Wednesday, September 21st 2011
AMD FX Processor Prices Lower Than Expected
Sources among retailers told DonanimHaber that retail prices of AMD's next generation performance desktop processor series, the AMD FX, are a lot lower than expected. On October 12, AMD will launch three new parts worldwide, the eight-core FX-8150, FX-8120, and six-core FX-6120, priced at US $245, $205, and $175, respectively.
Source:
DonanimHaber
272 Comments on AMD FX Processor Prices Lower Than Expected
Yes, if the performance is good you can dictate the price (to an degree) but what was intel's justification for $1,000+ CPUs back when they didnt have the speed to complement.
Heck some of Intel's Extreme Edition $1,000+ CPUs were slower than AMDs sub $300 range - so all this speed dictates price stuff doesnt add up.
I guess I'll just continue to be skeptical then.
As for the speed dictating price, it's never direct. It's usually a result of how the customers react. When SB came out, people were excited because it was a $250-350 CPU that performed like Intel's $1000 CPU's. So a lot of people bought them. If they had cost $1000 out of the gates, do you think anyone would have bought them? Exactly.
Customers will always buy a product as long as it offers what they want as long as the price is right, even if there is another company offering the same thing. Hell, that's the whole reason AMD is still going strong. If they had priced similar to Intel with the Phenom II line, they would have sold maybe 1/3 the amount they did. People bought AMD CPU's because they were a great Value, and that's what it's all about.I wouldn't expect the FX-6's to outperform the i7-2600k if I were you.
We deem DH as a credible source. You have the weapon of choice.We do what we must, because we can™.
but yea... its good they're coming in at a low price, hopefully that'll drive down the cost of intel's stuff
Perhaps. Your points are definitely valid. I also think the time period is a factor. In the early 2000s the cost to manfacturer microprocessors were probably higher hence the $1,000+ price tags, but now demand for devices with microprocessors e.g. desktops, laptops, tablets have increased and hence reducing the manfacturing cost and this is reflected in today's humble prices.
Also I believe as budget processors have become fast enough to handle most users needs. I think Intel and AMD find it difficult to justify a $1,000 CPU when consumers know a <$60 i3 or Athlon II X3 will achieve the same results.
Back in the Pentium II days, you had the following variants: 300mhz, 350mhz, and 400mhz, or a 33% difference in performance along the line of P2's.
Nowadays there is no such thing as a CPU model that stretches its clock speed variants by 33%. It's more like 15%. And yet, the price difference from the lowest model to the highest has remained more or less the same.
Heck I remember the old Pentium 1 days when the steps were like 100mhz, 133mhz, 166mhz, etc. One higher model meant 33% difference in performance!
Today you go from 3.2 ghz to 3.4ghz... Ooooooh, 6% better performance! Yet the price difference is (obviously) much greater than 6%.
So, this might have already been covered, but it's always good to reiterate a nice point (if it has):
We have a piece of information, regarding possible BD FX cpu pricing.
We have no definitive information regarding this pricing; as to whether it is accurate (or will become inaccurate).
We do not have information that tells us that this pricing is tied to performance parallels with Intel cpus.
What we can't say:
"Oh no, BD is slower than Intel's mid-range",
"Oh wow, BD is faster than Intel's mid-range"
"The pricing is telling us that these cpus will be slow"
What we can say:
"Perhaps AMD is anticipating Intel's price dropping, and wants to establish competitive pricing."
"Perhaps the surprisingly low prices reflect AMD's wish to steal market share from Intel (i.e. sway people away from i5 and i7 cpus for their new builds)"
"Perhaps AMD is anticipating the release of Ivy Bridge and the inevitable price drops on the 2nd gen i5 and i7 cpus."
"We don't know if those prices are set in stone, especially since they will cause some major ripples across the net, possibly causing AMD to make changes (if they are official prices, that is)."
"We can definitively say, at this point, that we have absolutely no idea how these BD processors (in their 'ready for prime time' iteration) compare to their Intel counterparts on the various and innumerable benchmarks available."
...:shadedshu