Will SB mean a significant drop in current processor prices?

[Anomaly1964]

As the thread title asks, will the SB chip mean BIG discounts on the current i7 processors?

How much faster will an SB be compared to an i7980 extreme?

 

[BoomerD]

No. The previous generation of processors haven't dropped much in price, and they're several years old.
The Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors still cost about the same as the current i5 and i7 processors.

 

[nyker96]

I'd say no, not until amd gives some competition in the form of BD but that's at least 6 months away.

 

[Zap]

It might put some pressure on AMD, but I doubt Intel procs will drop much. Intel usually has price points that it hits, and it will discontinue a proc instead of dropping the price. For instance (not counting Micro Center) did the Core i7 920 drop in price when the 930 came out? No, the 930 replaced the 920 price point and the 920 became discontinued. When the 950 dropped in price to take over that price point, did the 930 drop in price? No, it became discontinued.

 

[TekDemon]

Very unlikely, prices didn't drop on the Q9xxx series until maybe very recently and even then it's only rare sales and usually not on the good chips. Probably just retailers dumping old stock most of the time.
With i7 there's even less incentive for retailers to clear them out by cutting the prices since these chips are still faster than anything the competition has. Honestly I'd just buy a Sandy Bridge when it comes out since it'll probably keep it's value quite well for a year or two.
As far as speed difference goes it's not meant to compete with the 980X, the replacement for those will come later, but it looks like an overclocked Sandy Bridge will come damned close with just 4 cores. There's also some improvements for particular computing tasks where you'll see Sandy Bridge just crush current i7's. Video encoding for example, since it has a dedicated video encoding architecture. There the higher end Sandy Bridges will actually beat the 980X. Of course it'll be a lot cheaper than the 980X so this is kind of a moot point.
Even as far as AMD goes I don't know how much more pressure this is going to give, AMD's already pretty defeated as it is by 2 year old i7's and all their chips are super cheap. Dunno how much room they really have to cut anything since it seems like they're dumping to OEMs at ultra low prices.

 

[marsspirit123]

Yeah Intels cpu's don't drop in price for some reason.They get new cpu that performs 10% better but has same old price.MC had I7 920 for $199 now its I7 950 for that price.So that's a real price drop.Better cpu for the same money .Thats how intel cpu prices works.
However AMD's prices are always going down.2 years ago amd 9850 was like $140 , now its like $65.Also amd 955 was close to $300 and now its only $144.You can get amd1095 now for the price of amd955 2 years ago.Plus you get all usb3 and sata 3 now with the new boards.
I just wish that there were like 10 cpu makers ...

 

[Axon]

No discounts. The closest thing you'll see is something like yesterday's newegg shell shocker, which was selling a nice X58 gigabyte board and 6 GB of GSkill Ram for $250.

 

[exar333]

Intel prices are already pretty good. There are options <$200 or 250 that are amazing CPUs.

 

[Bass]

Seeing as how I am going to build a new system around Sandy Bridge launch, I am more interested if P55 motherboard prices drop because while the CPU prices for Sandy Bridge look fine, the starting prices for the P67 and even H67 motherboards seemed a little steep.

 

[SickBeast]

I could see the Phenom II X6 prices falling seeing as they will have to compete directly against SB. Aside from that, I don't forsee prices dropping, aside from the previous-gen intel stuff that I'm sure they'll try to clear out.

 

[jacktesterson]

It might put some pressure on AMD, but I doubt Intel procs will drop much. Intel usually has price points that it hits, and it will discontinue a proc instead of dropping the price. For instance (not counting Micro Center) did the Core i7 920 drop in price when the 930 came out? No, the 930 replaced the 920 price point and the 920 became discontinued. When the 950 dropped in price to take over that price point, did the 930 drop in price? No, it became discontinued.

I wasn't aware the 930 was discontinued

 

[OBLAMA2009]

there wont be large drops from intel but microcenter will probably have better specials on them, just like they sold e7200 for 79 and q8200, q9300 for 79,99. so i would expect an 80 deal on an older i3 and a 130 deal on an old i5 quad, just guessing

i read that some analyst dont expect sb to sell that well. its exciting for enthusiasts but most people dont need it, they already have a couple very functional computers. i think theres already a glut of superfast computers out there, the only reason to replace a computer these days is "for fun".

 

[SickBeast]

There was already a big price drop on X6's about a month back. I wonder if AMD will do another round of price cuts so soon? The X6s should do pretty well against the non HT SB chips (at least in MT apps).

However, if X6 prices do drop, wouldn't that have a cascading effect on the rest of the AMD lineup? You can't have similarly clocked X6s and X4s at the same price, for example. Since the vast majority of AMD's chips are already under $200, this really doesn't leave a lot of room for the X4s and below.

Well AMD is going to have to do *something*; if they wait 6 months for Bulldozer it will kill them.

They have some room to ramp up clockspeed to come out with some new X4 processors. All they have to do is drop the bottom few CPUs from their lineup and cut prices on everything else.

Once the X6's get cheap enough, I'm buying one.

 

[Cabages]

So, does anyone think 1366 motherboards will drop in price at all?
I really don't think so, as SB is meant to replace 1156, but some people do seem to think so.
TLDR: should I wait until SB comes out to buy a 1366 mobo?

 

[OCGuy]

No

 

[gevorg]

AMD makes Intel drop their prices, not new Intel chips.

 

[Rifter]

AMD makes Intel drop their prices, not new Intel chips.

This x2. Although since the phenom II's are competeing with the core2 quads performance wise i wouldnt hold your breath on AMD getting there crap together enough to compete any time soon.

 

[OCGuy]

AMD makes Intel drop their prices, not new Intel chips.

Wait, what? Intel makes AMD sell quads for less than $100. They even introduced a tri-core to try and woo some Wolfdale buyers.

Sadly there is only one player in the x86 game. If Bulldozer fails as bad as Phenom, look for AMD to be bought up.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Wait, what? Intel makes AMD sell quads for less than $100. They even introduced a tri-core to try and woo some Wolfdale buyers.

Sadly there is only one player in the x86 game. If Bulldozer fails as bad as Phenom, look for AMD to be bought up.

amd bought up by who? oracle? hp? asus?

 

[ydnas7]

Abu Dhabi's ATIC
(between design and manufacturing, it probably about half owned by Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, with future manufacturing to go to Abu Dhabi)

 

[SickBeast]

You guys are nuts if you think AMD can't make Intel lower their prices on their low end and midrange CPUs. The only place where AMD is not competitive ATM is at the high-end of the CPU market.

 

[Rezist]

Intel doesn't drop there chip prices since they want you to buy a new platform not upgrade your old one when the chips get cheaper.

 

[Rifter]

Call me nuts then, because Intel never responds to AMD pricing. Hence why a dual core i3 costs as much as an Athlon X4...

Intel doesnt lower the i3 because its competeing with a AMD quad core and winning more benchs than losing, AMD really needs to get there crap together.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/143?vs=188