There are countless companies in the computer industry but there is only one battle that counts... AMD vs. Intel. This is a favorite topic in the forums, yet instead of blindly pledging allegiance to one CPU or the other, let's take a look behind the scenes and find out which companies processor is the best bet.Now I should say that I'm a hardware enthusiast at heart, so for me CPU performance matters the most. I stick with gear only as long as it keeps my PC at the front of the performance curve. After that, I drop it like a rock and move onto greener pastures, regardless if it's the same brand or not. After all, what's the point of brand loyalty? AMD and Intel don't love you back, no matter how much you might sing their praises. Put another way, it's not like AMD only sells to you, or Intel has a smiling shot of your mug on every pay stub as a testament to your past processor purchases now is it?The nice thing about being computer enthusiast is that right now both AMD and Intel platforms support a lot of cross compatible hardware. Sure the CPU and motherboards are platform specific, but you can share DDR2 memory, videocards and other peripherals easily enough. If PC speed is what you crave, you can jump from one processor platform to the next ever couple months, taking your memory, videocards, hard drives and everything else along with you.Anyway, the point I'm trying make is this. As a hardware enthusiast you have the pick of some of the fastest computer hardware on the planet. Ignore the urge to stick with AMD or Intel out of tradition, go out there and find the best gear based on benchmarks!So, who offers the best performance - is it AMD or Intel? I'm glad you asked, the answer is.......Intel. For the moment anyway, Intel's dual and quad core processors are the king of the heap. In particular, the companies Core 2 Duo/Quad processor lineup is out-pacing AMDs current Athlon64 X2/FX processor families. That may indeed change by the end of Q4'07, or it may not.AMD is partly to blame for its current situation. Big green has not refreshed its CPU lineup since the last time PCSTATS dished the dirt on the AMD vs. Intel slugfest. AMD won the battle back then, but relying on the now somewhat dated K8 Athlon64 processor has left AMD without a good competing CPU for Intel's "Conroe". Intel published performance results on "Conroe" for quite some time before it was officially released, so it's not like AMD was blindsided by it either.


Two cores. Exceptional performance.Based on Intel’s next-generation Core microarchitecture, the Intel Core 2 Duo offers a second-generation chip born of Intel’s new 65-nanometer process. That process lets Intel create incredibly small transistors — small enough, in fact, to fit a hundred inside a single human cell. With two powerful processors designed to share resources and circuitry so unimaginably small, Intel Core 2 Duo achieves far higher levels of performance while actually consuming less power.64-bit.With its 64-bit processor architecture, the Intel Core 2 Duo can manipulate data and execute instructions in chunks that are twice as large (64 bits versus 32 bits), delivering advanced computational power to Mac mini. That adds up to exceptional speed and agility, improved performance you’ll notice when working with photos in iPhoto or Aperture, creating Keynote presentations, editing video in iMovie, or playing Doom.Speedy system architecture.Augmenting the advanced Core 2 Duo processor is an equally advanced system architecture. It includes, for example, up to 4MB of shared L2 cache.2 That’s double the amount previously available, and it really lets Mac mini fire on all cylinders. With such substantial L2 cache, data instructions can be kept close to those two processor cores, greatly increasing performance and allowing the entire system to work more efficiently. And because the processors share the L2 cache, either of the processor cores can use the entire amount if the other core happens to be idle.And let’s not forget the enhanced, 128-bit SSE3 vector engine that the Intel Core 2 Duo processor introduces to the Mac mini family. Able to handle 128-bit computations in a single clock cycle, the SSE3 vector engine accelerates data manipulation by simultaneously applying a single instruction to multiple data. That means you can get more done in less time. So, the next time you use iMovie or Final Cut Express to render effects, you can thank the SSE3 vector engine for the snappier performance.Testing conducted by Apple in July 2007 using preproduction Mac mini units with 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; all other systems were production units. Safari HTML Load Speed (cached) test, Java Script, and Java VM are a subset of the i-Bench 5.0 benchmark. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac mini.The 2.0GHz Mac mini has 4MB of L2 cache. The 1.83GHz model has 2MB of L2 cache.Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 80MB, resulting in 944MB of system memory available on 1GB configurations

