2000/04/17
Processor: 1000MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 9
First Page Average: $1268.78
Cheapest Offer: $1139
Availability Assessment: Coming close to reaching a full page on Pricewatch, a good sign.
Processor: 950MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 7
First Page Average: $902.86
Cheapest Offer: $789
Availability Assessment: Large drop in price, and it's catching up rapidly with the GHz Athlon in terms of # of offers
Processor: 900MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 26
First Page Average: $745.67
Cheapest Offer: $708
Availability Assessment: Big jump from last week -- the Athlon 900 can now be considered "in volume", at least in terms of a high end part.
Processor: 850MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 47
First Page Average: $534.67
Cheapest Offer: $472
Availability Assessment: Strong jump on an already generally available part. Average price dropped in excess of $100 since a week ago!
Processor: 800MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 67
First Page Average: $402.17
Cheapest Offer: $355
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability, roughly a $65 drop in average price since last week
Processor: 750MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 73
First Page Average: $296
Cheapest Offer: $265
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability, roughly a $30 drop in average price since last week
Processor: 700MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 80
First Page Average: $213.42
Cheapest Offer: $205
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability, roughly a $20 drop in average price since last week
Processor: 650MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 82
First Page Average: $180.83
Cheapest Offer: $175
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability, roughly a $20 drop in average price since last week
Processor: 600MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 89
First Page Average: $163.33
Cheapest Offer: $159
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, no meaningful change in status
Processor: 550MHz AMD Athlon
Category count: 53
First Page Average: $149.08
Cheapest Offer: $139
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, no meaningful change in status
Processor: 866MHz Intel Pentium III
Category count: 12
First Page Average: $975.17
Cheapest Offer: $909
Availability Assessment:
Processor: 850MHz Intel Pentium III
Category count: 8
First Page Average: $913
Cheapest Offer: $793
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability, roughly a $25 drop in average price since last week
Processor: 800MHz Intel Pentium III
Category count: 39
First Page Average: $702
Cheapest Offer: $693
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability, roughly a $35 drop in average price since last week
Processor: 750MHz Intel Pentium III
Category count: 69
First Page Average: $525.92
Cheapest Offer: $500
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability since last week
Processor: 733MHz Intel Pentium III
Category count: 54
First Page Average: $468.67
Cheapest Offer: $420
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability since last week
Processor: 700MHz Intel Pentium III
Category count: 82
First Page Average: $391.5
Cheapest Offer: $374
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability, roughly a $35 drop in average price since last week
Processor: 666MHz Intel Pentium III
Category count: 64
First Page Average: $314
Cheapest Offer: $275
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability since last week
Processor: 650MHz Intel Pentium III
Category count: 85
First Page Average: $271.83
Cheapest Offer: $285
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability, roughly a $30 drop in average price since last week
Processor: 600MHz Intel Pentium III
Category (e, b, eb,) count: [ 23 + 46 + 45 + 38 = ] 152
First Page Average: $356.33
Cheapest Offer: $248
Availability Assessment: Cripes, this thing is everywhere! Darn expensive, though -- went substantially up in average price since last week.
Processor: 550MHz Intel Pentium III
Category (e) count: [ 44 + 61 = ] 105
First Page Average: $224.83
Cheapest Offer: $214
Availability Assessment: All over the place! And much more expensive than it was last week.
Processor: 550MHz AMD K6-2
Category count: 36
First Page Average: $92.17
Cheapest Offer: $75
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock, healthy increase in availability since last week
Processor: 533MHz AMD K6-2
Category count: 25
First Page Average: $73.92
Cheapest Offer: $59
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock
Processor: 500MHz AMD K6-2
Category count: 61
First Page Average: $50.75
Cheapest Offer: $45
Availability Assessment: Pretty much in stock, but decreased in number and increased in average price
Processor: 475MHz AMD K6-2
Category count: 16
First Page Average: $51
Cheapest Offer: $46
Availability Assessment: In low volumes, and decreasing in number!
