Given the choice of CPUs at the moment, much as I hate to say it, x86 seems to be the only real choice for a high-performance CPU.
I guess it's because you don't need the x86 instructions anymore, or it's the multi core that makes the 'immediate' feeling possible.
I recently bought an i5 pc and for the first time since I swapped DOS for windows 95 I got the feeling the GUI isn't a buggering resource hog anymore, considering both Linux and Windows (I never was happy with the performance of X11 either until now).