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Editorial Following Ryzen's Launch, Intel's CPUs Likely to See Price-Cuts

Raevenlord

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Let's quietly approach the elephant in the room: Intel's pricing structure will hardly stand the onslaught of AMD's Ryzen, which, if early benchmarks are to be believed, has apparently caught Intel with its pants down. Even purely from the leaks that have been following us non-stop in the last several months, it's obvious that AMD managed to outdo itself in the best way possible, managing to develop an architecture which offers up to 52% more performance than their previous one. Intel, which was enjoying the sun-shaded comfort of carrying a virtual, high-performance x86 monopoly, grew stagnant in innovation, ensuring it would stretch its bottom-line by way of minimal R&D investment - just enough to be able to name their improvements as a "new generation" of processors each year.

This in turn has led to an interesting outlook in the high-performance x86 market: customers aren't blind, and they see when a company is stretching its fingers in their pockets. A stagnant performance increase on Intel's customer processors with almost a decade of single-digit increments and paralyzed core-counts to an (admittedly strong) architecture have taken away a lot of customers' goodwill towards Intel. That Intel still has strong brand cognition is a no-brainer, but it doesn't have as much brand credit these days, on account of the low performance gains, and tick-tock falter, than it did in the days of Athlon 64. AMD has the benefit of being the underdog, of coming up with something new, fresh and performant (with headlines claiming it is the latest revival of a sleeping giant)... and those are all points that put pressure on Intel to reignite interest on its products.



Now, the tides are indeed catching up to Intel, with AMD, this metaphor's proverbial David, striking back at a slumbering Goliath. The promise of a powerful multi-core approach and strong IPC performance (which all leaks point towards), paired with insane, non-consumer-gouging pricing means that AMD has built-up a powerful momentum both in sales and goodwill, with Ryzen pre-orders basically flying off the shelves of several retailers.

All of these serve to point out a simple statement: Intel's product-line and pricing scheme as they are weren't designed to compete. They were designed to usher in an era of lacking competition, to extend Intel's bottom-line to its fullest, with little consideration for consumers' interests and innovation (whether or not we think that that's how businesses should operate is a discussion best left for another day). Make no mistake: Intel Will bring some price-cuts to its product line if Ryzen does live up to expectations (and there is no reason to think it won't). Their product stack just falls flat in the face of Ryzen's pricing scheme, and if Intel wants to keep its current product lines relevant, pricing is the easiest, fastest tool to do so, barring some knee-jerk introduction of new CPUs, though you will, apparently, also have to get a new motherboard to run them.

If you're looking for a good deal on a new processor, but want nothing to do with AMD's upcoming prodigy child of a CPU, the post-Ryzen time-frame will possibly be the best time in years to make such a jump. Intel will be hard-pressed to work the only angle it can - pricing - so as to get some leeway until it can make an extensive revision to its desktop CPU product lines come 8th generation Core "Coffee Lake". This is the best time in years - period - to buy a new processor for all your computational needs. And Intel will probably try and hold you from jumping on the Ryzen bandwagon by throwing some unassuming (yet unavoidable) price-cuts your way.

Oh, and by the way. Here are some discounted Intel CPUs. Let's see if such sales catch up on Newegg and Amazon.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
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Ksaes

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Intel Core i7-6700K is priced $259 and it is a very good price compared to 7700k which is priced 299$
 
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these price (in store) cuts aren't as drastic; the i7-6770K was always $299 and the i7-7770K was ~$30 more.

i've been watching them for awhile and thought if that $30 price difference was worth the slightly higher OCing.
 
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Wow, they are some greedy mofos, took getting their ass kicked to have some acceptable prices.
 
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MC was down from $329. It dropped $30. I bought a 7700k a couple weeks ago from there. I don't recall it ever being $379... not even on release day.

The numbers you have are just some inflated values they always have listed. Again, 7700k did not drop $80.
 
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Wow, they are some greedy mofos, took getting their ass kicked to have some acceptable prices.


Can't exactly blame them, just business and what happens when you're in a market with no competition. It does surprise me that Intel didn't have the forethought to see this coming though, and have something up their sleeves to combat AMD when the time came (other than aggressive price cuts). Greed is inevitable in a zero competitor marketplace, but laziness and complacency can be your undoing. AMD certainly played this well, kudos to them.
 
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That may only be at that micro center US then....


Meanwhile in Europe:

Capture.JPG
 
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I wouldn't necessarily say these are massive price cuts but typically consumers are not treated to any significant price cuts on Intel processors. So something is indeed being said here. However, what is being said is from MicroCenter though not Intel and that is the organization we really need to hear from with respect to price cuts.

