The battle between AMD and Intel in the high end desktop sector seems to be getting more, rather than less intense.

Bill Henning at CPU Review has just updated his regular comparison between Athlons and Intel's clocked at 500MHz, 550MHz and 600MHz, and has released figures showing the AMD parts are cheaper at both the low and the high end.

According to his figures, a 650MHz Athlon now costs $118 less than a PIII/650MHz, but we can expect to see the battlelines change between now and the end of the year. For example, we are still receiving information from PC manufacturers that AMD will intro a 750MHz part later on this month, either at Comdex/Fall or shortly afterwards.

This will mean that AMD will have an Athlon with a higher clock rate than any Pentium III. While Intel announced its .18 micron Coppermine 733MHz part two weeks back, it is still in very short supply, although some Internet sites are now at least listing the parts.

As Intel has now at last confirmed that the i820 chipset will at least be ready for Comdex/Fall, we can expect to see some of its top customers, the Dells of this world, demonstrating and perhaps even selling high end systems.

However, AMD probably still has an advantage here. Its production lines are running at full pelt and when it releases a 750MHz Athlon, there is likely to be good supply relatively quickly.

Meanwhile, as we reported here some weeks ago, Intel will make further price reductions on its Pentium III range in December, once more putting the pressure on AMD to reduce its prices again. ®