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Intel slash-and-burns processor prices ahead of AMD’s Ryzen CPU launch
digitaltrends.com ^ | February 27, 2017 10:53 AM | By Kevin Parrish

Posted on 02/27/2017 3:52:30 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

AMD’s new Ryzen desktop processor family is about to arrive in an over-packed station wagon in a matter of days, threatening to put a dent in Intel’s current performance desktop processor market share. AMD has already baited customers with an option to pre-purchase its three top-of-the-line chips, with the most expensive model costing $500 and performing on a par with a similar Intel processor costing over $1,000. That has pushed Intel to lower its prices before the Ryzen family arrives with a bang.

The price cuts have already shown up on Microcenter, revealing reductions ranging from $15 to $300. For instance, the Intel Core i7-6950X chip originally sold for $1,900, but is now $300 less, representing the biggest price reduction so far. This is a ten-core processor launched in the second quarter of 2016 with a base clock speed of 3.0GHz and a boost clock speed of 4.0GHz.

Here are the price reductions seen on Microcenter so far:

Core i7

Core i7-6950X Core i7-6900K Core i7-6850K Core i7-6800K
New Price: $1,599 $999 $549 $359
Price reduction: $300 $200 $150 $140
 
  Core i7-5820K Core i7-7700K Core i7-6700K Core i7-4790K
New Price: $319 $299 $259 $279
Price reduction: $100 $80 $140 $90
 
  Core i7-7700 Core i7-6700
New price: $289 $259
Price reduction: $50 $90

Core i5

Core i5-7600K Core i5-6600K Core i5-4690K Core i5-7500
New price: $199 $179 $189 $189
Price reduction: $70 $90 $70 $30
 
  Core i5-6500 Core i5-4590
New price: $179 $159
Price reduction: $50 $60

Core i3

  Core i3-7350K Core i3-7100 Core i3-6100
New price: $159 $114 $109
Price reduction: $20 $15 $20

Pentium

  Pentium G4400 Pentium G3258  
New price: $50 $50
Price reduction: $20 $20

Microcenter isn’t the only online retailer slashing the prices of Intel desktop processors. Amazon is showing discounted prices, too, such as the $315 Core i7-6700 now priced at $305, and the Core i7-6850K reduced from $628 to $580.  Meanwhile, the Core i7-6700K currently costs $310 over on Newegg, down from $370. The Core i5-6600K now costs $230 instead of $250.

Currently, AMD’s $400 Ryzen 7 1700X desktop processor is the second-best-selling CPU on Amazon, slotting behind the $340 Intel Core i7-7700K and ahead of the $240 Intel Core i5-7600K. AMD’s $330 Ryzen 7 1700 chip resides in seventh place while the $500 Ryzen 7 1800X falls into thirteenth place. All three AMD processors are up for pre-purchase only, and won’t actually become available until March 2.

More: Upcoming AMD Ryzen 7 1800X CPU achieves new Cinebench world record

Just for kicks, let’s compare the two top-selling desktop processors that just happen to sport the same price tag:

Core i7-7700K Ryzen 7 1700X
Cores: 4 8
Threads: 8 16
Base speed: 3.60GHz 3.6GHz
Boost speed: 4.20GHz 3.8GHz
Cache: 8MB 20MB
Maximum power draw: 65 watts 95 watts
Integrated graphics: Intel HD Graphics 630 None
Graphics base speed: 350MHz n/a
Graphics max speed: 1.1GHz n/a
Price: $400 $400

As shown above, AMD’s chip has twice the number of cores and threads, but consumes more power. In Intel’s defense, the i7-7700K includes integrated graphics, thus AMD customers still need to purchase an additional GPU solution. Moreover, Intel’s prices may drop even further later this year when the launch of its eighth-generation “Coffee Lake” processor family grows near.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: hitech

1 posted on 02/27/2017 3:52:30 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

consumers win when there is competition


2 posted on 02/27/2017 4:13:51 PM PST by taxcontrol
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Gotta love some viral AMD advertisements.


3 posted on 02/27/2017 4:45:21 PM PST by ChuckHam
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Prediction: there will be no changes in Mac prices.


4 posted on 02/27/2017 5:02:38 PM PST by glorgau
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Good time to buy a PC.


5 posted on 02/27/2017 5:15:42 PM PST by LibWhacker
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

TRASH

When they release a snooper free processor, call me.


6 posted on 02/27/2017 5:22:16 PM PST by TheNext ("PULL THEIR BROADCAST LICENSE!" - Trump Rally Cry. eg ABC)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Anyone with computer engineering savvy have an opinion on which is better - Intel or AMD?

Or does it matter.... apples and oranges?


7 posted on 02/27/2017 5:29:02 PM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: Jack Hammer

Wait for the independent benchmarks to show up after the NDA is lifted. They should start to show up early next week.


8 posted on 02/27/2017 5:46:47 PM PST by Lurkus Maximus
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To: Lurkus Maximus; Jack Hammer
NDA lifts the AM of March 2 ...

that is this week...

9 posted on 02/27/2017 6:09:48 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Climate Change no longer mentioned on the White House website)
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To: Jack Hammer
There is some sophisticated engineering in the Ryzen, particularly in the efficiency department....for the same clocks and cores the AMD chip consumes less power.

I think that is going to be a really deal with the Naples server chip..

I don;t think they have revealed everything yet with the XFR feature on the X chips...

Auto overclocking , but only showing 100 MHZ so far,...

Many the reviews will show us what that will really do.

But maybe it will get a firmware update sometime in the future.....I speculate they could do that.

Not very much detail on it.

10 posted on 02/27/2017 6:18:11 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Climate Change no longer mentioned on the White House website)
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To: Jack Hammer
See this website for the hottest news,...runor and leaks

AMD Ryzen 7 1700X Beats Core i7 7700K In Single-Thread and Core i7 6950X in Multithreaded Performance Benchmark

11 posted on 02/27/2017 6:27:38 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Climate Change no longer mentioned on the White House website)
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To: TheNext

So where do find what you need?


12 posted on 02/27/2017 6:30:26 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Climate Change no longer mentioned on the White House website)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

>> So where do find what you need? <<

Older processors. New chips have a hidden spy layer the govt can probe all data lines. Buy about 3 laptop/tablets.

1) Cheap $30 laptop/tablet for all private ‘research’ eg gold, guns, supressors etc. Throwaway. Coffee shop wifi.

2) Social laptop eg facebook, internet connect.

3) Never Internet/wifi laptop, air gap. Always offline. Never connect to internet.

4) New power processors, like this thread, has spy chip, so maybe games etc.

Separate your concerns, as prior 1 2 3 4 ...


13 posted on 02/27/2017 6:56:49 PM PST by TheNext ("PULL THEIR BROADCAST LICENSE!" - Trump Rally Cry. eg ABC)
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