I'm trying to wait and see if Intel will drop prices on their processors directly targeted by the new AMD RyZen line (1800X, 1700X and 1700). I want to see significant price cuts on the Core i7 6900K, 6850K and 6800 as these are drop in upgrades for my Asus X99-A motherboard. Price cuts on the Core i7 6950X would be ideal too. If not then a new lower pricing schem for Skylake-X / Kaby Lake-X on X299 is then highly expected. They lose the home advantage though because these are no longer drop in upgrades.

Assuming AMD RyZen performance is as expected I will buy either an 1800X or 1700X if Intel pricing isn't more in line with AMD's pricing within the above outlined timeframe.

That is assuming I don't lose my $#!t and buy a RyZen processors as soon as I see independent reviews of its processing prowess.
 
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I cant help but thinking, Intel must be giving out incentive for major retailers, so that they could slash price without losing profit-margin
because there is no way on earth Intel would announce to the world that they are slashing the CPU price
doing so will hurt their image

and that explained also why we see some retailer cut their CPU prices, others dont
 

ppn

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how about 6 core for 250. and discontinue the rest, useless
 
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I cant help but thinking, Intel must be giving out incentive for major retailers, so that they could slash price without losing profit-margin
because there is no way on earth Intel would announce to the world that they are slashing the CPU price
doing so will hurt their image

and that explained also why we see some retailer cut their CPU prices, others dont

Microcenter has typically had lower prices on Intel Processors for some time now. I bought my last three or four processors at Microcenter the last of which was the Core i7 5820K at about ~$319 USD which is a price that has not changed BTW.

Having said that, I have to believe that retailers / e-trailers buy a specified amount of stock at the outset which likely already carries with it a bulk rate lower then retail. These business to business deals are done deals. Sure there may be incentives and breaks where applicable but there is indeed pressure on the retailer to move product at the MSRP and calculated profit margins. Since Intel prices are typically so consistent there is likely little concern here.

Intel may never lower their prices even in the face of stiffer competition from AMD but they risk losing market share to AMD if they don't.

I don't know about anyone else here but I am not paying ~$1000 USD for a Core i7 6900K or ~$1500 USD for a Core i7 6950X if the performance level of an AMD RyZen 1800X at ~$500 USD is quasi equivalent. The same goes for Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X.

If Intel doesn't lower the MSRP on these parts I have virtually no choice but to jump ship and I say this after years of buying exclusively Intel (Core i7 5820K, Core i7 3930K, Core i5 2500K, Core i7 860K, Core i7 920 Core 2 Quad 6600).
 
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From what I see, MSRP has yet to drop.

Retailers though has been taking advantage of the one-sided race. They've been inflating prices and are simply cutting off from their inflated prices.
 

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Wow, they are some greedy mofos, took getting their ass kicked to have some acceptable prices.
Actually nobody's ass got kicked yet. Still, if you have a product, you sell it for whatever the market will bear. If you sell all you have at an asking price, why lower the price? I know if I still ran a business I would, because you don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Perhaps Ryzen release will in fact lower the amount that people are willing to pay for Intel chips. If so, then that is the economy working as it should.
 
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Really I think the cuts will be to OEMs. There real fear is probably the upcoming ryzen based APUs killing the I3 and I5 in gaming.
 
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People forget that AMD's manufacturing capacity is way, waaayyy lower than Intel's. Add the manufacturing constrains put by AMD's game console contracts and you can see why, even if Ryzen is a runaway hit, Intel won't likely (officially) slash their prices.

Sure Intel might give price breaks on EOL SKUs to retailers and some other incentives but, sadly, even if every Ryzen CPU sellouts I don't expect AMD's marketshare to increase a lot.
 
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People forget that AMD's manufacturing capacity is way, waaayyy lower than Intel's. Add the manufacturing constrains put by AMD's game console contracts and you can see why, even if Ryzen is a runaway hit, Intel won't likely (officially) slash their prices.

Sure Intel might give price breaks on EOL SKUs to retailers and some other incentives but, sadly, even if every Ryzen CPU sellouts I don't expect AMD's marketshare to increase a lot.

The consoles are made by TSMC and Ryzen by Global Foundries, no problems there. Also, I expect their desktop market share to rise to the pre-Bulldozer era at 30%. The much more important market for AMD will be servers with their high margins ... we will see what Naples will bring :).
 
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People forget that AMD's manufacturing capacity is way, waaayyy lower than Intel's. Add the manufacturing constrains put by AMD's game console contracts and you can see why, even if Ryzen is a runaway hit, Intel won't likely (officially) slash their prices.

Sure Intel might give price breaks on EOL SKUs to retailers and some other incentives but, sadly, even if every Ryzen CPU sellouts I don't expect AMD's marketshare to increase a lot.


