First of all, this 45GHz figure definitely isn't valid for modern x86 chips - thanks to multiple cores and SIMD instructions they reach few dozen GFLOPS at stock frequencies.
Furthermore, x86 chips pack all of their performance in low number of cores, what makes them much more useful for common scalar code. And if 20 times higher scalar performance isn't enough to convince you to pay premium, the complexity required to achieve this level of scalar performance definitely is enough to discourage Intel from selling you i7s for $99.
Furthermore, x86 chips pack all of their performance in low number of cores, what makes them much more useful for common scalar code. And if 20 times higher scalar performance isn't enough to convince you to pay premium, the complexity required to achieve this level of scalar performance definitely is enough to discourage Intel from selling you i7s for $99.