AMD's tri-core processors in the Phenom family have been designed to cover the price and performance gap between dual-core and quad-core chips. According to AMD, they are expected to deliver superior performance as compared to the dual-core offerings, but at the same time, to keep costs lower than users would have to pay for quad-core chips.

Although the explanation makes sense when laid on paper, it seems that the actual state of facts on the market completely disagrees with the company. Initially thought as a marketing strategy to protect the quad-core processors in the Phenom family from Intel dropping prices on its dual-core line-up, the tri-core Toliman family ended up being more expensive than the very quad-cores.

This unfortunate turn of events is mostly due to the fact that AMD dramatically slashed prices on its high-end Phenom processors, that now come with a little premium over the mainstream counterparts. Most retailers list the Phenom 8xxx series of tri-cores at slightly higher prices than the high-end quads.

For instance, the Amazon online store lists the Phenom 8450 (2.1 GHz), Phenom 8650 (2.3 GHz) and Phenom 8750 (2.5 GHz) at prices of $169.99, $273.26 and $305.60, respectively. The same website sells the high-end Phenom 9550 (2.2 GHz), Phenom 9750 (2.4 GHz) and Phenom 9850 (2.5 GHz) quad-core chips at prices of $195.99, $215.99 and $235.99, respectively.

AMD managed to price its products in such a manner that allows lower-end parts to compete with its higher-end offerings at much higher prices, which is at least abnormal. More than that, the tri-core family of products stealthily made its way to the retailers' shelves, given the fact that they were initially pitched at the OEM market only.

We don't know whether the chip manufacturer has deliberately priced its quad-core Phenom processors lower than its mid-range parts, or it was a snow-ball effect caused by pricing adjustments in its quad-core offerings, but tri-core chips are likely to "enjoy" a slow and painful adoption.