Barcelone/Phenom Pricing

[mannwhite]

Hi all. I was just wondering. Considering the ridiculously low price for the Q6600 what do you guys think the pricing for a similarly performing Phenom is going to be? It's come to the point that there's barely a 20% difference in price between a dual-core and a quad-core that are clocked the same (both Intel). I guess the 2.4GHz Phenom can't afford to be much more expensive than the Q6600 to stay competitive otherwise nobody's going to buy it for sure IMO.

Also, what time-frame do you think quad-cores will begin to be utilised somewhat efficiently? I've heard a lot of buzz lately as to how crysis, bioshock and ut3 are all going to give us a good physics experience do to optimised multithreading, any info?

 

[reconviperone1]

I've actually wondered about that myself, they had prices for the barcelona server chips in theinquirer about a month ago, but no phenom prices. I've held off getting the q6600(i want a quad so bad) and a 650i mobo, so that hopefully i can just do i bios upgrade and chip swap so i won't have to redinstall everything. I'm a casual gamer, so if it debuts at 2ghz, i dont' care so long as it has four coures and cost less than 300 dollars.

 

[aevm]

I read a short review at Anandtech once, they managed to sneak a benchmark program for a minute or two in an AMD demo computer and they measured the performance. Mind you, this is only one test, so you can't put much trust in it. Anyway, the Barcelona CPU was 5% weaker than an equivalent Intel quad at the same clock.

Also, I understand that Barcelona will not overclock as well as the Kentsfield.

Based on that, I'd say a 2.4 GHz Phenom would compete well against a Q6600 if it cost 10% less. It depends on motherboard prices too. If AMD mobos are cheaper than equivalent Intel prices that would help AMD CPUs compete at higher prices, maybe even at the same price as the Q6600.

I'm just guessing here, don't take it too seriously 😀

 

[turpit]

I'm just guessing here, ....... 😀

Hell, no problem. AMD has been 'guessing' at how K10 will perform for 6 months. 'Estimated performance of a simulated CPU' is spin speak for 'guessing'

 

[eregular]

I think if someone ran a test on the barc's at some booth, and they didn't do well....well then i wouldn't be surprised why all the amd delays, but maybe its worth the wait? and i'm sure any barcelona based setup they were clocked at 1.9 or something, i've seen supposed screenshots of this cpu-z. anyway, amd will always conquer certain benchmarks or abilities....so it just needs to stay alive long enough to get its 45nm process up with matured ddr3 support....intel is going to probably have problems with nehalem...

I think if AMD really informs enough big datacenter customers about how they will have more futureproof than intel...and of course intel using fb-dimm's. They could sell enough k10's around november/december....it could happen.

AMD was probably making a ton of more money on the k8 because everyone who knew anything knew they were better than prescott.

C2Q was as big of a shock as opteron 185/fx-60. Remember how intels first batch of 65nm wasn't hardly any better than its 90nm brother? AMD mike take more of a beating, but IF it survives we are sure to see amazing products, they are really pushing a lot of info about fusion lately. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41451

They learned their lesson about MCM, I have visions of two 45nm k10's glued together with a 55nm r700 core are crunching their way into the record books....that is if they survive that long.....maybe they'll get bought? maybe by samsung? that wouldn't be so bad, then it'd be bringing a memory company into the fold....

 

[Hatman]

One thing to be sure about the new AMD ones though.. is that they will need a lot less power and be a hell of a lot cooler!

 

[reconviperone1]

I remember before they released the k-8,yhey didnt really provide benchmarks until the very end, they had a k-8 that they demoed that ran at 800mhz, everyone predicted k-8 doom, and then he k-8 came out kicking ***. So maybe it will be worth the wait.

 

[mannwhite]

I remember before they released the k-8,yhey didnt really provide benchmarks until the very end, they had a k-8 that they demoed that ran at 800mhz, everyone predicted k-8 doom, and then he k-8 came out kicking ***. So maybe it will be worth the wait.

hehe, that was quite a long time ago. I can't even remember what graphic card I had back then, I wouldn't be surprised if I was still mucking around with a voodoo 2 sli.

 

[jwlangs]

Here are some firm numbers for some of the slower Barcelona CPUs, but I've seen nothing about Phenom pricing.

http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=40606

I know, this is the inquirer, but I saw this same scheme on several different web sites. This is just the only one I could find. If anybody has any hint on Phenom pricing, please post. The 1st RD790 boards should be rolling out at the end of this month, and I'm guessing Phenom prices should follow quickly as these Barcelona prices were ~2 months ahead of product availability. As far as I can tell, AMD still says November for the release of Phenom, so maybe prices sometime in September?

 

[cb62fcni]

One thing to be sure about the new AMD ones though.. is that they will need a lot less power and be a hell of a lot cooler!

Well, if that's so important, why isn't everyone still using 386s? Why, you could get away with running one of those without a heatsink!

Seriously though, power consumption is a good selling point for big server banks and whatnot, but matters little to the average user. Being cooler is also a plus, but it's hardly vital. And honestly, if they push these to 3Ghz, I'm willing to wager the power/temp advantage will shrink extremely rapidly. In the end it's going to come down to nothing more than performance and price. If they're cheap enough and as power stingy as AMD would have us believe, then I'll pick one up for my new HTPC. If not, an undervolted Q6600 will suffice nicely.