The impact of Ivy Bridge on current processor pricing

Sandy Bridge Price Tracking – i5 2500K

The 2500K, since January 2011 when it was released, has represented the sweet spot of high end but value conscious gaming performance. Demand has always been very high.

Since its introduction at a price of £170 the 2500K has held its value remarkably well at £165. It suffered a couple of notable periods of decline in price, just before the launch of Bulldozer and just before the launch of Ivy Bridge. Yet in both situations its prices bounced straight back up after the performance of both Bulldozer and Ivy Bridge was lower than expected. Intel did try and shift more 2500K chips prior to the Ivy Bridge launch but the price cuts were short lived. The 2500K has shed just 5% of its value since its launch all the way back in January 2011.

i3 2120

The i3 2120 dual core Sandy Bridge processor is highly popular, representing never before seen performance on a dual core that matches nearly all AMD quad cores. Ivy Bridge however had no impact on its pricing, since Intel were not interested in lowering i3 prices since the Ivy Bridge i3 replacements are still not ready to be shipped. The i3 2120 has shed about 20% of its value since launch day.