Hmm, one would guess, being fabless and all that, in face of strong demand they could ramp up production very quick in other foundries @ globe.
 
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This would be the slimiest move since slime was invented, if it was not done by intel. They had a glorious history of virtually cheating and extorting their customers (who should've learned that by now, but they didn't - there are even 'fans'?!)...

Anyone remembers Pentium/Celeron 300A and AX/BX/TX (or whatever, citing from the head) gimmick? When they actually CUT OFF the part where chip cache was? That chip (Celeron) was actually *more* expensive to manufacture, but sold for less... "Rich people buy cars WITHOUT holes in the gas tank" - to use a common car analogy.

Now, price cuts... Oh, the whole line-up can actually be cheaper? Next, we'll learn that they can be better at what they do.

It's not "normal behaviour when without competition" - it's very malignant and greedy practice, which should've been recognised as such by the customers. Yet, it is very rare to find a reference on Intel as 'evil'...
 
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Here's a summary without all the liberal pontifications:

Competition expected to give consumers more performance for their money.

Me: 10 words
OP: 634 words

Think Intel has not moved forward in some areas over the last few years? Compare the i3-3220T and the i7-7700T. They've more than doubled the performance while keeping the power consumption the same!

Oh, when were you going to talk about AMD's faults, missteps and failures? Review Consensus: AMD FX Processor 8150 Underwhelming

customers aren't blind
Oh yeah? Just search for all of the people who have posted questions about upgrading their Haswell systems to Skylake/Kaby Lake.
 
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If it wasn't for intel's high pricing AMD may not even be here now,all they had going was lower build cost. You could look at it as intel pricing to keep the competition alive in a time of no competition. I'm sure intel wants to avoid becoming a true monopoly and risk being busted up.
 
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This is why I love amd... I totally support them. And with these price cut, it's finally time to upgrade my 2500k to either 6700k or 7700k.

I hope Vega is defeating nvidia too, so we can see a price cut on nvidia high end, it will increase my love and support to amd, and I get to upgrade my 970 to a 1080 with a reasonable budget.

Amd ftw !!!!
 
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Start giving me $299 5960X/6900K then we will talk! Damn I am stuck on X99 platform and I don't think I am gonna have money to buy RyZen any time soon.
 
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Here's a summary without all the liberal pontifications:

Competition expected to give consumers more performance for their money.

Think Intel has not moved forward in some areas over the last few years? Compare the i3-3220T and the i7-7700T. They've more than doubled the performance while keeping the power consumption the same!

Oh, when were you going to talk about AMD's faults, missteps and failures? Review Consensus: AMD FX Processor 8150 Underwhelming


Oh yeah? Just search for all of the people who have posted questions about upgrading their Haswell systems to Skylake/Kaby Lake.

Were you in last conversation with "trump intel affair" story? I haven't looked but I assume and think I remember you there:). Anyway had to smirk at the "liberal pontifications" line...

I wouldn't go as far as you to say intel has done so well in innovation etc, however, as someone else pointed out they did what any good business would do and make hay while the sun shines and take advantage of the market as long as they could.

Doesn't mean I have to like it, but as you also point out AMD has much of the consumers blood on its' hands as well, by sucking for so long and releasing underwhelming products like the awful refreshed fx (pure stain on the great initial fx-55 line and the like!) which allowed Intel to play "conservatively" (pun intended) and do the least R & D possible and sell their current lines for as much as possible. Maybe now they will get their asses kicked for a bit ( I have no issue with that either btw) and they have bags of money and have invested in smaller nodes etc (hence being at white house) and if AMD does have an inexpensive powerhouse in Ryzen than Intel will sprint rather than lope in the race and innovate fast and hard. Win/win for everyone even Intel in some ways, this is capitalism at work, markets correct eventually after stagnation (cue AMD for years...)and a correction occurs (cue AMD now HOPEFULLY).
 
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Start giving me $299 5960X/6900K then we will talk! Damn I am stuck on X99 platform and I don't think I am gonna have money to buy RyZen any time soon.

Hell, I'm stuck on x79 lol. I am hoping for price cuts on older processors as well so I can plunk one in and not pay ridiculous money for it.
 
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If it wasn't for intel's high pricing AMD may not even be here now,all they had going was lower build cost. You could look at it as intel pricing to keep the competition alive in a time of no competition. I'm sure intel wants to avoid becoming a true monopoly and risk being busted up.

Yeah, good guy Intel. Except, last time I checked Intel covered the whole price range from under $100 to $500 and above. Celerons and Pentiums exist too and they are really cheap. How exactly does this help AMD to stay alive?
 
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