AMD takes axe to Athlon 64 X2, Turion, Sempron prices

AMD has made price cuts across key processor lines, knocking up to 32.6 per cent off what it charges for mobile and desktop dual-core CPUs. It also introduced a new Mobile Sempron part.

The biggest cuts come to the Turion 64 line of mobile processors, with the prices of the ML-44, ML-42, ML-40, ML-37, ML-34 and ML-32 coming down by 32.6, 25.7, 16.4, 16.3, 16.3 and 5.8 per cent, respectively. In order, these six chips now cost $354, $263, $220, $184, $154 and $145 when sold in batches of 1000 CPUs. All other Turion prices remain unchanged.

AMD also pruned the prices of its Mobile Athlon 64 chips, pitched at desktop-replacement machines, reducing the prices of the 4000+, 3400+ and 3000+ models by 11.5, 12.4 and 7.3 per cent, respectively, to $307, $170 and $115. The intermediate models, the 3700+ and the 3200+ saw no change to their pricing - the remain at $243 and $159, respectively.

The new Mobile Sempron is the 3400+, aimed at "full-size notebooks", and it's priced at $114, $1 above the old price of the previous top-of-the-range model, the 3300+. That chip now costs $104, a reduction of eight per cent. The prices of the 3100+ and 3000+ were also cut, by 9.2 and 11.4 per cent, respectively, to $89 and $78. The 2800+ and 2600+ stay where they are, at $77 and $67, respectively.

The Mobile Semprons for "thin and light notebooks" also saw a couple of price reductions at the top of the line, with the 3300+ falling 6.4 per cent to $117 and the 3100+ dropping 10.1 per cent to $89. The rest of the family saw no price cuts.

Finally, AMD is now charging less for all its Athlon 64 X2 dual-core desktop parts. The 4800+, 4600+, 4400+, 4200+ and 3800+ now cost $643, $556, $467, $362 and $301, respectively, making for reductions of 19.9, 13.5, 7.9, 11.3 and 8.2 per cent. ®