In less than one month time, despite of some difficulties Advanced Micro Devices had with supplying the AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 microprocessors in quantities, its Athlon 64 3200+ processor fell in price from above $500 to below $400, according to X-bit labs Check Prices engine.

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor in Socket 754 form-factor is designed for performance-mainstream and high-end desktop computers and is officially quoted at $417 in 1000 units quantities. The chip runs at 2.0GHz and packs 128KB of L1 with 1MB of L2. AMD also offers a high-performance AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 processor for gamers and other customers demanding extreme levels of performance. The Athlon 64 FX-51 sports dual-channel PC3200 memory controller in contrast to a single-channel PC3200 controller of the Athlon 64 chip and comes in Socket 940 packaging, just like the Opteron microprocessors for servers and workstations. The Athlon FX-51 costs $733 in quantities from 1000 units and is also available now.

AMD’s 64-bit microprocessors are manufactured using 0.13 micron fabrication process with Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technology in AMD’s advanced Fab30 in Dresden, Germany. Analysts anticipated that the initial batches of products with SOI technology would not be good overclockers and their yields at sufficient speeds might be quite low, what also can be a reason for a relatively high cost of AMD64 chips. Once the yields improved, AMD started to get the prices lower so to push the 64-bit technology into the market.

Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices is renowned for its pushing the processors below official quote in an effort to sell the parts to its customers at lower price when compared to Intel offerings. This approach causes a number of problems in AMD’s channels and some resellers are not satisfied with the situation.

A reason why the AMD Athlon 64 3200+ microprocessors are available for a relatively low price may be the fact that AMD is preparing the launch of a higher-performance AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor, though, no one at AMD would confirm this information.

Related Quotes:

• AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 at X-bit labs Dealtime for $859.95 - $871.95;
• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ at X-bit labs Dealtime for $390 - $570.