Intel Cuts Prices of Core 2 Duo, Quad Chips
Late last month rumors did the rounds about Intel cutting processor prices, with the first round slated to occur on April 19. Good news folks, the rumors were true!
Intel this week confirmed suspected price cuts of several Core 2 Quad CPUs. The company also cut prices on a few of its Core 2 Duos. Price cuts aside, last month's rumors also fingered April 19 as the release date for the launch of the Core 2 Quad Q8400 (95W) and the Core 2 Quad Q8400S (65W), both clocked to 2.66 GHz and priced at $183 and $245, respectively. Also true.
Given that these rumors were true, it's safe to assume that the same reports were correct in saying Intel would launch more new processors at the end of May, including Celeron and Pentium Dual-Core parts, the Core 2 Duo E7600 and two new Core i7s: the 3.06 GHz 950 and the 3.33 GHz 975, priced at $562 and $999, respectively. We'll keep you posted on that one. Further price cuts are also scheduled for around this time in July.
Check out the April price cuts below:
| CPU | Old Price | New Price | Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 19 | |||
Core 2 Quad Q8400 (2.66 GHz) | N/A | $183 | N/A |
Core 2 Quad Q8400S (2.66 GHz) | N/A | $245 | N/A |
Core 2 Quad Q9300 | $266 | $213 | 19.92% |
Core 2 Quad Q9550S | $369 | $320 | 13.28% |
Core 2 Quad Q9400S | $320 | $277 | 13.44% |
Core 2 Quad Q8200S | $245 | $213 | 13.0% |
| Core 2 Duo SP9400 | $316 | $284 | 10.13% |
| Core 2 Duo SL9400 | $316 | $284 | 10.13% |
| Core 2 Duo SU9400 | $289 | $262 | 9.3% |
deltatux
Where are the CPU charts for Q1 2009? Come on TH.
Only 5 months ago I was satisfied with the thought of upgrading from Pentium D to C2D, now C2Q/phenomII seem to be the minimum.
Might even go ahead and purchase the new 955 and fart in Intel's general direction.
Honestly, I don't see the point. The cheapest i7 is much faster then the fastest AMD, at less than 100 bucks more, then considering that a quality mobo to suit the AMD chip is not all that less expensive then a decent mid-level i7 mobo, it just doesn't make sense to me to want an AMD chip, unless you already have the mobo and only want to pay for an upgrade.
I spent past few weeks playing around with mobo/memory/cpu combos for both AM2/AM3 and i7 set ups, and best I could do was an AMD set up about 150-200 bucks cheaper than an i7 setup. But in that same aspect, you get what you pay for, and the AMD set up would still have been far slower then an i7 setup.
In the end, I wanted to go back to AMD, because I was a huge fan of them back in the day with their K7 series and I think they are a great company that doesn't gouge their customers. But sadly I couldn't find any reason price/performance wise to go with AMD this year.
Maybe AMD can get back in the game in a year or 2.
Since late nov 2006 (8800 GTX and QX6700) things only seem to be about 20-40% faster (in 30 months!!! jeez), hence the lack of charts... why bother when things are progressing at a snails pace. At least the price of good graphics cards has gone down, now good CPU's need to follow.
$200 must not be much money to you. To some people that want to spend $500 on a computer $700 is a big step up. After regular expenses it takes some people a couple months to save up that extra $200.