AMD Phenom X4 pricing

[danrok]

See front page for prices on the new Phenoms:
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/3456/1/

Comments?

[cloasters]

Haven't been keeping up on the details of this proc. Is this a quad-core family of three new CPU's? Do they fit in AM2 sockets? If so, are current chipsets up to snuff? If they are dual-core, those clock speeds are nothing to write home about.

[Gizmo]

The Phenom X4 are quad-core cpus, and yes, they are AM2 sockets. Even so, the clock speeds are nothing to write home about, as Pennryn will launch with speeds up to 3 GHz, and current Core2Quad chips can run 3 GHz as well. The prices aren't great either, as the QX6600 (Kentsfield) is also clocked at 2.4 GHz (the same as the high end Phenom X4 9700) and will probably overclock substantially more for the same price.

[keithwalton]

a Penryn chip has already been launched (tho no sign of avaliability just yet) at 3GHz and has been shown to overclock to more than 4GHz with ease.

Either the prices need to be lower or performance much higher than intels for the same clockspeed.

As the Q6600 (2.4GHz) comes in at $266 which puts its price in between the 2.2 and 2.3GHz part ... and we all know the Q6600 can do 3GHz quite easily.
In a few months time we're going to get 2.5 and 2.66GHz quad core parts from intel also priced around the $266 mark.

So amd are attempting to compete with intels entry level quad core.

I wonder how many people have am2 boards to upgrade to quad with.
there only hope is that core 2 duo users cant upgrade to the new quads without a mobo change.
Else no matter how cheap a cpu is, cpu + mobo is going to end up more expensive than just a cpu.

[cloasters]

AMD needs a lot of luck, with the wind behind them at this point.

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by keithwalton

Either the prices need to be lower or performance much higher than intels for the same clockspeed.

I wouldn't say that is necessarily true; it would be true for overclockers, certainly, but the average person buying these machines doesn't care about overclocking, and you and I don't make up a large enough segment of the market to really be a factor.

Still, it doesn't help AMD's profit margin when the fastest thing they can make is equivalent to Intel's 'bargain basement' product.

[danrok]

They've got the biggest part of the market covered, with these. Cheap and good performance OEM systems.

[dsio]

Barcelona competes a bit better on the server front, as Clovertown isn't clocking that high, and doesn't scale as well as AMD's Opteron offerings. The price is also brilliant.

[Favu]

TBH, as a consumer I will always just buy whatever is the best value for me. But I really hope that AMD do get their act together - more competition means lower prices for consumers!

[keithwalton]

Originally Posted by danrok

They've got the biggest part of the market covered, with these. Cheap and good performance OEM systems.

Do they really ? Q6600 is cheaper than all but the 2.2GHz chip there and is likely to have more performance at stock than most of those chips. Intel has been selling alot of quad cores lately. The Q6600 has been appearing in ~£499 pc's

in my previous post i wasnt really including overclocking in the 'value' of the cpu.

If clock for clock performance was simliar or even slightly in amd's advantage (say the 2.3GHz part was as equal to intels 2.4GHz part which is optimistic), but was in intels favour. (2.4GHz part costs in between the 2.2 and 2.3) the end result would be intel's 2.4GHz part would have more performance per $

Now if you were an oem what would you buy ?
As an end users which would you buy ?
As an overclocker which one would you buy ?

The last question is quite an easy one, unless the amd chips have alot of headroom in them its an easy win for the intel parts.
As i said before the picture is about to get worse for amd, currently there is only one intel chip in the entry level quad core market.
It's about to gain two 45nm brothers (2.5 and 2.66GHz) which intel can easily drop the prices on and clock for clock they are likely to be a match for amd's chip.

It seems to me that amd are in the same place they were a few years ago before they took the performance lead. All they can do is attack intel's mainstream products with a cheaper alternative.

[danrok]

We don't know what price AMD or Intel would sell their processors at, to OEMs like Dell. But, it's not all about price, when ordering in very large quants. AMD may well struggle to produce enough.