AMD Loses the CPU Game, Rules on the GPU Market

Chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices has recently introduced its Phenom X4 line of processors, but this did not change much on the CPU market. Although they are the highest offering in the AMD camp, the X4 chips do not stand a chance to Intel's powerhorses.

For instance, while the Phenom X4 9850 quad-core processor costs about $10 less than its counterpart from Intel, it cannot even closely match the latter in terms of performance. The AMD chip might be an alternative for the low-budget, high-performance seekers, but it's clear that Intel's Q6600 chip is the reference point.

AMD may be defeated on the processor market, but things are getting brighter in the graphics business. Benchmarks claim that the newly introduced triple-core Phenom CPUs paired with AMD's mighty integrated graphics core in the 780G chipset is quite a miracle. The duo is able to deliver enhanced performance and could bring the manufacturer important market share on the mainstream market.

You might remember our reports on the 780G chipset during the CeBIT expo. Back then, Pat Moorehead, vice president of advanced marketing at AMD claimed that a high-end GPU can outperform a system comprised of just a faster CPU. His statement seems to be based on the fact that the GPU cores usually take the workload off the central processor.

Hybrid graphics could make a difference between AMD and Intel, since adding a discrete GPU would automatically de-activate the on-board graphics core. However, with hybrid graphics support, users can merge the powers of both the discrete and the integrated cores and achieve extra horsepower for less money.

"That's where the huge value kicks in. Slip in a $50 (HD 3450) graphics card and on a $599 system you can do Call Of Duty 4. Not at HD levels, at lower resolutions, but at a price point you couldn't even dream of before," claimed Moorehead. "The 780G by itself is also more powerful than previous integrated graphics chips and is the only integrated solution to do low-cost Blue-ray off-loads," he added.

Nvidia also agrees upon the fact that graphics can make a huge difference in terms of performance. According to Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's president and CEO, getting a lower CPU and faster graphics will not only boost the system's overall performance, but it will also come cheaper.

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