Cheaper AMD Processors, Again.

In the wake of the upcoming Barcelona quad core processors, AMD is slashing the prices of its current line of processors again in order to make them more popular among users. As both the launch of its own line of next generation CPUs and the Penryn line from its rival, Intel, draw close, AMD feels the need to gain back some of its lost market share and does this by lowering prices for their dual core processors.

This news of a new imminent price cut is totally unexpected as some time ago Gary Bixler, AMD's director of marketing for North America has been cited as saying: "This year we made it a point to provide the channel with what it wants, which is a predictable business, a stable business. We haven't announced our next price move yet […], so take that at face-value - another one is not imminent."

A message from AMD's "North America Regional Marketing Team" intended to some of its retail channels partners confirms the fact the manufacturer will soon cut the prices for the Athlon 64 X2 4000+, the 4200+ and the X2 4400+ processors that use the AM2 socket. The price cuts are expected to become official from the date of August 13th. The amount of the reduction is not yet known.

This new price cut comes only a few hours after AMD announced yesterday that it is reducing the pricing to its line of server intended processors, the Opterons. Then the price reduction affected the entire family, both dual core and single core receiving a further price decrease, making the cheaper Opteron cost only about $150. While this may be a good marketing strategy to empty most of their inventories of lower performance products just before the launch of the Barcelona quad core processors that will effectively replace the Opterons, I can not help but wonder if AMD is so scared of Intel to cut older processor prices in such a drastic manner.