Is AMD back in the game?

AMD has had a rough go of things over the last few years. Intel, the company's chief rival, has been producing better quality chips at the same pricepoints as AMD for the last few years, but with this year's introduction of the Phenom II, AMD seems to have cooked something up that enthusiasts are excited about— which is a bit of a change for AMD. Its new Phenom II balances out some of the issues that AMD saw with the earlier Phenom processors, and now Anand Shimpi of Anandtech says the processors can actually outperform comparably priced Intel chips. That's not to say this battle is won, by any stretch. Anand also points out that if Intel wants to compete, all it really has to do is lower its prices and AMD could be in trouble. Even still, a minor victory is more than this company has seen in quite some time, and in this economy, AMD needs all the help it can get.