A recently conducted poll at X-bit labs web-site shows that enthusiasts among readers would prefer AMD Athlon 64 central processing units over Intel’s Pentium 4 products. The survey also shows that enthusiasts are gaining assurance in graphics cards based on NVIDIA GeForce graphics processors.

According to a poll by X-bit labs, around 84% of users would prefer to own AMD Athlon 64-based personal computer, whereas only about 10% would like to have a PC with Intel Pentium 4 microprocessor inside. ATI RADEON-series graphics cards were said to be preferable by 45% of surveyed, while NVIDIA GeForce graphics would be more desirable by 49% of potential buyers.

X-bit labs believes that the results are conditioned by the fact that AMD’s latest central processing units’ solid performance in applications enthusiasts prefer, such as games, and some future proof of investments AMD’s 64-bit capability gives. Still, enterprise and business customers, who buy computers from large system builders, such as Dell or HP, automatically choose Intel Corp.’s products.

A slight advantage NVIDIA’s products have over ATI’s in the poll means, X-bit labs believes, should be attributed to higher confidence customers have in NVIDIA’s products because of solid performance in modern games, such as Doom III, FarCry and Half-Life 2 as well as support for various technologies rival ATI does not have, particularly Shader Model 3.0 and Multi-GPU capability SLI. A poll released back in November, 2004, claimed 56% of users had “Powered by ATI” graphics cards inside their PCs. NVIDIA GeForce-based graphics cards were found in 39% of personal computers used by readers of X-bit labs web-site.

X-bit labs readers are technically savvy and typically make balanced purchase decisions based on in-depth investigation of technology and observing various benchmarks. The X-bit labs poll surveyed about 5 thousand of respondents among technology enthusiasts in mid-December, 2004.