asidman

The European Commission on Wednesday fined Intel a record €1.06 billion, or about $1.446 billion, for abusing its dominance in the computer chip market to exclude longtime rival AMD.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=17884&tag=nl.e019

csc2000e

Oh snap! Don't be disrespectin' the consumer! EC got our back!!
But seriously, if the evidence given is true, it does seem a bit shady:

"Kroes said Intel had pursued a strategy aimed mainly at excluding AMD by paying computer makers and retailers to postpone, cancel or avoid AMD products entirely.

Kroes ordered Intel to cease offering rebates to computer makers that had helped it “maintain a share of about 80 percent of the market for microchip sales and blocked AMD from increasing its share beyond about 20 percent of that market,” according to the New York Times."

Mcninjaguy

Go AMD and Anti Trust Enforcment aganencies for allowing AMD to have a better market share.

AMD is lot better if you want to make a computer cheaper

Compare this $75
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103773

To $167
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115037

jamesmeijer1234

yes, but amd products make a LOT of noise and they heat up really bad, it's ok if you are in a cold country but not ok were i live.
chip just fries off.

however EU did the right thing by this, this is the highest fine in a antitrust case, second being microsoft.

i hope google never comes in this list.

WereBo

AMD aren't that noisy or hot - My AMD 64 X2 4800+ is overclocked by 10% and runs at a measly 46C, 50C when loaded. The stock heatsink/fan is only running at approx 3/4's of it's max speed.

Another nice thing with AMD's is that when they get too hot, they just slow down, whereas Intel shuts down when overheated.

asidman

Or in the case of Xeons, just carry on reporting High Temparature state and freeze up, turning a R100 000 server into a paperweight.
Ask me it happened last night to my works main DB server just as we were backing up the DB. lost 3 hours of information which is kinda crappy

Done_Fishin

Intel have a faster and safer method to saffeguard their CPU's whilst if I remember correctly the AMD has fried before it even realises that it has a heat problem .. they might appear to be faster but at what cost ?? As for the idea that they are "good if you want a cheaper PC" that's like suggesting you put a $20 power supply on your PC to make it cheaper .. it's hardly a valid argument

I haven't used AMD since I had a couple of 75MHz boards which I eventually replaced with Intel only to find that most of my PC Crashes disappeared overnight .. haven't used them since for that reason .. Intel were far more stable in operation ..

ssj4Gogeta

Either you're kidding, or you have never used a Wolfdale, or you think GHz is everything. That Wolfdale will destroy that Windsor in performance.

AND, hitting 4 GHz with Intel's part is a no-brainer. You can get even further very easily.

If you don't believe me, see this (both processors at stock speeds):
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=28&p2=56

And... the graphs in which Intel's bar is shorter are "shorter is better".


Now compare that to Intel's lowest end 2.5 GHz offering ($70):
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=28&p2=66

And that is at stock speeds. The E5200 part can easily do 3.75 GHz or more. It already beats the 3.0 GHz AMD part at 2.5 GHz, so...

Intel is CLEARLY much better. They weren't in the Pentium 4 era, but they're much better now. They don't even have any competition on the i7 front from AMD yet. AMD's new Phenom II processors can only compete with Intel's last generation Core 2's. And on the server front Nehalem-based Xeons beat the socks off anything Opteron.

If you're going to buy a mid-high end system now, and you can spend $300 on the processor and $250 on the motherboard, Core i7 920 D0 stepping is the best bang for the buck. Overclocks to 4.3 with ease. Blazing performance.

Mcninjaguy

I stand corrected ssj4gogeta.
thanks for the info

ssj4Gogeta

Hey Mcninjaguy, I'm sorry if I was too harsh in my last post. I just re-read my post and realized it was too harsh.

Mcninjaguy

It's fine you did back up your point and you weren't too harsh, I haven't used a 8400 wolfdale before. I would prefer one instead of my AMD CPU.

Doesn't everyone want a Core i7 system!

WereBo

I would, but only until AMD bought out something better, then Intel would turn the tables again.... ad infinitum

Done_Fishin

There's nothing like competition to create a healthy life and an empty pocket

WereBo

Hehehehehehe..... Very true words, my friend