Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/21/intel_q3_desktop_cpu_price_cuts/
Intel lining up Q3 Pentium D price cuts?
Clearing the way for 'Conroe'
Posted in Hardware, 21st March 2006 10:39 GMT
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Intel hasn't launched the dual-core Pentium D 960 yet - it's due late April, we understand - but already it's planning to cut the processor's price, sometime in Q3, according to the latest claims coming out of Taiwan's system builder community.
Sources cited [1] by DigiTimes allege the 960's price will fall from $530 to $316 in Q3, a drop of 40.4 per cent. Intel will cut the price of other 9xx Pentium Ds at the same time - a second set of price cuts to the range, which is due to become less expensive on 23 April, the sources say, adding weight to earlier claims of Pentium D price cuts [2] in the coming months.
Having come down from $637 to $316 in April, the 950's price will fall again, in Q3, to $241, making for cuts of 50.4 per cent and 23.7 per cent, respectively. The 940's price will end up at $209, down 13.3 per cent on the $241 Intel will be charging for it from 23 April onwards, itself down 43 per cent on the $423 the chip maker charges for it today.
As we've noted before, the 920 is due to be dropped, and judging by the apparent lack of a price-change, so too is the 930.
The cuts come as no great surprise. Q3 is scheduled to see the arrival of 'Conroe', Intel's first 65nm dual-core desktop CPU to be based on its next-generation architecture. Conroe will have double the cache of the current Pentium D 9xx line-up, and will not only deliver greater performance but consume less energy, the company claims. ®