For $1500, it's going towards a new Phenom or Agena FX, an RD790X chipset motherboard, and either an R670 or R700 graphics card.

They aren't making the Skulltrail to be sold in huge quantities. They're making it to be the fastest available. 

As with "special" edition graphics cards which are $100 more for not even 2% better performance. They give enthusiasts who are willing to pay top dollar for even the slightest gain, the best available.

This is why AMD hasn't released any "special" chipset. They're not in the position to. They aren't in the financial position (or performance for that matter), to charge more money for a chipset, when it can't out perform the competitor. 

People will pay big money for this, even if it has small gain. It's about envy, enthusiasm and always wanting the best. Even car companies charge thousands more for a "limited" package with gold trim, just because they want to FEEL elite.

So it is 10 times the price of my 6400+ chip and runs my applications how much faster?

Why would I spend 10 times the amount for something maybe twice as fast??

So my games will run an extra 10 or 20 FPS ??

I think not Mr Ottelini.


The above comment is pants. Everyone knows that performance doesn't scale with price in a linear fashion. You always pay a premium for the best. Part of that goes with speed binning, since speed bin yields tend to be a bell curve, you get far fewer dies that operate at the high end. Now pit your 6400+ against the Q6600 and you'd see a big difference (especially if you overclocked), and these CPU's are essentially the same price. You are also comparing a desktop chip to a server chip. So your comment is really not valid on more than one level

Remember, this chip is designed for servers.. where a almost 2x speed increase would be incredible.

I guess This is what happens when there is no competition.

Dude. It's a server part. If Intel prices server parts at a consumer-level price then what would happen to its server business?

Umm, Djinn, this *is* the direct result of competition. 

Maybe you don't remember the past decade or so where Intel would just roll off a new chip design and it would only give 10-15% improvement.

Second of all, the Extreme parts are all about brags and swagger amongst the Gaming Gliterrati - you won't need a $1,500 cpu, and you haven't needed one ever since AMD and Intel started doing this song and dance years back. 

Third of all, Intel, and AMD to some degree, have offered CPUs over a grand in years past. This isn't new phenomena.

All the same... it sure feels exhilerating to see a Ferrari Modena or Aston Martin Vanquish purr down the road. Just knowing stuff like these chips exist is fun.

Last time I checked, 1,500.00USD divided by 10 is 150.00USD. So, what $150 server chip is 1/2 the power of this quad core???

This isn't a server chip; it simply uses a server motherboard.

skulltrail is intended as a high end gaming platform. 'Nuff said.