Price Wars for AMD and Intel

[[shawn@localhost /home]#]

W00T, better to kick off the second half of the first semester by getting a new top of the line AMD for dirt cheap :D

[Fat Tony]

I really think AMD had this in mind to begin with. I mean, who really releases a product, then less than a month later, cuts prices? I think they released the chips at a higher price anticipating Intel's move to cut back prices, then to counter it by cutting the XP prices to the point where they still make a good target profit. Plus they get all that extra money from the people who went out and bought the processors right away. Not really a nice way to treat their loyal customers, but a good marketing strategy.

F|T

[earnie86]

This is good news, some of my friends are getting ready to upgrade.

[adl6009]

I'm about ready to buy, when is amd going to release the next bump up in speed?

[Bellboy]

GO AMD!!!

[Ranma]

Price wars are fine. Financially speaking, Intel is in a far better position to weather the storm than AMD is.

In an economy where no company is immune to the decrease in sales, the one with the most resources has the best chance of surviving: Intel.

[Quazar]

:confused:

I wonder how AMD is going to survive the long hull. From what I understand, AMD says it cannot continue this price war from much longer without a huge increase in sales instead of its droping sales. And if sales don't increase soon, AMD may have to stop cutting prices or simply raise them. SO in the long run it could simply come down to what company can hold out the longest.....which right now it appears that Intel can.


Quazar

[CoNeSsIuS]

Ok maybe AMD was doing some kind of marketing plan. No biggie since we still get the best deal vs the pentium in price. Just means we as a consumer get a better deal and still have a kick @ss processor!

[dividedsoul]

If intel is the one that keeps the prices lower we all know why right? Well if you don't let me explain. They advertise, more customers, higher prices for an inferior product and plus if you aren't into computers you don't see as many amds as us computer freaks do. What needs to happen is that all of you that love AMD need to tell your friends and boost there sales. This company should not be allowed to just drop off the market or loose their reputaion by haveing to jack up there prices again.

Peace:)

[Recordlord]

Fat Tony do you have any idea what the margins are for Intel's CPUs?? They are about 200% higher than SWintels.

[Steel Talyn]

I personally can not wait to upgrade from my K6-2/550!

AMD will not go bankrupt or fail as a vendor because of the current price wars. The battle of AMD vs ChipZilla will result in a co-existing atmosphere, not necessarily a pronounced winner, that is if AMD keeps playing their cards right. Hopefully AMD will regain any lost profits durring this economic recession.

If AMD keeps up their good face to the customer, ChipZilla will tend to loose more of its share of the market. ChipZilla is the Big Bad in the semiconductor business therefore, their scheming and bad business practices over the years is going to end with them in Bad Light, similar to Microsoft. The difference is that, Microsoft will survive because it does not have a directly competing OS for the desktop market (sorry Linux users, but Linux needs to stupify itself and get all cozy before the masses of everyday Users will be able to use it "User-Friendly"). Whereas, ChipZilla will be the one if anyone to take a large fall if it keeps up its monopolizing practices

.

[Mance]

INTEL:

good marketing + stupid people = $$$

AMD:

sweet processers + not enough marketing = the reason why Intel isnt off the market completely

message to AMD: just add a little impact and marketing and the general public [stupid people] will chuck thier Pentiums, and relize that you rule supreme and through that...you will eat Intel alive.
Peace.

[J.A.D]

Its not just end consumers that AMD needs to reach out to.

You have the pc vendors, who are mostly selling intel. (there was the news earlier that gateway dropped amd). If AMD can convince the vendors to sell them, that would help them a lot.

Another place where I think AMD is falling short is selling to business. I suppose this is due to a lot of factors -- big business buy from the PC vendors. You also have the wintel alliance between MS and Intel, although I've read people here saying that is not as strong as it used to be.

So tell your friends but also email gateway/dell/etc. and your boss about amd as well ;)

PS I agree that it will be a co-existence

[Quazar]

I'm curious as to where all you AMD enthusiasts get your information from. I will be the first to agree that AMD has a very good product, quite possibly better than Intel's processors. But the fact still remains that AMD cannot continue compete against Intel with it's falling sales, drops by major companies such as Gateway and IBM, and, to the average consumer, a slower processors when comparing GHZ to GHZ. For example, for $192 you can get a P4 1.7 GIG Intel, or for $199 you can get a 1.53 Gig AMD. What this means to the average consumer is that for more money you can get a slower computer. Go ahead and argue benchmarks and logistics to the everyday consumer and see what happens. Its like trying to tell them that a car with a top speed of 200mph is actually slower then a car with a top speed of 170mph.

Unless AMD can get a major manufacture of PC's to pick up their processor or they start a major advertising campaign, they are doomed to ride in the back of the car for years to come.

