner chew ground glass than call AMD top dog. ;-)

>AMD is top dog?>>Everything I read has Intel being on top at the moment.(?)>>Thomas>He said, "AMD's top dog is the FX62..."He did not mean AMD was top dog overall.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

QuoteFusion is the next frontier. That's the General Purpose GPU (GPGPU). Within the next 2-3 years, the CPU and the GPU will fuse into a single chip (AMD's "Fusion"). Nvidia's on top right now, but long term, they're toast. So let's get rich. Along about Q4 / 08, cover the AMD bet, then short Nvidia all the way to a 10 cent-a-share buyout offer by Intel. Cover at a nickel. Retire. UnQuoteI have doubts about the practicality of combineing CPU and GPU in to a single chip for high performance / high quality graphics applications in that e.g. Intel's on-board graphics have not exactly produced stellar results.Best and Warm RegardsAdrian Wainer

You're right Thomas. That was kinda fuzzy. What I really meant was that AMD wasn't the top dog in capitalizing on their own ideas. . . that is, at the moment. Intel is having their IDC (Intel Developers Conference) in China this week. Anandteck is there and does some good reporting. Here their briefing for today's results. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel...doc.aspx?i=2968If you read carefully, you will see Intel absolutely ape-ing AMD's ideas.First, is the fact that they simply stole AMD's basic CPU concept. In 2003, AMD decided to go with a shorter "pipeline." That meant that an AMD processor could do more work at a slower clock speed. For the next 3 years AMD was the Top Dog. Intel's CPU philosophy was to increase performance with simple speed increases. Their Netburst (P4) goal was 10,000 mhz, but they ran into a thermal wall at 3.8mhz. AMD had it right. INTC's 3.8mhz CPU couldn't hold a candle to an AMD FX58 at 2.6mhz.Intel finally gave up. The sent the CPU design project to Israel with the instructions; "Figure out what AMD's doing and copy it!" The Conroe (a lake in Israel) was born. They just adopted the AMD short pipeline philosophy! Notice in the article how Intel is hedging its bet with Front Side Buss (FSB) speed increases for the newest processors. The desktops are at 1066mhz and the servers are at 1600mhz. Anantech observes that a desktop box will never see a 1600 mhz FSB. This is because the FSB is going away in 2009. Once again, AMD was there First with their Hyper Transport method of connecting onboard systems. In 2003, AMD went with a "point to point" connection philosophy they called Hyper Transport, rather than Intel's buss approach called the FSB. Five years later, Intel has finally very quietly acknowledged "They were right . . . so let's steal it!" The Front Side Buss (FSB) is going away. In about 18 months, Intel will introduce their version of AMD's Hyper Transport. On to the GPGPU (General Purpose GPU). Intel calls it Larrabee? . . . and are real hesitant about calling it a GPGPU. Well no kiddin'. AMD is leading the way once again with their purchase of ATI and the development of their "Fusion" GPGPU. It's getting a bit obvious by now that INTC is just Ape-ing the real thought-leader.But there IS one thing Intel can do . . . that's Execute. They couldn't care less where it came from, they can take a concept and make it work. They took AMD's short pipe CPU concept, turbocharged it and then cut manufacturing costs by 75%. Now, what do you think they are gonna do with AMD's Hyper Transport and the GPGPU? Hummm??! Ape or one smart chimp? We'll leave that to the a really excited user 'cus this battle is just too much fun to watch . . . and we observers are winning . . . bigtime. Long term, Intel and AMD are going to be the winners here. Nvidia's toast.

>>But there IS one thing Intel can do . . . that's Execute. They>couldn't care less where it came from, they can take a concept>and make it work. They took AMD's short pipe CPU concept,>turbocharged it and then cut manufacturing costs by 75%. ...and the 65nm manufacturing process.Seems complimentary...AMD has been the innovator, Intel has been the executor. It really is a good situation for all of us.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

Guess I should have had my coffee before I responded to that, eh?Oh, wait, I don't drink coffee. Guess I'll just have to blame it on my ADHD.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180