This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use

In a shocking price cut, Intel trimmed the price of the Q6700 Core 2 Quad processor in half, and trimmed the price of other processors by as much as 30 percent.

In all, Intel reduced the price of fourteen processors, ranging from the mainstream desktop to its Xeon line for servers. The company also introduced several new models.

The most noteworthy reduction, however, was the Q6700, now priced at $266, down from $530. Intel also slashed the price of the corresponding Xeon processor, the X3230, in half as well, to $266 as well. Both chips run at 2.66 GHz, and include an 8 Mbyte cache. The company also launched the Core 2 Duo E8300 (6M Cache, 2.83 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB) at $163, and the Core 2 Duo Processor E7200 (3M Cache, 2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) at $133.

Intel did not give any specifics as to the reasons for the cuts, which the company usually attributes to seasonal pricing adjustments. “We continue to provide greater value to users over time, as we’ve been doing for many years,” Intel spokesman Dan Snyder said in an email. “Also, 45nm continues to ramp at a rapid pace, with shipment cross over sometime in Q3’08.”

Intel’s 45-nm fabrication processes theoretically allow the company to produce its processors more cheaply than rival AMD, which said last week that it will begin shipping volume shipments of 45-nm parts this summer, with products appearing in the fall. To maintain its profit margin, AMD has had to play an increasingly complex game of minimizing its manufacturing costs while maintaining as high as selling price as possible, in order to fund future development and manufacturing.

Intel also trimmed the price of the Q6600, a 2.40-GHz quad-core chip, from $266 to $224, a difference of 16 percent. The price of both the Q6700 and Q6600 are now even more in the ballpark of AMD’s Phenom processor, and the reductions will place even more pressure on AMD’s triple-core Phenom offerings.

The company also reduced the price of the E6850, a 3.00-GHz dual-core processor with 4 Mbytes of cache, from $266 to $183, a decline of 31 percent. All of Intel’s pricing moves were published on its Web site, and are summarized below.

CPU Previous Price Current Price % Change Intel® Core2 Quad Processor Q6700 (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) $530 $266 50% Intel® Core2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) $266 $224 16% Intel® Core2 Duo Processor E8300 (6M Cache, 2.83 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB) – $163 0% Intel® Core2 Duo Processor E7200 (3M Cache, 2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) – $133 0% Intel® Core2 Duo Processor E6850 (4M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB) $266 $183 31% Intel® Core2 Duo Processor E4600 (2M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) $133 $113 15% Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor E2200 (1M Cache, 2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) $84 $74 12% Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor E2180 (1M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) $74 $64 14% Intel® Celeron® Dual-Core Processor E1400 (512K Cache, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) – $53 0% Intel® Celeron® Dual-Core Processor E1200 (512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) $53 $43 19% Intel® Celeron® Processor 440 (512K Cache, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) $53 $44 17% Intel® Celeron® Processor 430 (512K Cache, 1.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) $44 $34 23% Intel® Celeron® Processor 570 (1M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 533 MHz FSB) – $134 0% Intel® Celeron® Processor 560 (1M Cache, 2.13 GHz, 533 MHz FSB) $134 $107 20% Intel® Celeron® Processor 550 (1M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 533 MHz FSB) $107 $86 20% Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X3230 (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) $530 $266 50% Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X3220 (8M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) $266 $224 16% Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 3085 (4M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB) $266 $188 29%

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 11:04 AM PDT with a summary table and more details from Intel.