When AMD launched its quad-core Phenom 9500 and 9600 processors in
November, the company priced them at a respective $251 and $283 - enough to
match the 9600 to Intel's Core 2 Quad Q6600. The 9600 wasn't a flawless opponent
to the Q6600 to begin with, but with the advent of the TLB patch (which AMD has
advised motherboard makers to force on by default in their latest BIOSes), it is
at a significant performance disadvantage compared to Intel's cheapest quad-core
offering
Perhaps in light of this problem,
pricing for Phenom chips seems
to have quietly gone down at some online retailers. Newegg
currently prices the Phenom 9500 at
$199.99 and the Phenom 9600 at
$245.99, while Mwave lists respective prices of
$205 and
$245 for the same chips. Other sites we checked still list
the old prices, but this drop at two prominent online retailers
suggests AMD may have updated its pricing strategy.
With the TLB patch applied, AMD's Phenom 9600 is about 30% slower than the Core
2 Quad Q6600. The price drop makes it 12-13% cheaper, which isn't a terrible
deal-especially not for folks who already have a compatible Socket AM2+
motherboard.
