Intel slashed prices on some desktop PC microprocessors by more than half on Thursday, raising the stakes against rival AMD, which cut prices earlier this week. Users should see the price reductions translate into substantially lower prices for powerful desktop PCs in coming months.

Intel marked down the price of its Intel Pentium D processor, the 960 that runs at 3.6GHz, to $316, down 40 percent from $530 in early June, according to a new price list published Thursday on its Web site.

The company also chopped prices on some of its Intel Pentium 4 processors that support hyperthreading technology. It marked down the 3.6GHz version of the processor that has an 800MHz front side bus to $183, down 54 percent, the 3.2GHz model of the chip by 61 percent to $84, and the 3GHz version by 58 percent to $74.

Intel also cut prices on some laptop processors, but none by more than 1 percent. Prices of server and workstation processors remained unchanged.

Intel's new July 27 price list can be found at http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pricelist/July_27_06_1ku_Price_Final_web.pdf