Intel has become one of the world's most recognizable computer brands following its long-running "Intel Inside" campaign. The campaign, which started in 1991,[38] was created by Intel marketing manager Dennis Carter.[39] The five-note jingle was introduced the following year and by its tenth anniversary was being heard in 130 countries around the world.Intel's old logo(1968–December 2005)The well knownIntel Inside slogan(1990–2003)Before its phase-out, the 'Intel Inside' logo was modified to resemble the original Intel logo by lowering the Intel 'e' and changing the typeface.Intel's new logo and slogan(December 2005–Present)The Intel Inside program was supportive of advertisers and further served to broaden the company's awareness as a key ingredient inside PCs. Intel paid some of the advertiser's costs for an ad that used the "Intel Inside" logo. If the ads did not meet agreed upon requirements, Intel was not obligated to reimburse costs. PC companies advertising products containing Intel chips include the jingle in their film and television advertisements in order to receive the reimbursement.The Centrino advertising campaign has been hugely successful, leading to the ability to access wireless internet from a laptop becoming linked in consumers' minds to Intel chips.[citation needed] In the UK this has caused some controversy, as the ASA upheld complaints that this was a misleading advert.[40]In December 2005, Intel phased out the "Intel Inside" campaign in favor of a new logo and the slogan, "Leap ahead". The new logo is clearly inspired by the "Intel Inside" logo.In 2006, Intel expanded its promotion of open specification platforms beyond Centrino, to include the Viiv media centre PC and the business desktop Intel vPro.In mid January 2006, Intel announced that they were dropping the long running Pentium name from their processors. The Pentium name was first used to refer to the P5 core Intel processors (Pent refers to the 5 in P5,) and was done to circumvent court rulings that prevent the trademarking of a string of numbers, so competitors could not just call their processor the same name, as had been done with the prior 386 and 486 processors. (Both of which had copies manufactured by both IBM and AMD). They phased out the Pentium names from mobile processors first, when the new Yonah chips, branded Core Solo and Core Duo, were released. The desktop processors changed when the Core 2 line of processors were released.In March 2007, the Intel logo was shown briefly in one of the scenes of the movie, "The Last Mimzy."As from 2008, Intel plans to shift the emphasis of its "Intel Inside" campaign from traditional media such as television and print to newer media such as the Internet. Intel will require that a minimum of 35% of the money it provides to the companies in its co-op program be used for Intel has become one of the world's most recognizable computer brands following its long-running "Intel Inside" campaign. The campaign, which started in 1991,[38] was created by Intel marketing manager Dennis Carter.[39] The five-note jingle was introduced the following year and by its tenth anniversary was being heard in 130 countries around the world.Intel's old logo(1968–December 2005)The well knownIntel Inside slogan(1990–2003)Before its phase-out, the 'Intel Inside' logo was modified to resemble the original Intel logo by lowering the Intel 'e' and changing the typeface.Intel's new logo and slogan(December 2005–Present)The Intel Inside program was supportive of advertisers and further served to broaden the company's awareness as a key ingredient inside PCs. Intel paid some of the advertiser's costs for an ad that used the "Intel Inside" logo. If the ads did not meet agreed upon requirements, Intel was not obligated to reimburse costs. PC companies advertising products containing Intel chips include the jingle in their film and television advertisements in order to receive the reimbursement.The Centrino advertising campaign has been hugely successful, leading to the ability to access wireless internet from a laptop becoming linked in consumers' minds to Intel chips.[citation needed] In the UK this has caused some controversy, as the ASA upheld complaints that this was a misleading advert.[40]In December 2005, Intel phased out the "Intel Inside" campaign in favor of a new logo and the slogan, "Leap ahead". The new logo is clearly inspired by the "Intel Inside" logo.In 2006, Intel expanded its promotion of open specification platforms beyond Centrino, to include the Viiv media centre PC and the business desktop Intel vPro.In mid January 2006, Intel announced that they were dropping the long running Pentium name from their processors. The Pentium name was first used to refer to the P5 core Intel processors (Pent refers to the 5 in P5,) and was done to circumvent court rulings that prevent the trademarking of a string of numbers, so competitors could not just call their processor the same name, as had been done with the prior 386 and 486 processors. (Both of which had copies manufactured by both IBM and AMD). They phased out the Pentium names from mobile processors first, when the new Yonah chips, branded Core Solo and Core Duo, were released. The desktop processors changed when the Core 2 line of processors were released.In March 2007, the Intel logo was shown briefly in one of the scenes of the movie, "The Last Mimzy."As from 2008, Intel plans to shift the emphasis of its "Intel Inside" campaign from traditional media such as television and print to newer media such as the Internet. Intel will require that a minimum of 35% of the money it provides to the companies in its co-op program be used for online marketing.[41]Intel's "Intel Inside" campaign has generally been considered to be world class marketing. However, over the years there have been several plays on the Intel branding scheme which have appeared on the web. While such jabs at Intel are obviously beyond the company's ability to control, they do tend to show that not everyone believes that Intel's programs and policies are always world class. For example, there is the popular "evil inside" logo,[42] the ubiquitous picture of a tombstone with "R.I.P Intel Insideonline marketing.[41]Intel's "Intel Inside" campaign has generally been considered to be world class marketing. However, over the years there have been several plays on the Intel branding scheme which have appeared on the web. While such jabs at Intel are obviously beyond the company's ability to control, they do tend to show that not everyone believes that Intel's programs and policies are always world class. For example, there is the popular "evil inside" logo,[42] the ubiquitous picture of a tombstone with "R.I.P Intel Inside

