Anyone else find it odd that the apparently oh so popular i5 has only 200 something newegg reviews, while the newer Phenom II's have a lot more?
Overall reviews on i5+i7's vs Phenom II's, it seems like a lot more Phenom IIs and Athlon II's are selling compared to current Intel offerings.
Almost everywhere I go, except this forum of course
, everyone always seems to be trashing AMD. Most review site front pages frequently trash AMDs performance compared to intel, constantly noting that "Phenom IIs are still slower than our old Core2Quad refernce scores in X and Y benchmark".
Well to me it sure seems like people are realizing that, moreso than ever, todays benchmark scores DO NOT reflect real world performance, at all. Even the most die hard Intel loving forum posters and review sites are forced to acknowledge that clock for clock, Phenom II's are virtually identical to Core i*'s in gaming. They are always quick to jump in with a comment about how sandra memory bandwidth benches on i5s and i7s can reach 1.5-3x (in the case of trip channel ddr3-1600/2000 on the 1366 platform), or this other CPU benchmark shows the Phenom II barely edging out old 1000 dollar Core2Quads, ect.
But where are the sales numbers to back it all up? The i7 920 has a beastly number of newegg reviews no doubt, but other than that, not many intel chips have a high review/purchase count. And nearly everyone I know that buys a cpu leaves a comment on the egg, everyone wants to throw a vote to the cpu they spent their hard earned money on, especially now when money is real right everywhere and a new cpu is a significant non-essential purchase.
Aside from the 920, theres not a lot of review counts for other intel chips. Even the highly lauded "gamers CPU"(laff) i5 only has a mere 216 reviews after christmas shopping is pretty much over. Many, many Phenom IIs and Athlon II's have more than that, a lot significantly more. The 955BE, 940BE, 620 Propus, 720BE X3, and a few cheap dual cores have a lot more than that. And the 965 flavors are rising fast too.
Im not fanboying out here, Im just curious that newegg, pretty much THE premiere site for forum going hardware review reading enthusiasts to buy their CPUs at, is showing that it seems a lot more AMD chips are selling compared to i5s and i7's. I think there is a good chance that its because they simply are. Intels chips, even the budget ones, are quite expensive. Intels cheapest modern budget chip is the i5 and its still 200 bucks solid. AMDs most expensive chip, the C3 965 which is basically guaranteed to do 4ghz on halfway decent air, is less than that. And in the next month or 2 I expect the C3 955 to explode in sales too as its a 175 dollar chip thats also gonna do 4ghz easy.
Also AMD motherboard prices deserve their own little paragraph here. Most respectable quality, nice feature set, and top brand motherboards on the i5/i7 side of things are at or over 200 bucks. Closer to 300 still for 1366 boards. This is slowly changing, but it wasnt in time for xmas 09, which was a big deal considering sagging retail sales throughout the year. However, on the AMD side, most people can get away with an 80 dollar 785G/sb710 motherboard, and those of us who want SATA raid only needed to step up to a 100-120 dollar 790GX/sb750 mobo. All my joe sixpack customers were fine with the 80 dollar solution. Thats pretty impressive savings over a 200-300 dollar Intel board. And these are not the crappy brand, bug ridden, VIA chipsets of the past. This generations AMD chipsets are fast, stable, feature packed, and CHEAP! An 80 dollar gigabyte/asus/msi board that can run a 4ghz 965BE with 4-8gb of ddr3-1600+ is just fun. And the rest of us are only paying 110-120 for 790gx or 150-170 for absolute top quality top priced 790FX boards, which can run 2 x16 or 1 x16/ 2 x8 ultra high performance multi gpu setups. No i5 board period, no matter the cost, can do 2 x16 or 3 gpus, period.
However much Intel users love their chips, they just spent a lot on their core2quads last year or this year, and the chip + mobo they want next costs a pretty penny together. Meanwhile the AMD chip us AMD peeps are looking at are fast and cheap. And the mobos are cheap, I mean really cheap. You can build a screaming C3 965 4ghz monster machine on a freakin 80 dollar mobo!! And reuse your cheap but fast and low latency ddr2 that you paid 50 bucks per 4 gigs a year ago too, to further lower what your spending.
