Im only somewhat in the know, but ill post what ive picked up so far
I see that you wanted intel now that i read more posts, but the AMD overheating problems your describing is long in the past. Right now intel is the
hotter cpu and the AMD X2 series is the performance leaders. But don't take my word for it search for some performance tests (benchmarks) !!
AMD will release a new platform based on DDR2 memory called Socket AM2 (earlier M2) probably in Q1 or Q2.. not totally sure.
Nvidia will release their new GeForce series 8 in the middle of 2006.
ATi will of course also have new cards sometimes.
From AMD in 2007 (i think) there will be tripple and quad core cpu's, hopefully based on the same motherboards with socet am2.
There will be a dedicated Physics chip from a company called Ageia, the cards will be released by Asus, BFG and others in February or March 2006.. of
course it will need game support but Unreal 3 (wich will have its engine licensed to lot of game developers) and other games will support these cards.
This will help the games become more interactive by having alot more interactive objects on screen simultaneousley i think it was up to 50.000 from
typically 30-40 with just a cpu and no ppu (physics processing unit).
www.ageia.com...
Btw what you read about Intel going for 10 Ghz.. they did not calulate lekage power and other things and got terrible overheating problems.. so thats
why they are not on 5-6 Ghz today.. but are instead adding more cores instead of more ghz.. doing many things at the time instead of just doing 1
thing faster. This is why we will see 4 core cpu's in 2007.
Also for different reasons Intel and AMD do a different number of instructions per clockcykel (Hz), so you cant just look at Mhz/Ghz anymore.. a 2Ghz
AMD is much faster than a 2 Ghz Intel. this is why both companies now have rating numbers instead of Ghz.
[edit on 24-12-2005 by SilverSurfer]
My buddy just got it and it rawks.