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Intel Core 2 price cuts when AMD Barcelona hits
Author: Richard SwinburnePublished: 12th March 2007
75% off Intel's fastest Core 2 Duo? OMFGWTFBBQCPUs.
Whilst a Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU running at 1066FSB/2.93GHz will set you back $1000 (£700-£800) now, a 3GHz, 1333FSB E6850 will only cost you $266. That's a 75% reduction in price for a faster CPU!
Other 1333FSB Intel Core 2 "50" CPUs are also due for release and are subject to a graduated price reduction also. However, the E6550, a 2.33GHz part is still tipped to run at the standard 1066FSB, despite it's "50" nomenclature.
Also, whilst it may seem the recently released E4300 looks like the first and last true Allendale Core 2 CPU we'll ever see according to the HKPEC roadmap, The Register reports that new E4400 and E4500 will debut at 2GHz and 2.2GHz respectively, also in Q3.
The reasoning for all this? Intel is ramping up their quad core evolution as the new high end, which means Core 2 Duo's are now "mainstream".
Since Q3 is also when AMD's new Barcelona core is due for release, it comes as little surprise that Intel is aggressively positioning their product line to make them continually attractive. What seems interesting though is perhaps Intel knows something we don't; since a price war isn't good for any company, could Intel be gearing up for a hard hitting Barcelona that gives their Core 2 architecture a run for its money.
Barcelona is a native quad core, so Intel doesn't want to be left behind on the quad core = ultra high end performance front. Even though some DX10 games like Crysis and UT3 are due out later this year, quad core "specific", Alan Wake, doesn't hit until 2008. We very rarely hear people complaining that dual core CPUs are not enough, and it's questionable if we see a benefit of four in the short-medium term future.
Regardless, a $1,000 CPU for a fraction of the price looks like it could become one hell of a bargain for everyone.
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Comments (24)Stats: 0.118 seconds
More than likely per batch, but come Q3 prices could change dramatically depending on how the market shifts. Naturally take speculation with a pinch of salt as to what the exact price will become. ;)
What I don't get is why Intel is announcing this now (I don't buy the reason given - for that they would have waited & dropped the prices later without the announcement now) - are they trying to slow demand by giving people an incentive for waiting? - or are they (as Krikkit said) preparing for Barcelona now so that later price reductions don't look reactionary?
I'm putting money on AMD releasing big news this week.
mm i wish i had dual core :( sucks being a student
But we will see. other than that i think new news on Barcelona will be out sooner rather than later
As far as Barcelona is concerned how much performance will come under the hood of a 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 GHz quad anyway when compared to what we have seen from Intel's QE6700 running in a factory overclocked Dell XPS 710 H2C which is the leader of the OEM circuit right now? Barcelona for desktop has not even been announced as of yet with AMD claiming their new core strictly for server use.
So looking at it in a business sense Intel wants to bury AMD in competitive cores now and not later as some have suggested here.
Anandtech(?)'s write-up on barcelone makes it sound like it really could give C2D a run for its money and penryn isn't expected to be out in quantity till 6 months later.
the latter part of this year is definetely going to be interesting to watch :)
but i decided against it as Vista's Launch wasnt that spectacular (driver problems etc)
im thinking august is the time to build now and with the extra few months savings
ill probably go barcelona(Quad) + r600 or Intel(Quad) + r600
at the end of the day i will buy the best performer at my price range but all things being equal i would probably sway towards AMD I think the art of Self build computers is just that waiting for a good time to buy the exact parts you want at a good price and right now things are a little overpriced (esp considering there are no DX10 games out) if this news is tru and in Q3 you can pick up a QC for £300 thats what ill be doing
hmm would it be worth buying ram in june/july as they went up in price last year when C2Ds where released i think it might
the good thing however is that it gives me plenty of time to get my mod finished.