Im going to be very, very interested to see the Q4 09 and Q1 10 sales figures for Intel and AMD. I know Intel is making a lot more profit per CPU sold than AMD very likely, but there are lots and lots of AMD chips flying around. And they are so cheap (and backwards/forwards compatible with the last 2-3 generations of motherboards) that a lot of us have already upgraded from one Phenom II class chip to another faster one. I got a 940BE in February and then a 955BE in what, July or August? Then I went and sold my 940BE to a friend for his box for like 10 bucks less than I paid for it LOL! SCORE~~
Anyway sorry its late, Im tired, Im rambling. I was just curious and would love to know what you guys think. Is it possible that AMD with their slower chips might actually pull ahead for Q4 09? I mean, its hard to wrong with fast, extremely efficient, and cheap. And by efficient I mean with the dies. No matter what part of a deneb core fails, there is a sellable CPU AMD can make with it, L3 cache, any 2 cores, on and on, AMD can still stick some label on it and sell it. This was a brilliant move by AMD by the way, its why I think they have been able to make their Phenom II/Athlon II's so crazy cheap. Their flagship cpus for under 200 dollars is practically unhead of. And
I am still shocked that we got a 100 dollar quad core this year. I've stuck Athlon II X4 620's in 4 customer PCs so far and everyone is totally ecstatic about them. A fully modern tech, ddr2 or 3, quad core CPU for 100 dollars is just crazy, the price of a total budget single core cpu from just a few years ago. It used to be a 100 dollar cpu was from at least one generation behind, and absolute bottom of teh barrel performance bracket. The 620's are respectable at stock and o/c extremely well, not 1 of the ones in a system I built are running at less than 3ghz, cept the media center pc one which cool and quiet is priority #1.
I know a 2.6ghz L3-less CPU is not a big deal for many enthusiasts, but for your joe sixpack users its perfect. Many, many people are still on sub 1gb ram single core CPUs from several generations back. Most of the rest are on old dual core Intel and AMD chips. These people could upgrade to 4gb of dual channel ddr3-1333+, a 620 X4, and 785G motherboard (and be getting far faster and better dx10 4k series onboard graphics compared to their intel onboard crap) for what, 250-280 dollars? Thats a weeks paycheck at part time minimum wage, and a fraction of the cost of a much slower store bought PC. Or slightly over the price of Intels cheapest modern CPUs, or the same or less than the cost of most of their lineup.
So yeah, Im done, I just want to end with the fact that I think AMD did a damn impressive job with this generation of CPUs. Sure they are not the fastest in all things, but benchmarks aside their real world performance is pretty damn close to far far more expensve Intel offerings. And their budget lineup is just amazing bang for the buck, with a 50 dollar dual core and 100 dollar quad core that perform extremely respectably. Most joe sixpack users could easily get by on a 50 dollar regor, and a 100 dollar propus would be overkill for their myspacing and the sims/flash games playing. My customers on 4gb ddr2/3 and 620's are all amazed at how fast their machines are, and how freaking cheap they were. So keep up the good work AMD, a lot of us are hurting for money right now, we really appreciate that you focused on keeping prices down so much for us this year, when its more important than ever in many of our lifetimes.
I cant wait to see Q4 09 sales numbers, and how things pan out in 2010. It doesnt look like the economy is going to be getting any better, not by a long shot, in this coming year, so hopefully the far superior price/performance will put AMD back in the game (I totally admit Phenom 1 was an abysmal failure, I skipped that gen and almost went core2quad when the 940BE came out and I was rescued from a core2 lol). It would also be really, really nice if some major store OEMs like Dell would realize the killings they could be making using super cheap Athlon IIs in a new generation of super cheap but killer performance budget machines. Just start using some quality parts, I hate store machines with garbage no name PSUs that cant handle a single added watt of power usage, and no name mobos that cant be upgraded and caps that explode in a year hehe.
