Intel Core i9-9900K

[Hoonigan]

The bit I'm struggling to understand is the huge price hike in 8th Gen. CPUs.

For instance, look at this, which was launched at £359.99.


It's the case across all of the Intel CPUs at the moment.

Is this some pathetic attempt to make the 9th Gen. pricing scheme seem relevant?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The bit I'm struggling to understand is the huge price hike in 8th Gen. CPUs.

For instance, look at this, which was launched at £359.99.


It's the case across all of the Intel CPUs at the moment.

Is this some pathetic attempt to make the 9th Gen. pricing scheme seem relevant?

Maybe but also Apple switched to Intel exclusively to make their modems.

[watercooled]

I think it's distributor or retailer pricing rather than Intel. The media have been reporting on shortages of Intel CPUs for a little while now. I'd estimate partly due to having to make larger dies to remain competitive, and partly due to 10nm being so late so they're short of production capacity.

[Tunnah]

600 quid lol. Gotta give it to Scan, they're just shameless with the gouging.

[watercooled]

As long as there are mugs who will pay it...

[edmundhonda]

"Nevertheless, the Core i9-9900K's Cinebench performance is impressive for a 95W chip"

Come on. You know better than this!

[watercooled]

I didn't actually check that page out. That whole paragraph makes no sense and contradicts itself. It starts of saying the TDP is meaningless, then praises the CPU based solely on TDP. By that logic, Intel could release a chip with a 210W power limit, come up with an arbitrary TDP value and suddenly it looks far better than it actually is in efficiency charts. Oh wait, that's exactly what's happened.

It's quite clearly nothing like a '95W chip' if we're talking about task power consumption, and that TDP cannot in any way be used to discuss efficiency.

[badass]

I didn't actually check that page out. That whole paragraph makes no sense and contradicts itself. It starts of saying the TDP is meaningless, then praises the CPU based solely on TDP. By that logic, Intel could release a chip with a 210W power limit, come up with an arbitrary TDP value and suddenly it looks far better than it actually is in efficiency charts. Oh wait, that's exactly what's happened.

It's quite clearly nothing like a '95W chip' if we're talking about task power consumption, and that TDP cannot in any way be used to discuss efficiency.

Indeed. The paragraph is saying "this is clearly not a 95w chip. However its performance is really good for a 95w chip" WTF?

In fact the bang4watt graph is totally pointless. It should be based on measured power consumption, not TDP when no chip in the review has a power consumption that matches its TDP. Either that or restrict all CPU's to be only able to draw their TDP then measure performance to produce the bang4watt graph.

[philehidiot]

I think there are a few factors in the price. There's the "high end" tax where they've tried to look like they're adding new tech and new performance levels at a higher price for those who can afford it and retained the other tiers as before. Hence the "i9" and "Turing". This is of course a lie.

Then there's the Intel lack of supply due to 14nm capacity issues. Whether the price has been bumped by the OEM, the distributers or the retailers I dunno but my experience in returning a wrongly delivered pallet of wine back to the source tells me everyone's gonna take their cut along the way.

The other, final issue is, I hate to say it, Brexit. We've seen the Pound drop more than most foreign exchange risk calculations even dared to consider and so it's quite possible they're adding more onto the price at this stage so, if the Pound does drop further then they don't have to absorb the shock then and can do it now on their own terms. This way if it doesn't sell due to the excessive price they can drop it down a little and see what happens whereas if they increase the price later on after a renewed drop in the Pound then their options have been removed. A few entities along the chain will have a foreign exchange risk percentage added and so if they increase this further, you can easily see a significant increase in end-consumer price.

Edit: I apologise for the sheer quantity of commas. I've been drinking and evidently need to pause for thought regularly.

[watercooled]

If it was an exchange rate issue, it would be affecting AMD CPUs or indeed other components, which it clearly isn't. At least not besides the usual fluctuations, and not nearly enough to cover the price gouging of the Intel parts.

I've just checked the pricing of even i3's and that's shot right up too!

[philehidiot]

If it was an exchange rate issue, it would be affecting AMD CPUs or indeed other components, which it clearly isn't. At least not besides the usual fluctuations, and not nearly enough to cover the price gouging of the Intel parts.

I've just checked the pricing of even i3's and that's shot right up too!

