"i will never buy intel"
just wanted to start with that right off the bat. I think AMD is a better company for more reasons than just superior products. Or maybe that's just because Intel is a worse company for more reasons than just inferior products..
Let's see, I'm only twenty one, but if I remember correctly..
Commodore64
Intel/AMD/Intel/AMD
blah blah i don't remember I was like 4.
Intel Pentium, Then a Pentium PRO, a few amd chips (geez they are probably still all in a box somewhere)
Even maybe a "CYRIX 686!!!" .. laff
Fast forward.. I started building systems at like 10?..
AMD K5
AMD K6.. As I recall a lot of these were running off the same S7 or SS7 mobos as the pentiums I took out to replace with.
AMD K62.. was it a 400? I remember oc'ing it to 420.. kids..
AMD K62 500. The k62's all ran Quake 1 Team fortress (including GLquake just fine, with my graphics blaster or whatever it was and eventually my wonderful Voodoo3 3000 agp <AGP WOW
AMD athlon 1 ghz
AMD athlon 1.2 ghz
AMD athlon TBIRD 1.4 ghz
AMD duron lost in there somewhere
Dad hand me down DELL inspiron laptop, 2.4 ghz I'm typing on
AMD Athlon XP barton 35w 2400+.. HTPC
and the next chip I purchase will certainly be an AMD, regardless of the performance leader at the time. The motivation for my loyalty to the company has changed, but the loyalty itself has only gotten stronger. I won't clarify exactly because I'd just start another OT flamewar "IT HASNT BEEN PROVEN BY A COURT OF LAWWW."
On the Energy star issue:
Why shouldn't we be getting more performance at lower wattages? Look at the advance in speed/power over just MY lifetime, why not lower energy? Some would say this is because the chipmakers are focused on what consumers want, but what about large scale servers etc that require less power for a smaller bill? I think the government stepping in will be the perfect catalyst for these chipmakers to really start firing up the grill when it comes to efficiency.
-Kenji