AMD Bulldozer CPU....

[MentaL]

Not the point, the average user knows nothing about what a core is, nothing about clock speed etc... the sales person at the shop will say 8 cores is better than 4, aswell as it is the only desktop processor with 8 cores and it will be sold. This processor will do well

That is what we call a "gimmick" which has no correlation to your original sentence.

 

[s-p-n]

Not the point, the average user knows nothing about what a core is, nothing about clock speed etc... the sales person at the shop will say 8 cores is better than 4, aswell as it is the only desktop processor with 8 cores and it will be sold. This processor will do well

Loony sales people don't decide what a good processor is. Benchmark testing will test the integrity of processors for given tasks. The idea of a computer is to have one machine that does several different tasks. AMD and Intel both fit this bill. The newer CPUs are usually better. AMD is usually cheaper than Intel, and Intel usually surpasses AMD in intense graphics situations.

The average user doesn't buy processors, and therefore the salesperson will be straight up and honest, at a good computer shop, as to why you should buy which processor. No doubt the range of processors will most-likely be new, featured items (which is what the user essentially wants). If a user wants to multi-task a lot of heavy software, an 8-core AMD is a great choice. If the user wants to play some extreme graphical game, Intel is a great choice. A good salesperson at a computer store would know this. If the user just wants a simple, affordable chip, AMD is also the way to go. A good salesperson knows it's not profitable long-term to rip people off. Most people come back to stores they like- especially small businesses. People at Walmart don't get commission, so they have no reason to rip you off. Small businesses want return customers, because they can't really compete any other way. Ripping people off is anti-productive, and only happens in corrupt systems which deal with commission- like door-to-door salespeople.

AMD is marketing to industries and gamers. You'll see gamer PCs marketing AMD processors with 8 cores, and you'll see most gamers sticking to WIntel like always.. Intel will come out with a new chip, and the gamers will rant and rave about how awesome it is for only $900 every 2 to 4 years. That doesn't mean Intel is and always will be superior, it means they make high-end hardware. To me, AMD is far superior for my needs. It's affordable, aims at processing data, and it's powerful. It also plays HD videos just fine. I don't use Windows 7, so really none of those disadvantages or tests even apply to my needs. AMD was built for me- a powerful CPU that doesn't force me to pay for graphics capabilities I'll never use.

Average users will probably never buy CPUs (unless they come in the form of plug-able hardware, like USB flash drives), because they don't have to- the industry bundles hardware into laptops, tablets, or PCs for them with some sort of operating system and call it new. That's what sells processors, not a loony sales-person at a computer store. (Though those people exist, they're a minority)

 

[Rishwin]

Loony sales people don't decide what a good processor is. Benchmark testing will test the integrity of processors for given tasks. The idea of a computer is to have one machine that does several different tasks. AMD and Intel both fit this bill. The newer CPUs are usually better. AMD is usually cheaper than Intel, and Intel usually surpasses AMD in intense graphics situations.

The average user doesn't buy processors, and therefore the salesperson will be straight up and honest, at a good computer shop, as to why you should buy which processor. No doubt the range of processors will most-likely be new, featured items (which is what the user essentially wants). If a user wants to multi-task a lot of heavy software, an 8-core AMD is a great choice. If the user wants to play some extreme graphical game, Intel is a great choice. A good salesperson at a computer store would know this. If the user just wants a simple, affordable chip, AMD is also the way to go. A good salesperson knows it's not profitable long-term to rip people off. Most people come back to stores they like- especially small businesses. People at Walmart don't get commission, so they have no reason to rip you off. Small businesses want return customers, because they can't really compete any other way. Ripping people off is anti-productive, and only happens in corrupt systems which deal with commission- like door-to-door salespeople.

AMD is marketing to industries and gamers. You'll see gamer PCs marketing AMD processors with 8 cores, and you'll see most gamers sticking to WIntel like always.. Intel will come out with a new chip, and the gamers will rant and rave about how awesome it is for only $900 every 2 to 4 years. That doesn't mean Intel is and always will be superior, it means they make high-end hardware. To me, AMD is far superior for my needs. It's affordable, aims at processing data, and it's powerful. It also plays HD videos just fine. I don't use Windows 7, so really none of those disadvantages or tests even apply to my needs. AMD was built for me- a powerful CPU that doesn't force me to pay for graphics capabilities I'll never use.

Average users will probably never buy CPUs (unless they come in the form of plug-able hardware, like USB flash drives), because they don't have to- the industry bundles hardware into laptops, tablets, or PCs for them with some sort of operating system and call it new. That's what sells processors, not a loony sales-person at a computer store. (Though those people exist, they're a minority)

You like living in a non-existent "ideal" world, don't you?

A "sales" person at Walmart or even a member of the "geek squad" at Best buy has no more than an A+ certification, if that at all. That basically means they know what a PC does and how it works. That's it.

To expect them to a) know the specifics of each CPU and b) be able to advice people according to their needs, is asking WAY too much. I wouldn't even trust their "Geek squad" with swapping out my hard drive, let alone actually giving me any advice or troubleshooting.

A sales person, just like anyone else, looks at the specs sheet and sees "Wow, this baby has 8 cores!". You give them way too much credit, they really have absolutely no idea when it comes to this stuff. I go into Walmart and Bestbuy and other IT stores and like to play dumb with them. Feed some "Oh i heard about this..." stories and they just eat it right up and it's clear that they are absolutely clueless.