That depends on the chain of exchange rates; where things are manufactured and where the distribution centres are. AMD may be less exposed and on top of that may be taking more of a risk by not increasing prices now and waiting to see what happens. It's only a hypothesis but one based on covering for future risks rather than sitting on the current rate and increasing prices if and when they have to. I would expect Intel to be less consumer friendly in this regard and AMD to be more so.

[Percy1983]

2700x it is then... when ram prices come down... oh well.

[Bagpuss]

That depends on the chain of exchange rates; where things are manufactured and where the distribution centres are. AMD may be less exposed and on top of that may be taking more of a risk by not increasing prices now and waiting to see what happens. It's only a hypothesis but one based on covering for future risks rather than sitting on the current rate and increasing prices if and when they have to. I would expect Intel to be less consumer friendly in this regard and AMD to be more so.

Well your hypothesis is wrong. All computing products are purchased in Dollars from the manufacturers. I know some people just want to blame Brexit on everything because its a nice and easy excuse, but these price rises are far,far in excess of any exchange rate flucuations.

[Rad77]

Calling a £600 CPU "mainstream" is hilarious - nice try Intel. And I completely agree that basing the efficiency score on the TDP is pointless, especially in this case where the TDP just looks like a typo. Maybe they got Principled Technologies to calculate it for them...

[badass]

That depends on the chain of exchange rates; where things are manufactured and where the distribution centres are. AMD may be less exposed and on top of that may be taking more of a risk by not increasing prices now and waiting to see what happens. It's only a hypothesis but one based on covering for future risks rather than sitting on the current rate and increasing prices if and when they have to. I would expect Intel to be less consumer friendly in this regard and AMD to be more so.

Where exchange rate risk applies, there are derivatives that can hedge. Two examples I can think of are currency futures or put options. In both cases you are "buying" the right to sell a currency at a fixed price at a fixed point in time. The reverse is of course also true (call options - the right to buy at a fixed price). The way these can be used can be illustrated by the below example:

Company A is American, Company B is British.

A has a contract to sell 1000 units to B at £10 each. The problem is that the contract is due to be excersised in 6 months time. The exchange rate is around $1.30 to £1. If the contract were to be fulfilled today, A would get appx $13,000. Say it costs them $11,000 to make those units. $2,000 Profit, yay!

Now imagine that over 6 months the pound loses 23% of its value. It's now £1 to $1. A only gets $10,000. $1,000 loss through currency movements.

To eliminate this risk, A purchases £10,000 worth of put options at a strike price of £1.30 at the date they will sell the items to B

Now, if the pound loses 23% of this value, A can excersise the option, take the £10,000 from B, sell it via the option at $13,000 A makes $2,000 profit minus the cost of the options.

If the pound gains value, the option becomes worthless. It is left to expire. However they had insurance in case it declined. IIRC more than 80% of options never get excersised.

[philehidiot]

Well your hypothesis is wrong. All computing products are purchased in Dollars from the manufacturers. I know some people just want to blame Brexit on everything because its a nice and easy excuse, but these price rises are far,far in excess of any exchange rate flucuations.

I would suggest that "all computing products" is probably unlikely. Still, assuming this is correct, so there's no exchange anywhere aside from dollars to pounds? Which will be subject to the foreign exchange risk. The entire hypothesis isn't incorrect therfore, only the bit about accumulation of exchange risk along the chain. And no, I don't blame Brexit for everything. In fact, I'd blame the Pound dropping on lots of other factors and then a sudden drop being triggered by "project fear". I found it hilarious that the remain march in London got loads of space and the headline on the BBC website whereas the counter march in Harrogate got a single line. There's also another biased article about CBI projections today. A lot of the problems associated with Brexit are a result of confidence being shaken by constant fear mongering and we really need to be taking a far more balanced approach lest we end up in a poor position in negotiat...... ahhhhh, damnit.

Moving on from my rant, the above loss of confidence due to "project fear" is exactly the kind of thing which leads to the behaviour I have outlined - i.e. being overcautious to protect profits. The other thing is that the Pound to Dollar rate has been on the way down for some time (well before Brexit which is actually a small drop if you look at the 5 year trend, gonna guess that printing a load of free money didn't really help it) and so again, the possibility of another trigger of a swift dop would possibly be enough for them to try and protect profits now on their own terms.


EDIT: Badass - my brain is currently half dead as it's still technically a morning and so I'll read that again when I'm less of a zombie.