Processor: 600MHz Intel Celeron
Search count: 2
Processor: 566MHz Intel Celeron
Search count: 9
Processor: 533MHz Intel Celeron
Category count: 43
First Page Average: $105.17
Cheapest Offer: $100
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock
Processor: 500MHz Intel Celeron
Category count: 68
First Page Average: $90.08
Cheapest Offer: $88
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock
Processor: 466MHz Intel Celeron
Category count: 62
First Page Average: $79.83
Cheapest Offer: $74
Availability Assessment: Generally in stock
Availability graph (based on Category counts):
Processor Vendors
Athlon-1000 9.00
Athlon-950 7.00
Athlon-900 26.00
Athlon-850 47.00
Athlon-800 67.00
Athlon-750 73.00
Athlon-700 80.00
Athlon-650 82.00
Athlon-600 89.00
Athlon-550 83.00
PIII-866 12.00
PIII-850 8.00
PIII-800 39.00
PIII-750 69.00
PIII-733 54.00
PIII-700 82.00
PIII-667 64.00
PIII-650 85.00
PIII-600 152.00
PIII-550 105.00
K6-2-550 36.00
K6-2-533 25.00
K6-2-500 61.00
K6-2-475 16.00
Celeron-600 0.00
Celeron-566 0.00
Celeron-533 43.00
Celeron-500 68.00
Celeron-466 62.00
Cost graph (based on First Page Averages):
Processor Price
Athlon-1000 1268.78
Athlon-950 902.86
Athlon-900 745.67
Athlon-850 534.67
Athlon-800 402.17
Athlon-750 296.00
Athlon-700 213.42
Athlon-650 180.83
Athlon-600 163.33
Athlon-550 149.08
PIII-866 975.17
PIII-850 913.00
PIII-800 702.00
PIII-750 525.92
PIII-733 468.67
PIII-700 391.50
PIII-667 314.00
PIII-650 271.83
PIII-600 356.33
PIII-550 224.83
K6-2-550 92.17
K6-2-533 73.92
K6-2-500 50.75
K6-2-475 51.00
Celeron-533 105.17
Celeron-500 90.08
Celeron-466 79.83
For the Consumers
What happened? Did I miss a big AMD price change announcement? Several speed grades of the Athlon processor hurtled down as much as $100 or more (notably, the fastest speed grades). The speed grade distribution increased as well, with higher frequency parts increasing in availability by greater percentages than lower frequency parts.
Pentium III prices were fairly stable in comparison, though it is important to note that availability for these parts appear to have increased across the board. Despite this, it is a huge disappointment that the 1GHz Pentium III has not made an appearance, despite being introduced over a month ago.
Nonetheless, AMD is consistently winning in terms of prices at the high end. It is very seriously difficult to justify purchasing an 800MHz PIII when a more available 850MHz Athlon is a hundred and fifty dollars cheaper.
The low end is a bit more complex. The Celerons -- especially the newer 180nm models -- are more pricey than the K6-2 chips, but much easier to acquire. On top of that, the K6-2's lackluster floating point performance and lack of high frequency level two cache ... well, you know the story.... ;)
For the Investors
Pricewatch is being a bit stingy. The 180nm Celerons have had listings for two weeks now, and are not being represented with categories. Nonetheless, it is important to note that Intel has a strong upper hand in the low end, being two small speed grades above AMD, and this will remain the case unless AMD is able to release their Spitfire product, whose release ranges from this coming week to two months hence.
I've been holding a belief that Intel will be announcing a strong first quarter. There are those who think that Intel will have low ASPs but will make up for that with large volumes. My approach/guess is that Intel's ASPs will be fine -- perhaps they have not had AMD's binsplits at the high end, but Intel's component prices have been much higher than those of their competitor.
Of course, I doubt the investors among you care very much about all this, given the current market condition. ;)
Actually, now that I think about it ... given the current market condition, we had better pray that large corps such as Intel make positive announcements!
For the Record
K6-2 binsplits increased a bit, I note. Not nearly enough to match Celeron availability, though.
Athlon is still binning quite a lot higher than the PIII. AMD is, at the high end, something like a speed grade and a half ahead of Intel, with the notable extreme of having 1000MHz part with a little less availability than the competition's 866MHz part. We'll see how this goes in the future, but for at least the next few months, this gap seems to be trending towards increasing in size.
AMD has a somewhat major process tweak coming out -- their Dresden copper interconnect HiP6L process decreases effective gate lengths by more than 15%, giving AMD a free speed grade or two (or more?). Intel doesn't have any process jumps planned for the near future. Their next big help for MHz ramping will be announced in the latter half of this year, but may only achieve real availability early next year.
I am, of course, speaking of the Willamette processor. AMD won't have any major new microprocessor designs to boost their MHz at that point, but there is word that they could start a 150nm when Willamette comes online for the DIY market, or soon thereafter. We'll have to see... jc-news.com
Milo |