And lets be realistic for a second........If I were to build 2 PC's completely the same ("relatively"), one being a AMD XP and one being a Intel P4, I'm willing to bet that in gaming and average computer use, without looking at benchmark data or any splash screens that 99% of you couldn't tell the difference as to which one was which.

[SEALTEAMTHREE]

The obvious question is; Why isn't Intel going down the tubes when everyone (besides the Intel hard-liners) knows that the benchmarks don't lie: AMD's Athlon, coupled with DDR FSB and RAM, is a better preformer than the Pentium IV w/RAMBUS (but mabey that Intel sued AMD for DDR they'll do better(?)...)?

The reason is uneducated consumers. The average Joe Schmoe walks into your average computer store and starts looking at computers. The first thing they'll see is the fact that Intel based system has a 2.0 GHz CPU, whereas an AMD based system only has a 1.4 GHz. They say "Hey! The Pentium IV is faster!". Then, the friendly sales associate will walk up, and 1)knowing that Intel based systems are more expensive, and 2)the fact that he gets 15% commission on every sale he makes, will try to sell the most expensive system he can. So Joe Schmoe talks to the salesman (who is profit driven as opposed to customer care driven), who convinces him that the Intel system is better. So Joe buys the Pentium IV for more, and therefore keeps Intel afloat.

Intel is killing AMD in the retail sales market. When I walk into my local Best Buy, the computers are 75/10/5 . 75% are Intel, 10% are AMD and the last 5% are Macs. The only company that is putting out computers with AMD CPU's is Micron, and they're leaving the PC business. Gateway and Dell (two of the largest retail companies) use Intel chips exclusively. The only sales keeping AMD afloat are preformance users (aka Overclockers) and mom-and-pop computer stores who haven't been brainwashed by Intel's theory that "4 is bigger than 3, so that makes it BETTER". The Athlon XP's might rectify the situation by having model numbers with a "P4-equilivent" number (ex-The XP 1800 is really a 1.533 GHz) by using the idea that "bigger numbers are better".

[Hopper1173]

GO CYRIX!! jus kiddin!! :p


My 1.4 t-bird is on the way to me...WHOO HOO!!

[BubbaD]

Any history on this type of event... :)

[nh3com]

fact :- intel cpu's work with 99.9% of applications AMD's don't

need i say any more

[LostBok]

Just to answer Quazar's question... nobody is trying to say that a 200mph car is slower than a 170mph car... because then you'd be using the car's ability to get from A to B as part of the benchmark... the argument is that a car that car rev at 9000rpm can be a lot slower than a car that can only rev at 7000rpm... the reason why? The car that's reving at 9000rpm has significantly less torque and is therefore less able to do anything with those revs...

The analogy that I prefer is engine sizes:

An 8 litre V10 Dodge Viper is going to get thrashed by a 4.5 litre V8 TVR Cerbera on 0-60 time, point ot point, top speed and don't even get into the handling for cross-country!

But then you get a purpose built vehicle on a specific terrain (6.5L Diesel HumVee on a rough semi-desert off road course) and I think we all know which would win (or even finish!!)...

Intel has won the current Mhz batle and I think is goign to be the king of that for a while to come.. they have a LOT more Mhz they can still pull out of that core and they are also going to win all the specially optimised benchmarks and application tests that use the SSE2 properly...

AMD are still however the fastest CPU's for non-optimised applications and certainly match if not beat the P4's in some of the not-so-well optimised tests... lets face it AMD have a very good product that is sold at an incredibly low price...

Stability is a question the Intel die-hards always bring up... from what I've heard thus far, the new AMD are very good... given that they are now the choice CPU for gamers, most hardware is now being as thoroughly tested for CPU compatibility as any Intel platform... the weak point does however appear to be some of the chipsets... I have heard a fair few horror stories about the latest chipsets having all sorts of things wrong with them that then take a while (and several CMOS flashes) to fix...

If you go for a reliable, proven platform and don't try overclocking the cr@p out of the CPU, then AMD is going to give you the cheapest, fastest system, which is reliable and compatible... just choose that motherboard carefully :)

Personally I have always been a "duallie" person, so it's been dual P3-1Ghz boards for a whiel now... I was just about to place the order for my dual Tualatin 1.26Ghz when I saw some of the AMD offerings... my dual 1800MP arrives next Friday... time to test that stability, I don't the speed is in question!

[nh3com]

question for lostbok what do you need a dual pc for? CAD or something if it is i can see that system going back within a couple of days.

[[shawn@localhost /home]#]

dual processors will not actually work unless you have an application and operating system that know how to use them, if you had a dual processor deal and you played a game, you would get the same FPS as you would with a single processor because games are not made for it

its basically just server applications and graphics programs such as CAD that can use dual CPU (server mobos have really good FSB though)

[SEALTEAMTHREE]

More on the Intel "bigger is better" theory
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2000/20001120l.jpg