You might not know it from looking at the date stamps on AMD’s processor pricing pages, because they’re still a few months old. A quick comparison of the existing pages versus those stored in Google’s cache reveals the truth, though: prices have dropped across nearly the entire FX and A series of processors.
Processor | Old price | New price | Difference |
FX-8150 Black Edition | $245 | $205 | 20% |
FX-8120 Black Edition | $185 | $165 | 12% |
FX-6200 Black Edition | $165 | $155 | 6% |
FX-6100 Black Edition | $145 | $135 | 7% |
A8-3870K Black Edition | $135 | $115 | 17% |
A8-3850 | $135 | $105 | 29% |
A8-3820 | $129 | $115 | 12% |
A8-3800 | $129 | $105 | 23% |
A6-3670K Black Edition | $115 | $100 | 15% |
A6-3650 | $115 | $95 | 21% |
A6-3600 | $109 | $95 | 15% |
A6-3500 | $85 | $75 | 13% |
A4-3400 | $71 | $59 | 20% |
A4-3300 | $66 | $55 | 20% |
The hardest hit were the FX-8150, A8-3850, A6-3650, A4-3400, and A4-3300, all of which got their prices slashed by 20% or more. The FX-4100 and FX-4170 were unaffected, and AMD looks to have taken the A6-3620 out of the picture altogether—it’s no longer listed in the new price list.
Based on our performance numbers to date, I’d say these cuts are overdue. Take the FX-8150, for instance, which fell slightly below Intel’s $220 Core i5-2500K on the performance scale despite being priced at $245. Or the A8-3850, which failed to keep up with AMD’s old Phenom II X4 840 overall despite costing a good $20-30 more. In some cases, the new prices seem to be what they should have been all along.
Of course, it seems clear why AMD has made these cuts: because the retail debut of Intel’s new Ivy Bridge chips is imminent. That’s unfortunate. If the numbers we got out of the Core i7-3770K are any indication, then other Ivy Bridge offerings might also be slightly quicker dollar-for-dollar than their predecessors. And if that’s the case, then AMD might be left charging slightly too much for some of its chips yet again. (Thanks to TR reader Jones for the heads up.)