Culver City (CA) - The Internet is abuzz with rumors of a massive price cut in Intel's Core 2 Quad processor later this year. According to HKEPC.com, the price of the 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Quad will plunge 70% from its current price of $851 to $266 in the third quarter. Such a massive price drop would make the quad-core chip cost less than what most dual-core chips are selling for now, but are the rumors true? Intel's Public Relations Manager Dan Snyder gave us the standard corporate answer that we expected to hear.

On the phone, Snyder told TG Daily, "I cannot confirm nor deny any price cuts, but price cuts are a normal part of this industry." He added that prices generally trend lower as time goes on.

So in a roundabout way, Snyder did hint at a price cut sometime in the future, and price cuts regularly do come from Intel, but he just cannot give the amount or a specific date. It's logical to assume that the Core 2 Quad Q6600 will eventually read $266 and probably could even go lower, but it might not happen in the 3rd quarter.

An inexpensive quad-core chip could make four cores the de-facto number of cores for entry level buyers. At last week's Game Developers Conference, Intel repeatedly touted quad-core gaming as the next big thing. Is this just a coincidence? I guess we'll just have to wait until September.