New CPUs And Price Cuts Expected By Intel

According to Digitimes we can expect plenty of price cuts in the months ahead as well as several new product introductions and discontinuations of older products.

Changes are expected right around the corner. October 19 is the first date to mark on the calender with the launch of the new core 2 Duo E7400. Price cuts are also expected on that day for the Core 2 Quad Q8200, Quad Q6600, Duo E7300, and Pentium E2220 and E2200 processors. The expected pricing for these processors was not mentioned however the cuts should make for some happy consumers.

November will be the month to watch that is when it is expected that Intel will release its previously announced next-generation of processors under the Core i7 branding .

According to reports there are initially only three Core i7 processors expected in 2008 and they will target upper mainstream and performance users. The Core i7 965 XE will be an Extreme Edition processor running at 3.20 GHz, featuring an 8 MB cache and will be priced at $999. The Core i7 940 will run at 2.93 GHz, feature an 8 MB cache and cost $562. The most affordable Core i7 will be the 920, with a 2.66 GHz clock-speed, an 8 MB cache and a $284 price-tag. All three processors feature four-cores, a 130 W TDP and will offer a substantial performance increase over current Core 2 processors.

At the end of November we see the next lineup change with the introduction of three new processors. The Core 2 Quad Q8300 will launch at a price of $224 and will offer a clock-speed of 2.5 GHz with a 4 MB cache. Alog with the new Quad core offering we'll see the value priced Pentium E5300, at $86, featuring a 2.6 GHz clock-speed with a 2 MB cache. Lastly, the low end Celeron E1500 will be released with a 2.2 GHz clock-speed and will be priced at $53.

January of 2009 Intel will introduce the Core 2 Duo E7500 processor, which will have a clock-speed of 2.93 GHz and be priced at $133. Intel will also continue to slash prices on its Core 2, Pentium and Celeron brands. The Core 2 Quad Q8200 will see a small drop from $193 to $183, the Core 2 Duo E7400 will drop to $113 from $133, the Pentium E5200 will drop from $84 to $76, the Pentium E2220 will drop from $84 to $64 and the Celeron E1400 will drop from $53 to $43.

Along the way it is reported that Intel will discontinue several of its Core 2, Pentium and Celeron processors, news that may come as a relief to those of you that already have a hard time selecting a processor.

Sources: Tom's Hardware - Digitimes