With Phenom II hitting the streets this week, AMD needs to learn a few simple rules about how to challenge a market leader such as Intel in the performance arena.

Imagine this: you’re sitting in the staging lane in your shiny new Ford F150 pickup truck ready to drag race. You’re feeling pretty good and confident until the 10-cylinder Dodge Viper pulls along side. Perhaps implying that you’re the fastest one around was not such a good idea after all?

This is exactly what AMD is doing with its new Phenom II CPU, the company’s next-generation 45-nanometer processor. It’s bringing a real workhorse of a processor to market, but it’s lining up to challenge a racing sports car in speed performance in Intel’s Naleham processor.

Resource Library:

Frank Ohlhorst

AMD can’t help but be compared to Nehalem, Intel’s desktop performance powerhouse, but AMD has done little to avoid that comparison by surrounding the Phenom II with a shroud of mystery and then implying that with overclocking the Phenom II will make it a speed king.
 
AMD knew that the inevitable comparisons would be made and that the Phenom II could never outpace Nehalem, yet it still positioned the Phenom II as the latest and greatest thing in desktop performance, building up a groundswell of expectations.

Once the test results are made public, it will be easy to see how the AMD Phenom II really measures up to the Nehalem, and many AMD fans are sure to be disappointed. This won’t make Phenom II worthless. Just as a pickup with extra horsepower is a powerful tool, we expect the same of Phenom II. But that doesn’t make it the same as Intel’s race car.

When one considers the price-verses-performance argument, Phenom II will likely cost significantly less money than anything Nehalem, including CPU, memory and motherboard. To make sure that the Phenom II is taken seriously, AMD needs to highlight the costs involved in building systems with the new CPU, the CPUs performance per watt characteristics and the savings that can be realized by using a Phenom II over a Nehalem.

In the grand scheme of things, most desktop users aren’t looking to be speed kings (save for the video editor or autocad engineer). They want an affordable system that can meet their day-to-day chores reliably and with little fuss or muss. That’s where AMD can succeed over Intel and perhaps win at least one race.

Discuss AMD Poised to Lose another Race with Intel   Mr. Frank Ohlhorst. With all that sarcasm about little AMD's battle or competing... Well, this story is purely opinion - that is why it is published as a commentary -... Our new Phenom II will be the performance-per-watt-per CEO-Dollar-Compensation... AMD has always used slight of hand to compare themselves with Intel - from TDP... You can tell by the picture this guy isn't very intelligent. First his analogy about... speaking of irony, in closing he says "They want an affordable system that can meet... What are you a moron? It would take an idiot to not understand the point being made... Wow, Judging someones intelligence by their picture - that is pretty smart? you must... Well, that last paragraph was for readers like Jonathan - who obviously need to be... Wow, it seems that all these AMD Fan Boys can't take a little critisim and resort to... Jonathan - you make a good point - I have always argued that Stephen Hawking is a... If you're going to judge someones intelligence at least use correct spelling and... Jonathan said - " It sounds like are in fact the fanboy here" nice grammar... Wow, now you know how to judge people's intelligence based upon grammar and spelling... Well if you must know I've been building computers for friends and family for 15... Pretty funny Jonathan - you won't bother reading VARguys whole message, because you... Hey there Jon! I think all of the childishness started with your first post - Is... Believe it or not it I'm a fast at typing and I can put thoughts together relatively... "You set the tone with your post and now you are reaping what you have... I'm sorry every one - I have been acting like an ASS! I finally read the article... Imposter! Ok that was pretty funny there I have to admit. But in all honostly I... AMD has always played catch-up to Intel in marketing, from the K6 days until now. ... FYI Hector Ruiz stepped down from his position as CEO of AMD quite some time... Frank owes his readers an apology. Not for ripping on AMD. Probably more than a... The AMD review will go live at 11:59pm - that is when the embargo from AMD lifts -... Sir, you will soon find out that you do not have a clue about the Phenom 2. I am... Freddy - your statement makes no sense? a clue in what way? regroup why? How? what?... I have been in computer sciences since I am 16 years old. I am now near 60 years... I agree with everything said except that I AM 60. Yep, I beat myself up years ago... Man was logging long before toilet paper came aroun. (i still don't think women have... >>> Post your comment now!

>>> More Channel News and Analysis Articles          >>> More By Frank Ohlhorst