Originally Posted by
tajoh111
I don't think you got the point.
The point is AMD does not make an incredible amount of profit when they sell their top end chip for 225 dollars because the cost of the chip itself and R and D. It also doesn't help that these chips are not made by them, but by a third party. This 50 dollar price drop has removed a huge portion of the profit margin on this chip that probably had lower margins than the competition in the first place. What the point of selling a million chips if you are making pennies on each one.
AMD needs new technology so that they can bring the price of their average chip up, so they can create larger margins and make more profit. AMD was at its most profitable when their average chip price was high. Everyone knows this. AMD was losing the most money when its average price was at its lowest because of the paper thin margins on each chip sold.
Although the economy is bad, if you make a fast enough chip, people will still buy. Especially if you have affordable MB and ram to accommodate it.
This is the scenario NV is in at the moment they have an expensive chip but they have to sell it for very low margin because the competition is strong and they cannot let AMD gain marketshare.
However the situation AMD is in, they cannot afford this approach because they do not have piles of extra cash nor do they have a tremendous marketshare to lose which is why this approach is used in the first place.
Cheap chip for all benefits everyone but the company.