AMD already dropped its CPU prices this week to give it some leverage against Intel's technologically superior
Core 2 Duo chips. But with Core 2 Duo officially launching today, Intel follows with its own price move on its old Pentium D 900 series and other older dual-core chips. There are some drastic moves here, most notably the Pentium D 960, whose price was cut in half. It's still more expensive than the faster
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, however (and the same as the Core 2 Duo E6600, which conceivably could beat them both).
| AMD | Old price | New price |
| Athlon 64 FX-62 | $999 | $827 |
| Athlon 64 X2 5000+ | $649 | $301 |
| Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (65 watt) | $561 | $276 |
| Athlon 64 X2 4600+ | $522 | $240 |
| Athlon 64 X2 4200+ | $389 | $215 |
| Athlon 64 X2 4200+ | $339 | $187 |
| Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (65 watt) | $310 | $176 |
| Athlon 64 X2 3800+ | $277 | $152 |
| Athlon 64 3800+ | $246 | $112 |
| Athlon 64 3500+ | $161 | $91 |
| Athlon 64 3200+ | $130 | $81 |
| Intel | Old price | New price |
| Core 2 Duo X6800 | $999 | same |
| Core 2 Duo E6700 | $530 | same |
| Core 2 Duo E6600 | $316 | same |
| Core 2 Duo E6400 | $224 | same |
| Core 2 Duo E6300 | $183 | same |
| Pentium D 960 | $605 | $316 |
| Pentium D 950 | $316 | $224 |
| Pentium D 945 | NA | $163 |
| Pentium D 940 | $224 | $183 |
| Pentium D 930 | $178 | same |
| Pentium D 920 | $178 | same |
| Pentium D 915 | $199 | $133 |
The bottom line is that Core 2 Duo is having an obvious trickle-down effect. We hope the desktop vendors will pass on the savings, and we'll start to see some surprisingly powerful systems that are also cheap.
