Days after Intel announced their price cuts, which were up to 53 percent, AMD have announced their own cuts ranging from 11 to 52 percent, for both mobile and desktop Athlon XP's. As the two processor giants are preparing the ground for their newest chips, we have come to expect price cuts as a means to clear their stock of the older ranges.
There is also a "darker" side to the price cuts though, both companies are engaged in a performance-versus-price war. Intel have pushed hard on issues of speed and performance while AMD have tried to play the "good deal" card.
We're going to do what it takes to stay competitive was the laconic comment of an AMD spokesman. With the new XP 2200+ (1.8GHz) desktop and mobile Athlon XP 1800+ chips about to surface AMD are really pulling all the stops.
AMD have displayed extreme tenacity in pursuing the price wars and have done so at a great risk to their profits. Working at low profit margins however, has been an AMD trademark in the past few years and is what has helped the company achieve an ever increasing market share. According to Mercury Research AMD's current market share is 18.2 percent. This figure indicates that AMD has indeed gnawed at Intels share, especially in Europe and Asia.
The new AMD price list is as follows:
Desktop Processors
Athlon XP 2100+ Was $330 Now $224 Percent Change 32
Athlon XP 2000+ Was $280 Now $193 Percent Change 31
Athlon XP 1900+ Was $220 Now $172 Percent Change 22
Athlon XP 1800+ Was $180 Now $160 Percent Change 11
Athlon XP 1700+ Was $157 Now $140 Percent Change 11
Duron 1.3GHz Was $84 Now $72 Percent Change 14
Duron 1.2GHz Was $79 Now $68 Percent Change 14
Mobile
Mobile Athlon XP 1700+ Was $489 Now $235 Percent Change 52
Mobile Athlon XP 1600+ Was $380 Now $192 Percent Change 49
Mobile Athlon XP 1500+ Was $250 Now $175 Percent Change 30
Mobile Athlon XP 1400+ Was $190 Now $150 Percent Change 21
Mobile Athlon 4 1.2 GHz Was $190 Now $150 Percent Change 21
Mobile Athlon 4 1.1GHz Was $175 Now $125 Percent Change 29
Mobile Athlon 4 1.0GHz Was $150 Now $125 Percent Change 17
Mobile Duron 1.2GHz Was $129 Now $120 Percent Change 7
Mobile Duron 1.1GHz Was $99 Now $89 Percent Change 10
Mobile Duron 1GHz Was $79 Now $69 Percent Change 13
Intel were the first to announce price cuts which covered their full available processor ranges.
The 2.4GHz P4 dropped from $562 to $400, a 29 percent fall, the 2.26GHz and 2.2GHz chips fell from $423 to $241, a 43 percent drop.
Prices of other versions of the P4 dropped as well with the decreases in price ranging from 12 to 32 percent.
Even greater were Intels cuts on their mobile chips, especially since they have not been sellinfg as well as expected.
The 1.8GHz mobile Pentium 4 fell from $637 to $348, a 48 percent drop, while the 1.7GHz dropped from $508 to $241, a 53 percent change. The 1.6GHz mobile chip is now available for $198 from $401, a 51 percent discount.