If we ever had some doubt that AMD would be able to deliver its desktop quad-core processors in time for Christmas, there are now signs that a release of the CPUs may be closer than we previously thought: Several online stores have published retail prices of AMD's new processors, indicating how AMD's new CPUs will be competing with Intel's Penryn processors. Curious minds anticipating the launch of the new processors can check Google's Product Search as well as the usual suspects such as it4profit.com to see in which price range AMD's Phenom CPU may land. At this time, three CPUs are being published. The 2.2 GHz Phenom X4 9500, the 2.3 GHz 9600 and the 2.4 GHz 9700. While we always have to take these pre-launch prices with a grain of salt, it is already clear that AMD will be aggressive in its pricing and is unlikely to be able to attack Intel in the $500+ segment.
The 9500 is currently indicated to hit the retail market in the $260-$270 range; the 9600 could be available for prices between $290 and $300 and the 9700 is listed for prices between $310 and $330. These numbers would put the new Phenoms squarely against Intel's new Penryn quad-core desktop processors, which are scheduled to debut with the high-end QX9650 next Monday. According to sources, Intel will not deviate from the pricing strategy that has been in place since the introduction of the Core architecture in July of last year. Its high-end enthusiast chip (QX9650, 3.0 GHz, 12 MB L2 cache) will launch at $999, the high-end mainstream-processor (in this case the Q9550, 2.83 GHz, 12 MB L2 cache) at $530 and the mainstream versions below at $316 (Q9450, 2.66 GHz, 12 MB L2 cache) and $266 (Q9300, 2.50 GHz, 6 MB L2 cache). History tells us that retail prices of these new processors will be substantially higher for at least several weeks after launch.
Link: Full Story @ TGDaily
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