AMD Offers Gourmet Chip

While ultra-high clock speeds may make gamers salivate, the need for ever-rising numbers in other applications is highly dubious.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) released two new chips today, the Athlon 64 FX-55 and the Athlon 64 4000+, which outperform any of its previous chips. The Athlon 64 FX-55 is geared toward gamers; the 4000+ is designed for more mainstream use. The company boasts that this puts it ahead of its rival, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC).

"Now in our third release, the AMD Athlon 64 FX processor is simply the best and remains unmatched in the industry," Marty Seyer, a vice president in AMD's microprocessor business unit, said in a press release.

Gourmet Chips

Although the FX-55 runs at 2.6 GHz, AMD claims its efficiency makes it a rival of the 4 GHz Pentium processor that Intel dropped from development last week.

Intel, the No. 1 chip maker, said clock speed was less important than memory. Added memory, it said, will boost its chip performance to higher levels than the planned 4 GHz version.

The FX-55 might give AMD bragging rights, but it is a "boutique" component far outside the mainstream, Mercury Group president Dean McCarron told the E-Commerce Times. It's the 4000+ that will eventually trickle down into the business market, and that will take some time.

"Usually new, fast parts are the most expensive, so it takes a while for them to 'waterfall' down into price points where they are considered by major OEMs for volume PCs," McCarron said.

Intel, AMD Head-to-Head

The escalating competition between Intel and AMD is not a matter of who's winning the clock-speed war, he said.

"Both companies continue to compete very aggressively -- ultimately they're racing for dollars and profits," said McCarron.

"Rather than say which one is winning, it'd be better to point out that both companies are competing to a degree they never have before, with both Intel and AMD offering parts for every segment and price; in the past AMD had been in a few areas, but not others. Now AMD and Intel are competing directly in every market, be it server, desktop or notebook, and this has never happened before."