Intel has quietly reduced the prices of its Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids" server processors just four months after their launch, according to media reports.

One of the most notable price reductions is for Intel's flagship 128-core Xeon 6980P, which has seen a 30% decrease in price, dropping from $17,800 to $12,460.

Three out of the five Granite Rapids processors have had substantial price cuts. The 96-core Xeon 6972P and 6952P models have seen their prices lowered by 13% and 20%, respectively.

This strategic pricing reduction has positioned Intel's processors below AMD's competing EPYC "Turin" 9755 128-core CPU both in total cost and cost per core, thereby heightening the competition between these two semiconductor giants in the data center market.

Currently, AMD's 128-core SKU is priced at $12,984, whereas the 192-core EPYC 9965 CPU, based on the Zen 5c core, is available for a price of $14,813 for a higher-core model.

However, while Intel's competitive pricing is attractive, it comes with a trade-off. The power consumption of Intel's processors is notably higher, with the 96-core Xeon 6972P requiring 500W, which is 100W more than AMD's equivalent models. This increased power consumption could negate the initial cost savings due to higher operational expenses.