AMD And Intel: Is The Faster Chip The Better Chip

Stocks: (AMD)(INTC)

AMD unveiled yet another new line of chips for so-called "power computer" users. The ones who take steroids. It also dropped the price of the chips compared to earlier lines, from $713 to as low as $599, Some will be much more expensive.

The new chip is meant to appeal to users who are processor hogs: gamers, DVD burners and the such. AMD believes that these consumers set the trends for future buyers. The flaw in that would seem to be that future buyers may not need all the power.

Intel has a competing chip for the processor-loving crowd called the Core 2 Extreme. It is a quad core chip while most newer PCs ship with dual core technology,

All of this is somewhat like killing a rabbit with an elephant gun. The theory that the typical consumer wants technology that could run a small city is not evident in any of the data that AMD and Intel pass along to the press or Wall St.

It may simply be sending a man to do a boy’s job.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.