AMD forced to cut prices as Ivy Bridge arrives

Guru3D News

X-bit Labs shared some more details about AMD's price cuts since the arrival of Intel's Ivy Bridge lineup. The AMD FX-8150 is now available for $215 down from $245 while the FX-6200 fell from $165 to...

More...

PhazeDelta1 · 04-27-2012, 10:41 | posts: 9,311 | Location: 90° N

Nice price cuts.

Neo Cyrus · **Memory**: 6GB DDR3-2000 9-9-9-24-1T

I see the i5 2500K on sale at $200 left and right now that IB is out. Slap on a decent cooler and OC it to 5GHz, call it a day.

Supertribble · 04-27-2012, 17:22 | posts: 246 | Location: Earth

More likely around 4.4Ghz with a decent air cooler for 24/7. Maybe 4.6.

fr33k · 04-27-2012, 19:08 | posts: 1,784 | Location: USA

which is seemingly what you can do with IB and get better performance.
But anyway. Still can't buy IB... WTF!!

Clouseau · 04-27-2012, 19:14 | posts: 179

The price cuts are way, way over due. They should have been forced to cut prices to be competitive with SB.

IPlayNaked · 04-27-2012, 19:28 | posts: 6,559

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clouseau

The price cuts are way, way over due. They should have been forced to cut prices to be competitive with SB.

But weren't. Why? Because not only gamers buy them. If you've got a heavily threaded workload, and don't know or care about power, it's a capable processor.

Exodite · 04-27-2012, 20:10 | posts: 1,628 | Location: Luleå, Sweden

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPlayNaked

If you've got a heavily threaded workload, and don't know or care about power, it's a capable processor.

Unfortunately you'd also have to add 'and have a very specific budget constraint interval'.

The only performance benchmark, multi-threaded or not, I'd seen Bulldozer overtake SNB in is the hashing algorithm test used here on Guru3D.

It's capable I grant you, but then any processor on the market today is, though I wouldn't buy it myself or even recommend it for any particular build.

It's AMD's curse that it isn't enough for them to offer competitive alternatives (though I'd argue Bulldozer isn't quite that) but rather that they have to offer something significantly better.

As things stand right now I'm rather worried about the state of the CPU development, moving forward. I hope the Intel vs. ARM race can heat up a bit more so the players don't get complacent.

IPlayNaked · 04-27-2012, 20:24 | posts: 6,559

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exodite

Unfortunately you'd also have to add 'and have a very specific budget constraint interval'.

The only performance benchmark, multi-threaded or not, I'd seen Bulldozer overtake SNB in is the hashing algorithm test used here on Guru3D.

It's capable I grant you, but then any processor on the market today is, though I wouldn't buy it myself or even recommend it for any particular build.

It's AMD's curse that it isn't enough for them to offer competitive alternatives (though I'd argue Bulldozer isn't quite that) but rather that they have to offer something significantly better.

As things stand right now I'm rather worried about the state of the CPU development, moving forward. I hope the Intel vs. ARM race can heat up a bit more so the players don't get complacent.

In Cinebench is puts itself between the i5 and i7. Along with other benchmarks.

Anand actually paints a different story for Bulldozer

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/t...x8150-tested/7

Of course, you go to the next page's gaming benchmarks and it just gets thrashed.

IcE · 04-27-2012, 21:34 | posts: 6,981 | Location: Toledo, Ohio

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neo Cyrus

I see the i5 2500K on sale at $200 left and right now that IB is out. Slap on a decent cooler and OC it to 5GHz, call it a day.

But, but, AMD is best value, didn't you hear?

Stukov · 04-27-2012, 21:45 | posts: 4,826 | Location: South Dakota

AMD WAS good on value until BD came out and did horrid with IPC while failing at high clocks, sucking tons of juice, and being rather warm.

Even if BD came out and was the same speed clock for clock as PII was, while consuming less power while being on 32nm rather than 45nm, it could have still be considered a success in the value department. But it brought the worst of every category into it, it will take a few revisions for AMD to clean up BD and I'm saying this as someone who prefers to use AMD.

Exodite · 04-27-2012, 21:55 | posts: 1,628 | Location: Luleå, Sweden

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPlayNaked

In Cinebench is puts itself between the i5 and i7.

Yeah, I just don't find that particularly good considering.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPlayNaked

Anand actually paints a different story for Bulldozer.

I initially ran through an FX-8150 vs. 2600K comparison in Anand's bench, which ended up being rather depressing.

The FX-8150 vs. 2500K comparison is less one-sided but I still struggle to find a scenario where I'd recommend the former over the latter.

I suppose AMD could see those though, or they might well have pushed the FX pricing lower to begin with.

There are specific scenarios though, like if you only do software rendering, can't find an additional 100 USD for a 2600K and don't consider a 30-50% increase in single-threaded performance worth the trade-off of 5-15% in multi-threaded performance.

That's kinda the point I were trying to make, it's just a very narrow set of qualifiers.

Still, I hope AMD makes enough from the chips to keep R&D going.

BlackZero · 04-27-2012, 22:37 | posts: 8,075 | Location: United Kingdom

This also puts into perspective all the comments about AMD buying ATI being a bad decision for AMD, though I personally didn't like the acquisition either but imagine where they would be if they didn't have the APU business to fall back on.

PhazeDelta1 · 04-27-2012, 23:01 | posts: 9,311 | Location: 90° N

Yea no joke. Probably would have filed bankruptcy and then their assets sold off to Intel, IBM, and VIA.

---TK--- · *Last edited by ---TK---; 04-27-2012 at 23:28.*

IMO the only reason bd did reasonably well in synthetic benches was because the 2500k only has 4 threads. Some of those tests liked more than 4 threads that 2500k has to offer. Yet the 2500k did surprisingly well with only 4 threads. With both nvidia and Intel forcing pricecuts from amd in both gpu and CPU kinda puts them in a precarious situation.

Neo Cyrus · **Memory**: 6GB DDR3-2000 9-9-9-24-1T

Quote:

Originally Posted by Supertribble

More likely around 4.4Ghz with a decent air cooler for 24/7. Maybe 4.6.

I pushed this Nehalem to almost 4.4GHz (4356MHz, 198x22) on air, Prime 95 and Linx stable. I see people with 2500K and 2600Ks left and right with their CPUs clocked between 4.8 and 5GHz on this website alone, if you're having such a hard time you should consider a different cooler. Or do they really range that much between batches? I don't really keep track of such things unless I'm interested in purchasing one.