Sigh ................ I am in no way saying that this is a desktop chip . What it however shows me is a server/workstation chip which can double as a more than decent desktop ................. note I say double . That more Xeons sell than Opterons is not a disputed fact , but at the same time that doesn't make them better . In fact in the server space it is the Xeons which are being sold on hype and pr , not performance . Currently the opteron soloutions offer the fastest webservers overall but Intel has been able for years to outsell AMD even when AMD has better chips , through brand recognition , software support , contracts , threats and hype . So the sales figures of the Xeons are very very good for the Intel bottom line but until they get some faster and 64 bit soloutions ( besides Itanium ) they will be outclassed in everything but hype .
1/ My dumptruck analogy was just to show the totally different focus of the 2 classes of chip . A dual Xeon or Opteron rig is not for game playing ( at least not primarily
) and what they are made to do a P4 3.2 absoloutely sucks at .
2/ 64 bit has its advantages , but right now they are limited to professional apps , computation , servers , databases etc . Which is why it can be seen as quite a bit of PR for us in the gaming/desktop world . But in the professional world , don't be fooled 64 bit will creep in and AMD has a very big foot in the door .
3/ Intel's Itanium has a different problem to the Opteron , it is far more expensive and totally proprietary with its own special 64 it OS and it's own specialised apps . If you want to do something with it you have to write or rewrite your own program and in a special way just for the itanium . Whereas the Opteron is more flexible and can be used much more easily and cheaply , it is not the ultraniche product that the Itanium is , thus adoption of the Opteron shouldn't be as difficult or costly .