14 DAY TRIAL // Approximately one week after AMD officially introduced its latest generation of desktop computer processors, designed to take advantage of the company's new 45nm process technology, the Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker has just cut the prices of its new Phenom II CPUs. The company has slashed prices by 17 percent, thus enabling its new consumer CPUs to better compete with Intel's own products, consequently providing PC users with a more affordable alternative to a PC upgrade.
With the new price adjustment, AMD has reduced the cost of the Phenom II X 940 from $275 to $235, while the price of the lower-spec’ed model, the Phenom II X4 920, has been reduced to $195, from $235. The new pricing scheme has already been put into practice, allowing users to immediately benefit from the lower-priced Phenom II processors. The price adjustment also allows AMD to better compete with similar products offered by its Santa Clara, California-based archival, Intel.
Despite not being capable of seriously competing with Intel's highest-performance processors to date, the Core i7, AMD's new 45nm-based CPUs make for considerable competitors against Intel's socket 775-ready Core 2 Quad processors. More specifically, the Phenom II X4 940 is comparable with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400, while the Phenom II X4 920 is capable of providing a performance level similar to that of Intel's Core 2 Quad Q9300. Currently, the aforementioned Intel processors are priced at $213 and $266, respectively. However, the Q9300 is expected to be phased out, while the Phenom II X4 940 is priced slightly higher than its main competitor, but lower than the Core 2 Quad Q9550.
With the new price adjustment, AMD appears to be offering the better price/value ratio, giving users an alternative to a high-performance desktop PC, without having to pay a fortune on components.