Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/3277
Here's something I've been wondering: what will it take for AMD to win this year with Phenom?
If my Phenom Preview is to be believed, AMD will improve performance around 15% clock for clock over the K8 with Phenom. At lower clock speeds/cache sizes, AMD and Intel end up offering similar performance as I showed in the Mainstream CPU Roundup. There is definitely the possibility that AMD could offer higher performance vs. Conroe/Kentsfield with Phenom, but the question is will it be enough?
For Socket-AM2 owners, the upgrade path will make a lot of sense, just swap in a Phenom and get Core 2-like performance. But for new system buyers or LGA-775 owners, the move is a little less clear. If AMD can offer better performance, but at a similar price, will that be enough for users to choose Phenom over Core 2?
Then there's the issue of overclocking. AMD hasn't had much success at 65nm, all of its highest clocked Athlon 64 X2s are still based on the older 90nm process. While I've been told that things will change with Phenom, I'm not very confident that Phenom will be able to out-overclock Core 2. So if AMD can provide Phenom that's clock-for-clock faster than Intel, at a similar price, but can't overclock as high will the new core change anything?
Intel also has an interesting upgrade path, as Penryn will eventually make its way down to even the cheapest Core 2 products, so as long as you have a Penryn-compatible board today you'll be sitting pretty come next year.
Then again, maybe I'm looking at things too cynically, maybe all AMD needs is to have more competitive performance at stock speeds and at competitive prices; let's leave it up to the sales 'n marketing folks to duke it out with OEMs and in the channel.