Intel cut prices .. again
Intel announce more price cuts for the as yet unreleased Pentium 4, as well as the barely available Pentium 3
AMD's double whammy of the budget Duron and performance Thunderbird seems to have caught out Intel, with the computer giant's range of processors in most cases hopelessly overpriced compared to the equivalent AMD chips. Now Intel is fighting back, with massive price cuts planned for their entire product range, all the way from the lowly Pentium III 650 to the over-powered 1.5Ghz Pentium 4. Of course, the Pentium 4 hasn't even been released yet, but that hasn't stopped Intel from cutting its intended prices for the new chips by more than $250 over the last few months.
Even more amusingly, the recently recalled 1.13Ghz Pentium III, which suffered from "instabilities" and almost certainly won't be available again until well into next year, has had its price slashed by around $350. If any of the chips actually worked properly and Intel could sell you one, it would set you back just shy of $650. But they don't and they can't, so announcing a price cut for them is pretty pointless if you ask us.
Anyway, back to the real world... The ageing Pentium III 650 and 667 processors are going to drop by $30 to $163, while the 750 and 800 versions fall from around $250 to $193. At the sharp end of the market, where AMD's high performance chips are really taking their toll, the price cuts are even more drastic. The Pentium III 850 and 866 will shed about $100 each to weigh in at just $241, and the 933 model falls over $150 to $348. Finally the fastest Pentium III currently available, the 1Ghz model, will have $200 lopped off its price to bring it to a rather more competitive $465. These prices are for dealers buying in bulk though, so expect off-the-shelf prices to be somewhat higher.