Even the ex CEO of Apple admited that motorola was a mistake.

[Matt_H]

From my perspective, x86 chips didn't actually get "good" until 4 or 5 years ago. Before that, they were power-sucking, hot, and inefficient across the entire range. AMD was a bit better than Intel, but PPC seemed to offer better performance per clock cycle while using the least electricity.

Now, however, x86 has strong multicore architecture and a good product range that encompasses the powerful and the power-efficient.

Whether this is due to a business relationship with Apple is impossible to say, but I think Apple's decision to switch has been fully vindicated.

(Which does make me a tiny bit sad because I do have a soft spot for PPC)

[Matt_H]

AMD K8 Athlon 64 Mobile(1) in 2004 says Hi. IBM CPC 925's(PowerPC 970's NB) alone has a TDP of 30 watts.  AMD K8 Athlon 64 Mobile has a 35 watt version i.e. "Odessa" (CG, 130 nm, 35W TDP(2)) up to 2Ghz.

1. At that time, I used Mitec 8355 laptop with Athlon 64 Mobile and ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro.
2. Max power not typical power.

A 2GHz 970FX(90nm) consumes 39 watts maximum.
http://www-306.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/techdocs/9DBF300EB19A60D287256E4B005E43EC/$file/970fx_thermal_an_7_20_05.pdf
Dated 2005.

By the time of 90nm for AMD, Turion MT-40 at 2.2Ghz has 25 watt version. Turion MT was first release around March 10, 2005.

As I said, my perspective - that doesn't necessarily mean it was factually accurate

Of course there were good x86 chips back then, but they were the high-end market exception rather than the norm. Remember how many machines were being sold with those awful Celerons?

Now, pretty much any x86 chip you buy will be a damn good processor.