Server roundup: Intel "Nehalem" Xeon versus AMD "Shanghai" Opteron

With the recent release of Intel's Nehalem-based Xeon processors last month and AMD's Shanghai-based Opteron processor in November 2008, a war of words has precipitated between Intel and AMD. Intel claimed that it maintained the greatest performance-per-dollar and that its slowest Nehalem was faster than the fastest Opteron, while AMD refutes this and claimed that it provides a better value product. AMD also claims to have the most energy efficient chip by advertising the world's most efficient and first "40-watt" quad-core CPU while Intel claims that its CPUs are the most energy efficient.

The result of this public bickering is that it is difficult for chip customers to figure out who to believe. To settle this dispute, we will analyze each of these claims and provide hard data to validate or debunk each of these claims.