AMD drops prices; FX-60 listed

Written by Geoff Richards

October 25, 2005 | 14:50

Tags: #4800 #cpu #dual-core #opteron #overclock #price-drop #processor #san-diego #venice

Companies: #amd

AMD officially announced their latest round of price cuts yesterday. Both Intel and AMD employ a similar ladder model for the pricing of their processor range. The individual price-points rarely change, but periodically, they introduce a new flagship at the top, bumping all existing SKUs down one rung and the slowest model drops off the bottom into the Discontinued bin.

If you are considering dropping big bucks on a new CPU, it can often help to know in advance what the chip makers have in store for the future so you can plan your purchase. Looking at today's prices, if you had around £200, you could get a Venice-cored 3800+; the San Diego-cored 4000+ is outside your budget at £241.35. However, at the next product launch, everything will move down the price ladder, and in theory, you should be able to get that 4000+ for the same £200.

AVault have obtained a confidential AMD document that shows the pricing roadmap to Q1 2006. While no specific date is given for the next price drop, you can use it as a guide for any upgrade you might be considering between now and April.

Of more interest to those with deep pockets or a birthday coming up in early in the New Year is that this leaked pricelist has the first mention we have seen of both the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and the FX-60.

The current dual-core king, the X2 4800+, runs at 2400MHz (12x200MHz) so expect the 5000+ to clock in at 2600MHz. In fact, there are reports of X2 4800+ chips overclocking to 2.6GHz with stock cooling and minimal drama, so the core seems more than capable.

The new range-topping FX chip was expected to be called 'FX-59' since each generation from the first FX-51 has increased by 2: FX-53, FX-55 and the current fastest, the FX-57. The speculation is that FX-60 might well be the first dual-core FX processor; if not, the FX-65 would surely be and the move neatly brings the FX family's naming convention into line with the multiple-of-five method used for Opterons.

AMD don't comment on unannounced products, so we will just have to wait until 2006 to see how this one pans out. From the pricelist, it appears the FX-60 will debut at the same level as the FX-57 and will not trigger a drop in price for the latter; MSRP of US$1238, or around £700. The X2 5000+ comes in above the existing price-point for the X2 4800+ at US$1083 (est. £600) but pushes everything else down the ladder, lopping US$200 off the cost of the 4800+ and handy discounts for all processors in the range.

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