Continued:
12)
January 2009 - AMD finally launches Phenom II X4 @ $234 and $275. Core i7 920 sells for $284.
"The results of our tests show that the top Phenom II X4 processors can only be worthy rivals to the Core 2 Quad CPUs from the “junior” Q8000 series. Unfortunately, Phenom II X4 cannot yet do better than that.". So not only was Phenom II unable to compete with its direct competitor i7, but it wasn't even able to compete with Q9xxx series CPUs from 45nm C2Q generation.
13)
February 2009 - Phenom II X4 Overclocking -
can't beat overclocked Q6600 / Q9300 processors. Pretty underwhelming considering Intel's "current" generation at this time is now i7. This is really a sad state of affairs since Q6600 was a <$300 CPU in August of 2007....
14)
March 2009 - The beginning of "New AMD Strategy" --> If we can't compete on price or performance, let's throw in more "free" cores at the same price. Suddenly, Phenom II X3/X4 finds itself competing with C2D and lower-end Q8xxx series from Intel. AMD is really struggling here.
15)
August 2009 - AMD launches Phenom II X4 965. Performance can only match a Q9550 @ 2.83ghz. Phenom II X4 965 costs $245. I quote: " As we have seen during our tests, the new
Phenom II X4 965 working at 3.4 GHz frequency is pretty much as fast as Core 2 Quad Q9550 at 2.83 GHz nominal speed and fall behind Core i7-920 with even lower nominal frequency of 2.66 GHz. So, AMD CPUs lose to Intel competitors quite significantly in IPC (instructions per clock)"
16)
September 2009 - S1156 launches: The end of Phenom II X4's relevance for a vast majority of users:
$199 Core i5 750.
"This platform immediately turns Core 2 and Phenom II CPUs into outdated solutions that can only be of interest in the sub-$200 category."
I don't think I need to keep going. Basically outside of Free / $10 mobo + Phenom II X4 / X6 MicroCenter deals and AMD's only shining bright star: Athlon II X4 6xx series processors, the last 5 years saw complete Intel domination.