> I have to assume that amd and intel would like similar chips

They historically haven't. They've wanted the higher single-core performance and frequency and they've pulled out all the stops to get it. Everything had been optimized for this. (Also, they underinvested in their uncores, the nastiest part of a modern processor. Part of the reason AMD is beating Intel right now despite being overall very similar is their more recent and more reliable uncore design.)

They are now realizing that this was, perhaps, a mistake.

AMD is only now in a position to afford to invest otherwise (they chose quite well among the options actually available to them, in my opinion), but Intel has no such excuse.

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x0x0 4 days ago | parent [-]

Not arguing, but I would think there is (and always has been) very wide demand for fastest single core perf. From all the usual suspects?

Thank you.

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MBCook 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Oh there certainly is. And there’s a reason Apple works hard for really fast single core performance. For a lot of tasks it still matters.

I suspect one of the issues is that pushing the clock is a really easy way to get an extra 2% so you can claim the crown of fastest or try to win benchmarks. It’s easy to fall into a trap of continuing to do that over and over.

But we know the long-term result. You end up blasting out a ton of heat and taking up a ton of power, even though you may only be 10% faster than a competitor who did things differently. Or worse you try to optimize for ever increasing clocks and get stuck like the Pentium 4.

As said up thread, no one really compares Apple CPU speeds with megahertz. That’s partially because Apple doesn’t talk about it or emphasize it which makes it more difficult, and partially because it’s not like you have a choice anyway.

It would never happen but it would be interesting to see how things would develop if it was possible to simply ban talking about clock speeds somehow. What would that do to the market?

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exmadscientist 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Only Intel and AMD actually attempt to deliver fastest single-thread performance. Apple has made the decision that almost-but-not-quite-the-fastest is good enough for them.

And that has made all the difference.

	▲	aurareturn 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		You’ve been saying that this whole thread but you’ve not provided any evidence.