Shoutbox

Stats?

Well, when it comes to processors you have two main brands (in desktop computers), AMD and Intel.

Over the last 2 years AMD rulled the market, always with the better performing CPUs, featuring cooler temperatures.. AMD was actually the first company to bring 64 bit and dual core processors to regular desktop computers.
However, as they always insisted to maintain an on-die memory controller (in other words, built in),  they were left back when DDR2 memory became an actual hype and they had no socket to support these. Even though the memory controller offered good performance (better than the usual CPU -> Chipset -> Memory connection used on Intel systems), it was beaten by DDR2 performance as soon as their timings became lower.. Only in 2006, with the launch of the AM2 socket, did their processors support DDR2.

AMD was largely supported by gamers, since their processors offered a large boost in most games. Consequently, they started sponsoring many activities in this area and gaining more and more popularity.

Now onto Intel.
Intel's "great" processor on the last years was Pentinum IV.. Mainly, it was a heat-spreader, with few overclock'ability and also a slow performer.. Intel maintained this processor for 3 or 4 years, waiting for the big fish (I guess..)
Then, the revolution started. Introducing Intel's first dual core processor, Pentium D it outperformed everyone's expectations, as many had already lost hope in the company. However, it didn't bring "as much as" people expected from the Dual Core technology.
Later on, after the launch of the Core 2 Duo processors, everybody was amased by what these processors could do. Though expensive, these beat every competition available in the market, even featuring lower clock frequency (which just proves that Gigahertz are only a number) and finally took advantage of what multiple cores could offer. Most of these processors are great 'Overclockers' and dissipate few heat, a lot less than their previous generation.

Nowadays we're still waiting for a decent response from AMD to the Core 2 Duo processors, as they keep pushing their 2 year old sockets.. Intel prepares to lower even more the Core 2 Duo prices by the end of this summer and reduce the Core 2 Quad processors price (Q6600; QX6700; QX6800).

On a side note, one of the (two) major desktop video card maker (for the domestic market), ATI, was bought by AMD earlier this year (?) and is also unperforming to the expectations, having launched only one D3D10 model up to the moment a few days ago, X2900XT, to compete with the other major company, nVidia, which has sucessfully launched 7 different layers of D3D10 cards, from budget to beast-performance. As a conclusion, AMD seems to have "lost it"..