Advanced Micro Devices Inc. cut wholesale prices on some of its Athlon and Duron processors Monday, following rival Intel Corp.'s price cuts over the weekend.
The price of an Athlon XP 1800+, the top performer in the Athlon series, which competes with Intel's Pentium 4 line, was cut to $223 in quantities of 1,000 units, down 12% from $252. The Athlon XP was introduced on Oct. 9. The 1.4-GHz Athlon was discounted from $130 to $125 for quantities of 1,000 units.
In the Duron series -- processors for value PCs that compete with Intel's Celeron chips -- AMD cut the 1,000-unit price of the 1.1-GHz processor to $89 from $103 while cutting that of the 1-GHz Duron 17% from $89 to $74. The bottom-end 950MHz Duron was reduced from $74 to $69 per 1,000 units.
The price cuts should soon bring down prices of AMD-based systems, which are more popular among consumers than business users, said Hollis Krym, a Paris-based spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD.
Street prices for computers won't go down immediately because systems now in stores contain processors bought at the higher price. The price cuts will trickle down eventually, according to AMD.
"I can't say exactly when systems in stores will become cheaper, but they will," said Krym.
Some of Intel's price cuts were deeper than AMD's. For example, Intel chopped 29% off the price of the 2-GHz Pentium 4 processor, the fastest Pentium 4 available, bringing it down to $401 in 1,000-unit quantities. Intel cut the price of its 1.8-GHz chip 12% to $225.
Related stories:
- AMD launches Athlon XP processor family, Oct. 9, 2001
- AMD to slash 2,300 jobs, close two plants in Texas, Sept. 26, 2001
- Intel introduces 2-GHz Pentium 4, cuts prices of other chips , Aug. 27, 2001