How much do Ivy Bridge CPUs actually cost?

The $225 figure given for most standard voltage dual core CPUs on ark.intel.com is obviously a lie. If Intel actually sold everything from the i3-3110M to the i5-3340M for $225, every mainstream laptop would come with the i5-3340M standard, regardless of how little or how much the laptop costs.

What's also strange is how everyone from tech enthusiasts to review sites seems to just accept the $225 figure at face value...

 

Ebay is usually a good way to find the market price for mobile cpus. I think I got my i7-3610qm for ~$200 around 9 months ago.

 

It's worth what someone is willing to pay for it; ebay is a good indicator of that.

You can also look at places like Amazon and Newegg; here's the latter's mobile processor page:
Mobile Processors, Laptop Processors, Notebook CPU - Newegg.com

Notebook makers get bulk pricing because they buy in bulk. The prices you see on ark.intel.com for example are tray pricing (1,000 units/tray).

Intel got in trouble a few years ago for pricing its processors to suppress competition:
The lawsuit that's Intel's worst nightmare - August 21, 2006

 

Not sure if they're still doing it, but I'm pretty sure I read that Intel also used to give big batches of processors (hundreds of thousands or more) to OEMs, maybe calling them "engineering samples" or something to hide the fact that they were essentially a way of bribing the manufacturers to keep Intel's lock on the market. Considering how bad most OEM's have been about using AMD APUs in quality notebooks, I wouldn't be surprised if they're still pulling tricks like that.

I used to like Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy, until I realized how the objectivists of the world, like Intel, compete.

 

Just to clarify, I want to know what the bill of materials cost for an Ivy Bridge CPU is to an OEM, not the price you and I would have to pay if we wanted to buy one separately. If iSuppli can figure out how much a proprietary CPU like Apple's A6 costs, this should be easy.

 

Intel's site lists costs. i7-3630QM for example: ARK | Intel® Core is $378. I'm sure it's much cheaper though for OEM, and definitely confidential, just like any other mass produced commodity, from OEM to OEM. Although as noted eBay is a good representation of market value and OEM pricing is likely about 10-20% lower since they buy in much larger volume.

i7-3630QM eBay pricing is about $260, and I'm sure OEM's get them for less than $200 each. There's no way to know for sure unless you're in purchasing for the OEM.

 

This is indeed a good question, but I think it's going to be hard to determine because the contracts between Intel and OEMS are not made public information, and while the $225 figure may be correct per unit, it's also very likely that Intel gives rebates or free samples in large numbers so that the check made out to Intel has little actual relation to the bottom-line cost for OEMs. It's also very possible that Intel signs agreements with OEMs that they will charge more for higher-level processors even if the unit cost is the same. They may cost the same to manufacture so Intel's happy to charge the same unit price as long as the OEMs will differentiate the pricing for the end-user.