What benchmarks are these?
Well the i7 920 is a spectacular value once you get to that price range, and you can easily find some for $200
Well from these benchmarks, looks like the i7 is the more obvious choice. However, you need to consider the motherboard. The intel ones for the i7's are much more expensive than similarly loaded Amd mobos.
I also doubt many games can take advantage of 6 cores. A lot are still stuck on 2, some even 1. Quad cores are getting very common though, so it seems that all the new games support that at least.
Because there are six cores, each core is clocked lower than each core in a quad core (well you can't really compare intel and amd clocks, but the performance per core would be lower in a 6 core for processors at the same level). The hex core would be better in rendering, video editing, more workstation tasks, I think.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3674/a...55t-reviewed/9
The gaming benchmarks show that the i7 920 is consistently better than the 1955. However, the 1055 is also at a lower price point. The 920 should be compared more to the 1090 IMO. In this case, they run neck to neck in most games.
So it comes down to what you'll be using it for. 6 cores will be better in threaded applications, the intels will be better in gaming, web browsing, the lighter tasks.
There is the point of the i7's using tripple channel ram, but I don't think it makes as much of a difference at this point.
If you already have an amd motherboard, it will most likely accept the x6's, although I'd check to make sure first.
Another motherboard may set you back $200. Also, I think you should look at the 1090 if you think the price of the i7 is doable.