Post thoughts!!
Overall reviews on i5+i7's vs Phenom II's, it seems like a lot more Phenom IIs and Athlon II's are selling compared to current Intel offerings.
Almost everywhere I go, except this forum of course
, everyone always seems to be trashing AMD. Most review site front pages frequently trash AMDs performance compared to intel, constantly noting that "Phenom IIs are still slower than our old Core2Quad refernce scores in X and Y benchmark".Well to me it sure seems like people are realizing that, moreso than ever, todays benchmark scores DO NOT reflect real world performance, at all. Even the most die hard Intel loving forum posters and review sites are forced to acknowledge that clock for clock, Phenom II's are virtually identical to Core i*'s in gaming. They are always quick to jump in with a comment about how sandra memory bandwidth benches on i5s and i7s can reach 1.5-3x (in the case of trip channel ddr3-1600/2000 on the 1366 platform), or this other CPU benchmark shows the Phenom II barely edging out old 1000 dollar Core2Quads, ect.
But where are the sales numbers to back it all up? The i7 920 has a beastly number of newegg reviews no doubt, but other than that, not many intel chips have a high review/purchase count. And nearly everyone I know that buys a cpu leaves a comment on the egg, everyone wants to throw a vote to the cpu they spent their hard earned money on, especially now when money is real right everywhere and a new cpu is a significant non-essential purchase.
Aside from the 920, theres not a lot of review counts for other intel chips. Even the highly lauded "gamers CPU"(laff) i5 only has a mere 216 reviews after christmas shopping is pretty much over. Many, many Phenom IIs and Athlon II's have more than that, a lot significantly more. The 955BE, 940BE, 620 Propus, 720BE X3, and a few cheap dual cores have a lot more than that. And the 965 flavors are rising fast too.
Im not fanboying out here, Im just curious that newegg, pretty much THE premiere site for forum going hardware review reading enthusiasts to buy their CPUs at, is showing that it seems a lot more AMD chips are selling compared to i5s and i7's. I think there is a good chance that its because they simply are. Intels chips, even the budget ones, are quite expensive. Intels cheapest modern budget chip is the i5 and its still 200 bucks solid. AMDs most expensive chip, the C3 965 which is basically guaranteed to do 4ghz on halfway decent air, is less than that. And in the next month or 2 I expect the C3 955 to explode in sales too as its a 175 dollar chip thats also gonna do 4ghz easy.
Also AMD motherboard prices deserve their own little paragraph here. Most respectable quality, nice feature set, and top brand motherboards on the i5/i7 side of things are at or over 200 bucks. Closer to 300 still for 1366 boards. This is slowly changing, but it wasnt in time for xmas 09, which was a big deal considering sagging retail sales throughout the year. However, on the AMD side, most people can get away with an 80 dollar 785G/sb710 motherboard, and those of us who want SATA raid only needed to step up to a 100-120 dollar 790GX/sb750 mobo. All my joe sixpack customers were fine with the 80 dollar solution. Thats pretty impressive savings over a 200-300 dollar Intel board. And these are not the crappy brand, bug ridden, VIA chipsets of the past. This generations AMD chipsets are fast, stable, feature packed, and CHEAP! An 80 dollar gigabyte/asus/msi board that can run a 4ghz 965BE with 4-8gb of ddr3-1600+ is just fun. And the rest of us are only paying 110-120 for 790gx or 150-170 for absolute top quality top priced 790FX boards, which can run 2 x16 or 1 x16/ 2 x8 ultra high performance multi gpu setups. No i5 board period, no matter the cost, can do 2 x16 or 3 gpus, period.
However much Intel users love their chips, they just spent a lot on their core2quads last year or this year, and the chip + mobo they want next costs a pretty penny together. Meanwhile the AMD chip us AMD peeps are looking at are fast and cheap. And the mobos are cheap, I mean really cheap. You can build a screaming C3 965 4ghz monster machine on a freakin 80 dollar mobo!! And reuse your cheap but fast and low latency ddr2 that you paid 50 bucks per 4 gigs a year ago too, to further lower what your spending.
