The battle between two of the biggest motherboard manufacturers is heating up.
After Intel launched its new Core i9-10900K CPUs, AMD slashed the price of its Ryzen 9 3900X CPU. Previously available at $500, you can now get the AMD processor for $410 on Amazon.
Wondering what this means?
Well, Intel’s 10th generation CPUs are currently priced at $500 for 10 cores, which clocks the per-core cost at $50. After the price reduction, however, the cost of each AMD Ryzen 9 3900X core stands at $35 only. In other words, the AMD core is $15 cheaper than that of Intel’s.
Intel’s 10th Gen CPUs still have an advantage over Ryzen 9 3900X
All is not lost for Intel as the Core i9-10900K does offer better gaming performance due to its higher clock speeds. Furthermore, the increasing popularity of AMD‘s processors has resulted in the motherboards selling rapidly causing limited availability.
But, it still isn’t enough to win the battle.
You see, the Ryzen 9 3900X has a more rounded approach that makes it faster in other aspects (except for the gaming performance), thanks to the 12-Core/24-Thread CPU that is built on TSMC’s 7nm process. It also features AMD’s Zen 2 processing power and a maximum 4.6GHz boost clock.
The fact that you only have to spend $35 per core definitely makes it a value-for-money purchase on the whole.
A pricing war on the cards?
With the Ryzen 9 3900X quickly establishing itself as the best-selling processors of AMD, Intel is definitely on shaky grounds. This sudden price cutdown might cause a possible pricing war between the two motherboard manufacturers.
Intel might be tempted to offer discounts on its processors – provided they choose to reply to AMD’s move. Also, as the price on Amazon is dynamic, the channel discounts approved by AMD still isn’t clear.
Moreover, the pressure on Intel will only increase as AMD plans to launch Zen 3 by the year-end, which experts predict will be even more affordable.
It’ll be interesting to see what this battle between the hardware giants has in store for the customers.