Following Intel’s announcement of new quad-core processors and CPU prices cut, AMD has lowered the price of its quad-core Phenom II X4 940 and 920 processors from $275 to $235 and from $225 to $195 respectively. AMD has also announced plans to launch 3.1GHz quad-core Phenom II X4 950 processor in second half of this year to better compete with Intel’s latest offerings.
AMD says that the reason behind the price drop was to provides consumers with a better price / performance ratio. But the truth is AMD doesn’t have a single product that can compete with Intel just on performance. And with the new low voltage quad-core CPUs, Intel is winning the power consumption battle also. The power requirement for 2.8GHz Phenom II 920 is 125W, which is almost double when compared with 65W required by Intel’s 2.83GHz Q9550s. So over a period of one year using AMD Phenom II processor will be costlier.