Advanced Micro Devices was quick enough to respond to Intel Corp.’s recent price-cut on select quad-core and dual-core processors with its own price-slash on AMD Phenom II central processing units that have been available for only two weeks now. The world’s second largest maker of x86 chips reduces pricing not only because of Intel, but also because the demand towards high-tech products is falling globally.

According to various media reports citing AMD, the Phenom II X4 920 chip’s price is $195, whereas the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition processor costs $225, which is nearly 20% below the prices the company set two weeks ago in early January, when AMD formally launched its first 45nm desktop products. It worth attention that AMD’s official price-list on its web-site has not been updated the aforementioned central processing units still carry initial price-tags.

Just like almost every other company in the high-tech industry, AMD recently reduced its earnings projections. In the light of this fact, the price-cut on Phenom II processors two weeks after formal launch seems to be rather alarming for the company, as the price-reduction means lower average selling price (ASP) for the Sunnyvale, California-based company.

AMD Phenom II X4 processor previously code-named Deneb provides substantial performance uplift compared to previous-generation chip thanks to larger 6MB level-three cache, some improvements of micro-architecture, clock-speed increase thanks to 45nm process technology as well as future support for DDR3 memory (AM3 chips in AM3 platforms only). Overall, AMD expects about 20% real-world performance increase of the new central processing units (CPUs) compare to AMD Phenom.

Tags: AMD, Phenom, 45nm