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Intel Reacts To AMD Ryzen Apparently Cutting Prices On Core i7 And i5 Processors (hothardware.com)

Less than a week after AMD announced the first line up of Ryzen processors, Intel is apparently fighting back by dropping the price of several of its processors. Rob Williams, writing for HotHardware: So, what we're seeing now are a bunch of Intel processors dropping in price, perhaps as a bit of a preemptive strike against AMD's chips shipping later this week -- though admittedly it's still a bit too early to tell. Over at Amazon, the prices have been slower to fall, but we'd highly recommend that you keep an eye on the following pages, if you are looking for a good deal this week. So far, at Micro Center we've seen the beefy six-core Intel Core i7-6850K (3.60GHz) drop from $700 to $550, and the i7-6800K (3.40GHz) drop down to $360, from $500. Also, some mid-range chips are receiving price cuts as well. Those include the i7-6700K, a 4.0GHz chip dropping from $400 to $260, and the i7-6600K, a 3.50GHz quad-core part dropping from $270 to $180. Even Intel's latest and greatest Kaby Lake-based i7-7700K has experienced a drop, from $380 to $299, with places like Amazon and NewEgg retailing for $349.

8 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Much ado about nothing.. for now.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The centerpiece of this 'article' seems to focus on Microcenter, which ALWAYS has priced drops and sales like this going on.

    Everybody take a deep breath and see where we're at this time next month.

    1. Re:Much ado about nothing.. for now.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      I came here to say this. I've been buying from Micro Center for years, and even worked for them for a summer in the '90s. Their CPU prices have been discounted for quite a long time, and I think it's fantastic that I can I can get a great price from a brick-and-mortar store. And I recommend shopping there to all my friends.

      But to call out their everyday discounted price as a "price drop" is simply bullshit. The Core i5-6600K that is pictured in the article? I priced that for a friend last fall, and it was $180 then. It's $180 now - It didn't drop at all. The Core i7-5820K that I saw mentioned in a similar article? It's $320 now. I paid $300 for one in September, 2015. That doesn't look like a price drop to me either.

      So congrats to Micro Center for finding some idiot publications to post their "news" and getting a nice slashvertisement out of it.

  2. Personally I will wait by Dunbal · · Score: 1, Informative

    I've had AMD in the past, when they were good (pre Phenom days). Then I switched to Intel. It seems like AMD are finally getting serious again, that's good. Because with the rumors flying that Intel is soon going to be supporting Windows only on their chips, there is no fucking way I will continue to buy from them if this turns out to be true.

    Price is only a secondary concern. It was important when you were buying a new rig every year. But since the pace of progress has slowed, I don't mind shelling out more for a CPU because I know it's going to last me a good 5+ years and then some. Now what I find important is retaining control over my machine.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:Personally I will wait by samoanbiscuit · · Score: 3, Informative

      The performance improvements for AMD are mainly due to Global Foundries opening up a 14nm fab.

      This is pretty incorrect. You don't get 52% IPC uplift just from a process node shrink. The Bulldozer family was a double whammy of bad for AMD because it was a bad design choice as well as them being stuck on an older, less power efficient node.

      Had they released Zen chips on their old node sizes, they would have still realized the IPC gain, but would have had to work with lower clocks and higher power consumption. They're now competitive with Intel on performance/watt, that comes from the node shrink, but they're also competitive on performance/clock, which comes from the new architecture which doesn't have such boneheaded decisions baked in like a shared FPU between two Bulldozer "cores"

      AMD hasnt really designed any bonehead chips. Ever. They just havent had access to parity FAB's.

      Bulldozer was AMD's Netburst moment. It failed hard vs Intel on everything except specific multithreaded integer workloads, and even then only beat Intel at much higher power consumption. Every tech reviewer on the planet who knows what they're talking about has shouted it from the rooftops. The Core architecture pulled ahead of AMD's Phenoms and they never recovered till Zen.

    2. Re:Personally I will wait by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 3, Informative

      Does AMD have anything like the dreaded Intel Management Engine hardware Trojan?

      Yes. AMD Platform Security Processor.

      The Platform Security Processor (PSP) is built in on all Family 16h + systems (basically anything post-2013), and controls the main x86 core startup. PSP firmware is cryptographically signed with a strong key similar to the Intel ME. If the PSP firmware is not present, or if the AMD signing key is not present, the x86 cores will not be released from reset, rendering the system inoperable.

      The PSP is an ARM core with TrustZone technology, built onto the main CPU die. As such, it has the ability to hide its own program code, scratch RAM, and any data it may have taken and stored from the lesser-privileged x86 system RAM (kernel encryption keys, login data, browsing history, keystrokes, who knows!).

      Personally I think IME/PSP would be great things to have: if I could set a jumper and burn my own firmware image and signature verification key, then unset the jumper.

      Too bad that's not happening...

  3. Re:No surprise... by ravenshrike · · Score: 5, Informative

    Intel appears to edge out in single core performance, but by less than 5-10% depending on processor and we still haven't seen single core performance of Ryzen 5 or 3. Ryzen multi-core performance spanks Intel like a red-headed stepchild. Moreover, this is the first iteration of Ryzen, so performance gains probably have farther to go for things like IPC than Intel's current processors. Basically, unless you're planning on waiting for Coffee lake and believe there will be a greater improvement than another 3% IPC gain, Ryzen is as good or better than Intel's offerings especially with the lower TDP.

  4. Re:No surprise... by jareth-0205 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Do you believe that business and merchants existed long before liability protections? If so, then you have evidence that your assertion is false. If not, then history begs to differ.

    But when serious risk was needed, when machinery / railroads / technology developed that might succeed but easily may also fail, it was necessary. One of the reasons that the Industrial Revolution happened in the UK at the time it did was Limited Liability being available there. I'm not say it doesn't have other potentially bad side-effects, but is very obviously necessary for any serious progress to be made.

  5. Re:No surprise... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Fairly popular myth, but companies are merely required to serve the interests of their shareholders. That includes long-term value growth and paying dividends, not just maximizing profits. And if that long-term growth requires retaining experienced personnel, that can be traded for profit maximization.

    The myth probably exists because it's easier to prove financial mismanagement than HR mismanagement. After all, money doesn't decide on its own to leave a company, but people do. So you tend not to see lawsuits over people leaving.