Quote Originally Posted by highoctane View Post
Well you also have to consider the other factors such as voltage regulation and memory.
true,
so perf/watt is important since it means less: heatsink, vrms, PSU, and electric bill.
ive done the math before and comparing the mid range, the difference between good and bad (in real cases) came to 25$ across 18 months, which is quite significant and definitely a factor in purchasing.
between more common things the difference is about 5-10$ for the one with a little worse perf/watt, and thats just to the electric bill.

and the memory is probably not that much different, and not going to impact profitability nearly as much as the chip size does.

in the end the architecture is going to decide so many of the little things that end up going into the final cost.
looking at just price and just performance can give you what is now or what is predicted for a launch, but offers very little forecast into how it will evolve in the upcoming months when products shift, eol, or drop in price.