Im going to be very, very interested to see the Q4 09 and Q1 10 sales figures for Intel and AMD. I know Intel is making a lot more profit per CPU sold than AMD very likely, but there are lots and lots of AMD chips flying around. And they are so cheap (and backwards/forwards compatible with the last 2-3 generations of motherboards) that a lot of us have already upgraded from one Phenom II class chip to another faster one. I got a 940BE in February and then a 955BE in what, July or August? Then I went and sold my 940BE to a friend for his box for like 10 bucks less than I paid for it LOL! SCORE~~
Anyway sorry its late, Im tired, Im rambling. I was just curious and would love to know what you guys think. Is it possible that AMD with their slower chips might actually pull ahead for Q4 09? I mean, its hard to wrong with fast, extremely efficient, and cheap. And by efficient I mean with the dies. No matter what part of a deneb core fails, there is a sellable CPU AMD can make with it, L3 cache, any 2 cores, on and on, AMD can still stick some label on it and sell it. This was a brilliant move by AMD by the way, its why I think they have been able to make their Phenom II/Athlon II's so crazy cheap. Their flagship cpus for under 200 dollars is practically unhead of. And
I am still shocked that we got a 100 dollar quad core this year. I've stuck Athlon II X4 620's in 4 customer PCs so far and everyone is totally ecstatic about them. A fully modern tech, ddr2 or 3, quad core CPU for 100 dollars is just crazy, the price of a total budget single core cpu from just a few years ago. It used to be a 100 dollar cpu was from at least one generation behind, and absolute bottom of teh barrel performance bracket. The 620's are respectable at stock and o/c extremely well, not 1 of the ones in a system I built are running at less than 3ghz, cept the media center pc one which cool and quiet is priority #1.
I know a 2.6ghz L3-less CPU is not a big deal for many enthusiasts, but for your joe sixpack users its perfect. Many, many people are still on sub 1gb ram single core CPUs from several generations back. Most of the rest are on old dual core Intel and AMD chips. These people could upgrade to 4gb of dual channel ddr3-1333+, a 620 X4, and 785G motherboard (and be getting far faster and better dx10 4k series onboard graphics compared to their intel onboard crap) for what, 250-280 dollars? Thats a weeks paycheck at part time minimum wage, and a fraction of the cost of a much slower store bought PC. Or slightly over the price of Intels cheapest modern CPUs, or the same or less than the cost of most of their lineup.
So yeah, Im done, I just want to end with the fact that I think AMD did a damn impressive job with this generation of CPUs. Sure they are not the fastest in all things, but benchmarks aside their real world performance is pretty damn close to far far more expensve Intel offerings. And their budget lineup is just amazing bang for the buck, with a 50 dollar dual core and 100 dollar quad core that perform extremely respectably. Most joe sixpack users could easily get by on a 50 dollar regor, and a 100 dollar propus would be overkill for their myspacing and the sims/flash games playing. My customers on 4gb ddr2/3 and 620's are all amazed at how fast their machines are, and how freaking cheap they were. So keep up the good work AMD, a lot of us are hurting for money right now, we really appreciate that you focused on keeping prices down so much for us this year, when its more important than ever in many of our lifetimes.
I cant wait to see Q4 09 sales numbers, and how things pan out in 2010. It doesnt look like the economy is going to be getting any better, not by a long shot, in this coming year, so hopefully the far superior price/performance will put AMD back in the game (I totally admit Phenom 1 was an abysmal failure, I skipped that gen and almost went core2quad when the 940BE came out and I was rescued from a core2 lol). It would also be really, really nice if some major store OEMs like Dell would realize the killings they could be making using super cheap Athlon IIs in a new generation of super cheap but killer performance budget machines. Just start using some quality parts, I hate store machines with garbage no name PSUs that cant handle a single added watt of power usage, and no name mobos that cant be upgraded and caps that explode in a year hehe.
Post thoughts!!
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