Intel has a significant participation in the open source communities. For example, in 2006 Intel released MIT-licensed X.org drivers for their integrated graphic cards of the i965 family of chipsets. On other occasions, Intel released FreeBSD drivers for some networking cards,[45] available under a BSD-compatible licence, which were also ported to OpenBSD. Intel also released its EFI core named as EDK under a BSD-compatible licence. Intel runs Moblin project and LessWatts.org campaigns.[46]However, after the release of the wireless products called Intel Pro/Wireless 2100, 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG and 3945ABG in 2005, Intel was criticized for not granting free redistribution rights for the firmwares that are necessary to be included in the operating systems for the wireless devices to operate.[47] As a result of this, Intel became a target of campaigns to allow free operating systems to include binary firmwares on terms acceptable to the open source community. Linspire-Linux creator Michael Robertson outlined the difficult position that Intel was in releasing to Open Source, as Intel did not want to upset their large customer Microsoft.[48] Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD also claimed that Intel is being "an Open Source fraud" after an Intel employee presented a distorted view of the situation on an open-source conference.[49] In spite of the significant negative attention Intel received as a result of the wireless dealings, the binary firmware still has not gained a license compatible with free software principle

In September 2005, Intel filed its response to an AMD lawsuit,[52] disputing AMD's claims, and stating that its business practices are fair and lawful. In its rebuttal, Intel laid out the skeleton of its legal defense, which included a deconstruction of AMD's offensive strategy and levied the charge that AMD's long struggling market position is largely a result of bad business decisions and management incompetence, including underinvestment in essential manufacturing capacity and over-reliance on contracting out chip foundries.[53]Legal experts predict the lawsuit will most likely drag out for a number of years, since Intel's response indicates they are not likely to try to settle with AMD.[54][55] A court date has been granted in 2010.[56]In October 2006, a Transmeta lawsuit was filed against Intel for patent infringement covering computer architecture and power efficiency technologies.[57] In October 2007, the Transmeta-Intel lawsuit was settled, with Intel agreeing to pay an initial US$150 million and US$20 million per year for the next 5 years. Both companies agreed to drop lawsuits against each other while Intel was granted a perpetual non-exclusive license to use current and future patented Transmeta technologies in its chips for 10 years

European UnionIn July 2007, the European Commission formally accused Intel of anti-competitive practices, mostly against its main competitor AMD.[63] The allegations, going back to 2003, include giving preferential prices to computermakers getting most or all chips from Intel, paying computer makers to delay or cancel the launch of products using AMD chips and providing chips at below cost to governments and educational institutions.[64] Intel responded that the allegations were unfounded and instead qualified its market behavior as consumer-friendly.[65] General counsel Bruce Sewell also responded that the Commission had misunderstood some factual assumptions concerning price and manufacturing costs.[66]In February 2008, a spokesman for the company announced that Intel's office in Munich had been raided by European Union competition regulators investigating its business practices. Intel reported that it was cooperating with investigators.[67] If found guilty of stifling competition, Intel could be fined up to 10% of its annual revenue.[65] Rival AMD also subsequently launched a website focusing on these allegations.[68][69] In June 2008 EU has filed new competition charges against Intel

In 2003 there were 1.4 tons of carbon tetrachloride measured from one of Intel's many acid scrubbers. However, Intel reported zero release of carbon tetrachloride for all of 2003.[75] Intel's facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico overlooks a nearby village, and the hilly contours of its location create a setting for chemical gases heavier than air to move along arroyos and irrigation ditches in that village. This has reportedly led to adverse affects in both animals and humans. Examinations of deceased dogs from the area have returned reports of high levels of toluene, hexane, ethylbenzene, and xylene isomers in their lungs.[76]In the June-July time frame of 2006, Intel reported that there were VOC releases of more than 1580 pounds