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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD)
AMD 231.83+1.7%Jan 16 9:30 AM EST
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To: dougSF30 who wrote (148535)1/20/2005 6:38:11 PM
From: eracerRead Replies (1) of 275872
 
Re: Who would pay more to have their games run much slower?

But that assumes the system is equipped with a video card fast enough to take advantage of higher single core CPU speeds. Most systems are still configured with slow video cards. In many cases a high end video card like a GeForce 6800GT or Radeon X800 XT isn't even an option.

I just took a look at the HP a850e series and four out of the five video options are FX5500 speed or slower. The other video card was only a Radeon 9800 non-Pro. This is for a processor which excels at gaming. On the four slower cards it wouldn't matter whether you were running a single core Athlon 64 FX-57 vs. a 1.8GHz Toledo, or a 3.8GHz Pentium 4 670J vs. 2.8GHz Smithfield. Gaming performance would be capped by the video card. Even the 9800 non-Pro will be a limiting factor in gaming performance.

This is where I think Intel has correctly positioned Smithfield in terms of pricing. It isn't targeting the serious gamer who is willing to spend $400 on a video card alone. It is priced low enough that the average Joe Blow who plans on buying a system with the default integrated graphics or FX 5200/Radeon 9200SE budget video card will consider buying one. For casual gamers a 2.8GHz Smithfield is more than enough.

How hard Intel wants to actually push the 800 series to home users remains to be seen. The benefits are questionable at best. If they do push it hard to the home user get ready to see the CD burning/SETI@Home/video encoding all-at-once multitasking benchmarks show up similar to when Intel first introduced hyperthreading.
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