I was in the same situation and under the same impression. I however have just switched to AMD and got the FX-8350, mobo- 990FXA-UD5 Gigabyte, 2x 4GB DDR3 at 2210 MHz, though my video card is a crappy Zotac GTX 560 Ti (dont like how it only has 1GB RAM).
I'm happy with my switch from my similar i7-3930k build. Very happy, though I would not suggest going with the CPU cooler AMD provides, its loud :P
I think its definitely on par with Intel just cheaper and requires a little more tweaking, though its very customize friendly for people who like to fine tune their settings I guess. Im still learning though. Will be investing in an AMD videocard when I have the money. I'll be moving to michigan soon though, so saving all my money for that.