Well, that didn’t take long. Within hours of Intel’s quiet price cut, AMD has responded by trimming prices for its new 45nm Phenom II processors. The smaller chipmaker’s price list hasn’t been updated yet, but the reductions have already taken effect at Newegg.
The Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition has slipped from $275 to $235, putting it almost neck and neck with the Core 2 Quad Q9400 at the e-tailer. (The volume price for the Intel CPU is $213, but Newegg sells it for $240). As for the Phenom II X4 920, it’s tumbled down from $235 to $195—and that makes it competitive with the still slightly more expensive Core 2 Quad Q8300.
Again, the AMD chips are competitive with their Intel rivals on the performance front, but they have larger thermal envelopes and greater power consumption under load.