Do you want more power-efficiency or CPU horsepower with your next PC chip?

The merits of each have propelled an interesting debate among those who want more performance or longer battery life in their PCs. But raw CPU performance drives the ongoing rivalry between AMD and Intel.

Intel wants to continue to deliver 10 to 20 percent performance improvements with chips based on the upcoming 10-nanometer and 7-nanometer manufacturing processes, company CEO Brian Krzanich said this week.

Some critics may deem those numbers to be incremental, which is why AMD’s upcoming Zen PC chip is getting attention. The chip will deliver 40 percent improvement in instructions-per-cycle, a metric related to CPU performance.

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