The Pentium D:Intel's Dual Core Silver Bullet Previewed
 

Let's go back to performance levels at non-thread-optimized applications (e.g. games), since they will remain the driving force for upping processor performance for many months. In this sector, AMD scores better than Intel, with the Athlon 64 3800+ and 4000+ at 2.4 GHz keeping pace with any Pentium 4 processor, and even overtaking them in certain areas. In addition, AMD's energy management system, Cool & Quiet, is more efficient, since the core clock is reduced to as little as 800 MHz whenever performance is not required. In contrast, Intel remains at 2.8 GHz for "political reasons." ......

If AMD really managed to introduce a dual core that runs at close to or the same clock speed as its single core versions, it would likely outperform Intel's dual core portfolio in all areas. In addition, Intel requires a new platform and DDR2-667 memory, while AMD could wrangle impressive performance that is upgradeable to Socket 939 systems with only the addition of DDR400 SDRAM.

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