Although Intel has reigned supreme in the high-end CPU market for the better part of a decade, it still considers AMD a serious competitor, according to Intel exec Pat Bliemer.

In an interview with Nordic Hardware, Bleimer said AMD was and always will be a serious competitor in Intel’s eyes. He argued that AMD was having facing manufacturing and architectural challenges and could not compete with Intel directly. However, Llano and Brazos chips are singled out as successful products with competitive pricing.

“It's a pricing game but I think that from a performance and experience point of view it is not much for them right now to really pleased about I think. But they will always stay competitive," he said.

Bleimer went on to say that integrated graphics don’t have much value for enthusiasts, but they are very important in other markets. He believes Intel’s next generation HD 4000 graphics will offer a significant performance boost over crrent Intel graphics and they could take care of some casual gaming as well.

“This is the battle Intel and AMD alike have to battle on how to convince consumers that integrated solutions are sufficient. With AMD's Llano and the changes coming to the integrated graphics on Ivy Bridge (HD 4000), we are seeing how the integrated graphics solution is capable of playing HD content, games or accelerating applications better than ever before,” he said.

So, when it comes to integrated graphics AMD still has the upper hand, but it does not have a very competitive CPU architecture to go along with the graphics.

More here.