Intel is reportedly cutting the price of its Alder Lake processors for the second time this year to counter falling demand for gaming PCs. The cut will be the second discount offered to OEMs this year, as experts say the cut has already taken place at 10%. .
According to Digitimes, Intel is planning an additional 5% price drop for current-gen gaming processors in Q3 2022, including high-end i5 and i9 chips (via Tom’s Hardware). The post suggests the price drop is unprecedented, as the company typically only offers discounts on niche products and older processors.
Price drops in gaming PCs are generally a good thing, but Intel’s price cuts could bode badly for the industry. Digitimes reports that the top five prefab brands could cut orders by 80% as demand response is “much weaker than expected.” This may be due to enthusiasts refusing to buy a new PC because the best graphics cards and processors are still expensive. However, a global recession is brewing that could slow down sales in the near future.
2022 promises to be a busy year for PC gaming, with new Intel Raptor Lake CPUs, Nvidia RTX 4000 GPUs, and AMD RDNA 3 cards scheduled to launch in a few months.
However, the tech industry is seeing a widespread slowdown as even DDR5 RAM will drop in price (via The Register). Ultimately, the industry downturn could drive down the cost of gaming PCs, but we have to wait and see how the situation affects consumer prices.
Source : PC Gamesn
