Advanced Micro Devices on Monday officially introduced new desktop microprocessor prices. Even though the price slash is not dramatic, the decision is projected the world’s second largest maker of chips to better position its products going forward. Unfortunately, the lack of any new high-performance processors for the high-end market is likely to limit AMD’s sales and margins this quarter.

The price drop of AMD’s dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 processors varies from 5% to 12%, which is not truly remarkable. Nevertheless, as a result of the price cut the top-of-the-range AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ now costs just $220 in 1000-unit quantities. Price reduction on several single-core AMD Athlon 64 chips is substantially more considerable and varies from 22% to 27%, making the Athlon 64 model 4000+ available for $58.

Besides slashing the prices on its already introduced microprocessors, AMD also added several new value and power-efficient central processing units (CPUs) into its price-list, performing the so-called “quiet” introduction. In addition, AMD removed certain processors from its lineup, possibly due to low demand.

Advanced Micro Devices plans to introduce new desktop AMD Phenom processors this year, which are expected to boost financial results of the company, which has been forced to slash pricing of its products for over a year to compete against Intel Core 2 chips, which typically offer higher performance compared to AMD Athlon 64.

AMD does not release any statements regarding its price changes.