As is usually the case around this time of the year, the two main processor rivals have announced their first waves of price cuts.
Intel announced on Sunday a series of price cuts on their processor range, in order to prepare the market for their upcoming chips.
The, in some cases dramatic, cuts covered the whole Intel product line from desktop P4 and P3's to mobile chips and peaked at 32 percent.
So the 2.2GHz Pentium 4 received a price cut of 25 percent, reaching from $562 to $423, while the 2GHz Pentium 4's price was cut by 22 percent, dropping from $364 to $284. The 1.2GHz desktop Pentium 3's price was reduced from $241 to $163, a 32 percent drop.
For the notebook chips Intel reduced the 866MHz and 850MHz low voltage Pentium III's by 24 percent to $241 each, while the 800MHz chips price was cut by 18 percent to $198. Intel's Celeron range also received price cuts.
But that's not all, many analysts predict that in the coming weeks Intel will further reduce prices. All of these moves are preparing the field for the new Pentium 4 core which Intel is about to introduce on May 6th. On the same day Intel will also introduce the 850(e)chipset for high end desktops. The main and most attractive feature of the 850(e)is the 533MHz system bus, a giant leap from the current 400MHz system bus of Pentium 4's today.
As is usually the case AMD have also announced price cuts.
AMD's cuts will ready consumers for their new Athlon XP, codenamed Thoroughbred. The new chip will be made using the .13 manufacturing process which allows for greater speed and more economic production. The price list was released by AMD and involves prices for quantities of 1000 units:
AMD Athlon XP Processor
2100+ $330
2000+ $280
1900+ $220
1800+ $180
1700+ $157
1600+ $130
AMD Athlon MP Processor
2000+ $299
1900+ $242
1800+ $218
1600+ $183
Mobile AMD Athlon 4 Processor
1600+ $380
1500+ $250
1.2GHz $190
1.1GHz $175
1GHz $150
Mobile AMD Duron Processor
1.2GHz $160
1.1GHz $130
1GHz $100
950MHz $90
AMD Duron Processor for Desktop
1.3.GHz $84
1.2GHz $79
1.1GHz $69
1.0GHz $64
So yet again prices will drop but the Intel-AMD price ratio is expected to stay unchanged.