AMD Cuts X2 Processor Prices

BDPrime writes "AMD is cutting prices for its X2 processors, according to an update on its microprocessor pricing list. The cuts refer to AMD's Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64 X2 chips. Some of the price cuts are almost in half."

Comments

Price isn't everything; boycott AMD

[vandan]

AMD / ATI have always had quite a negative attitude towards open-source. Their closed-source Radeon drivers lag behind the open-source drivers severely in features and stability, but AMD refuses to allow open-source developers access to information required to complete support for newer Radeons.

Intel, on the other hand, actively support the development of open-source drivers for their graphics chipsets. Indeed, just today, I noticed this announcement:

Announcing a new video driver called xf86-video-vermilion which provides
basic 2D functionality using blits & fills for the Intel Vermilion Range
chipsets.

Intel funded Tungsten Graphics to do this work. There's also an FBDev
driver being submitted to the linux-kernel.

... which is a world of difference from what we expect from AMD. The last release from AMD managed to add ... wait for it ... a new control panel that looks like arse and adds precisely nothing of value. Previous releases have done things like remove support for current hardware, remove support for custom modelines, etc.

So to Linux users wanting to support the 'underdog' ... forget it. Support the company that supports open-source software instead. Imagine what would happen to the performance and stability of your AMD system if AMD suddenly decided to stop playing ball with gcc developers, and instead release their own compiler. And yeah, I realise that Intel released their own icc compiler, but at least they continue to support gcc developers as well. But if you take AMD's stance towards open-source developers to its logical conclusion, you've got gcc that doesn't support AMD chips. Is that what we want?