Intel cuts prices by up to 48 percent

The prices of five different versions of the Intel Core 2 Quad processor were cut by as much as 40 percent, with the 3GHz Q9850 dropping from $530 (£380) to $316. Meanwhile the 2.33GHz Q8200 dropped in price by 16 percent, from $193 to $163.

The Pentium Dual Core processor line also saw price cuts, with the 2.5GHz E5200 chipset having a cut of 24 percent from $84 to $64.

Mobile Celeron processors saw the biggest single fall, with the 2.26GHz Celeron 570 dropping by 48 percent from $134 to $70. Four other chips in the range had smaller but still substantial cuts, ranging from 19 percent to 35 percent.

Other ranges saw more limited cuts. Only one out of the eight Core 2 Duo chipsets, for example, saw a price cut.

Intel's price cuts had been expected because of last year's introduction of AMD's Phenom II and Shanghai processors, which have been gaining ground against Intel's processors in the gaming market and the mainstream systems market. The Shanghai processor has been adopted by large companies such as IBM, HP, Fujitsu, Dell and Sun.