In the midst of a price war with AMD, Intel announced its own substantive price cuts for its high-end Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad microprocessors over the weekend.Intel also took the axe to the prices of its Xeon processors.
Over the weekend, however, Intel slashed prices. The most notable cut was on its Core 2 Quad Q6600 microprocessor, which was reduced by 38 percent to $530.
However, Intel also reduced the prices of its mainstream Core 2 Duo chips as well. The 2.66-GHz E6700, Intel’s fastest offering in the Core 2 Duo lineup, now costs $316, down 40 percent. Intel also cut the price of its E6600 and E6400 by 29 percent and 18 percent, respectively, to $224 and $183. The E6300 and E4300 were also reduced by 11 and 31 percent, respectively, to $163 and $113.
Pentium D, Celeron D and Celeron M mobile prices were chopped, as well. Phew!
I sure in heck hope AMD doesn’t go under. Life would suck with Intel as our only CPU supplier. And I’m not really talking about how they would gouch us on prices. Remember it was Intel who claimed that we’d never need 64-bit or dual-core CPUs in desktop systems. And let’s also not forget that Intel’s view of GPUs are integrated pieces of crap.
If you think about it, you’d almost get the impression that Intel wants underpowered computers.
I wonder who has the cash to step in and buy/bail AMD out? It will take a bunch to get the R&D caught up over several miserable product cycles. I would look far to the East.
Price Wars means the consumer wins in the short term. Hopefully AMD will weather this out and bring out their true quad-core CPU’s, made from a single dye.
I buy only AMD & related products, for years now, for new computers and upgrading older ones. Easy to like the underdog, especially when for a time, AMD was cheaper & faster.
You said you always respond to email on TWIT. Since i don’t know your address, I figured this would get to you.
* Does your articles you write pay all your expenses? Do you work on other stuff on the side?
Just wondering.
We’ll have to see what AMD has up their sleeve. I’ve got an AMD Turion in my notebook, but I really love the Intel Core 2 Duo in my desktop machine.
A battle of the Titans is always exciting!
4. “* Does your articles you write pay all your expenses? Do you work on other stuff on the side?”
Apparently you don’t know this, but John is a Chippendale’s dancer. That’s where he makes most of his money. When he’s not selling crack to babies and killing puppies.
#4
Read wikipedia. It’s the corrected version after all … 😉
Problem is, what the “Titian” AMD has up it’s sleeve may not be enough to save it from going out of business. They have just bleed red ink in their last quarterly report, and this isn’t going to help the next quarter.
I do agree that it took AMD to push Intel to the level of specs they are putting out now, so if AMD goes under who is going to push the next cycle? IBM? Motorola? Maybe. Trouble is, monopolys stagnate (see Windows Vista), and the follow up phase where a brash upstart like AMD can get a toehold usually requires a very deep valley of mediocrity.
Just hope that AMD survives.
#7 – …and that’s the big problem with Wikipedia.
Hmm … Intel is pulling a Microsoft – slashing prices to grind out the smaller competition and retain their monopoly. Honestly, the Core 2 is the best chip out there at the moment, and they should be able to compete on that alone. But they don’t want to, they’re going to kick AMD when its down to try and kill their only real competition. Ugly.
Why doesn’t IBM buy AMD? Isn’t IBM in the cpu business?
The last 3 CPUs (since 2000) I’ve purchased have been AMDs. Yah, I support the underdog. I also remember the years when Intel was the only kid on the block, and their R&D inched along. It didn’t pick up until AMD won a court battle, and Sun, Cyrix, and other companies were making competing products. Heck, the world almost went Sparc or PowerPC!
The catch is, most people are still stuck in the “clock cycle” way of thinking. There are other things that effect overall system speed, like number of hard drives and how you configure virtual memory (this is HUGE!), RAM latency and throughput, and whether your system sports a dedicated video card or has a crappy integrated video subsystem.
Of course, that’s from a Windows standpoint, Macs and Linux are all spiffy and stuff, and should rule, but they don’t — not compatible enough with Microsoft Internet(TM).
Well of course we are stuck in the clock cyles way of thinking. Both AMD and Intel beat us to death with it for years.
#11, That would be nice, which reminds how Apple made it’s comeback, at the back of a dying product, NextStep. Maybe IBM, or some other CPU company, could make its comeback with AMD’s technology if they bought them out.
“If you think about it, you’d almost get the impression that Intel wants underpowered computers. ”
And that explains why Apple switched to Intel processors.
Go Intel!
AMD’s downfall began when they tried to pretend to be an Intel. I remember them with billboards on Times Square less than one year ago kicking sand in Intels face.
What they should’ve done was shut their pie hole and and build good products and leaving sleeping dogs lay. Now, you have a re-energized Intel with great products and they take no prisoners strategy.
Hector, now look what you’ve done 🙁
I don’t see the QX6700 on that list anywhere!!! Damit!!!
Hopefully this will help keep the price down on the Core 2 Duo Mac Minis coming in June.
REMMEBER….
AMd is the LAST competitor to INTEL…
when thye go away…Prices witll Double and triple…
This could also, mean a sign that AMD is coming out with a Super Chip.
The last 3 CPU’s I have bought were all AMD. I just had way to many issues with Intel products. I am happy with this dual core 5200+. Very sleek.
As a side note, and I am considered still a beginner builder, what would the best size in virtual memory be? 2.5 times the amount of RAM in the machine? Can’t remember where I heard that.
20. Gwendle,
2.5x used to be the standard for a swap file but nowadays with a Gig or more of RAM, there is rarely any swapping and it’s not important. Let XP or whatever O/S you’re using decide.