Welcome back for another installation of our Price Guides. These past few weeks have been a roller coaster ride for both the video and CPU market with price drops, unveiling of new technologies and the end of others. As always, do not forget to check out our RealTime Price Guides and our guides section for up to the minute pricing and system building information.

Intel Processors

In the CPU world it would not appear to be the rosiest of months for Intel. After what seems to be years of research and development for their next generation Pentium 4 dual core, codenamed Tejas, Intel has decided to pull the plug on the project. Sources cite the excessive heat output of this core as one of the key reasons for the cancellation and while current-generation cores output in excess of 100 watts, in some cases, this is not unexpected. Now that Intel is going back to the drawing board we can only wait in anticipation to see what they will come up with next. However, the cancellation of these processors does not mean the end of the line for the Pentium roadmap. On the contrary, the incredible successful Pentium M class (Banias) used in Centrino will expand and eventually migrate to the desktop for a low wattage, high IPC solution. There will be more information about Pentium M very soon as Dothan, the successor to Banias, debuted on Monday.

In the meantime our previous recommendation for the Pentium 4 2.8C still stands. After all, it has only been two weeks since we recommended it last; with a small price drop. This processor continues to provide the kind of price-to-performance ratio savvy consumers while providing HyperThreading and excellent content creation thoroughput.

We also received new news on Intel roadmaps yesterday. Be sure to check out our latest Intel roadmap. The new Intel chips debut late june, but we dont see our real first price cut until the third week of August. Expect fairly stable pricing until the June Socket 775 releases.

AMD Processors
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  • KristopherKubicki - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link

    Price engine is doing better now.

    9600XT's wont drop that much until we see RV380 - at least a month or two. They are good cards, if you do not want to spend a lot of money buying one now is not a bad option.

    Kristopher
  • vlsi54199 - Friday, May 14, 2004 - link

    Shall I hold on buying a 9600XT card? how much do you think the price will drop? and how soon?
  • SHO235V8 - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - link

    There must be BIG price cuts coming (or rebates, argh). I don't know many of us who would pay essentially the same $400 for last year's technology, good cards or not! :)
  • KillaKilla - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - link

    Well that's no good... The X800, as of late, costs as much as a 9800XT does!

    Alright! Wait... no... no! It's not all right! oh! -Ira-,e r, Quagmire
  • Chaotic42 - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - link

    D'oh!

    I just paid $177 each for two MP 2800s.

    Oh, well.
  • l3ored - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - link

    from what i read, a64 mobiles are just regular ones without the heatink
  • JGF - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - link

    oh well THATS encouraging....

    Actually I wasnt expecting PCI-E to be available for 939 until late summer and had pretty well convinced myself I didnt need it. Hopefully the PCI-E is being bumped up to rollout closer to 939 and 939 isnt being bumped back to accomodate PCI-E. >:(
  • TrogdorJW - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - link

    So I have a question: the Athlon XP Mobile chips are not multiplier locked. What about the Mobile (DTR) Athlon 64 chips? (Hey, I can dream, can't I?)
  • KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - link

    Hehe, to be honest, i think everyone is having problems getting PCI-Express to work. Thats what Intel has been delayed too.

    Kristopher
  • JGF - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - link

    Lord almight every month its 'in a month or so' wrt the 939 launch. Has it been pushed back from the June 1 Computex date now?????? I have half a mind to flip amd the bird and get a 3.4 ghz P4. >:(

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