World's second largest chip maker AMD has declined to support the newly-launched chip standard Sysmark 2012 and quit the benchmark body, BAPCo, saying it did not accurately reflect the performance of its chips.  Sources said the move could lead to dip in prices of computers by as much as five per cent.

The SySmark benchmark is used to measure performance by PC makers, hardware and software developers, IT departments, system integrators, publishers and testing labs.  The Sysmark benchmark is used to produce chips with very high scores but many times may have unnecessary components, which increase the price of the chips, sources said.

Now, AMD would be free to produce chips without subscribing to the benchmark, which could bring down prices. Business Applications Performance Corporation (BAPCo) has members like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Samsung, Seagate, Sony, Toshiba among others.

"Technology is evolving at an incredible pace and customers need clear and reliable measurements to understand the expected performance and value of their systems. AMD does not believe SM2012 achieves this objective," AMD senior vice president and Chief Marketing Officer Nigel Dessau said in a statement.

Hence, AMD cannot endorse or support SM2012 or remain part of the BAPCo consortium, Dessau added. AMD believes benchmarks should be constructed to provide unbiased results and be transparent to customers making decisions based on those results, the company said.

Currently, AMD is evaluating other benchmarking alternatives, including encouraging the creation of an industry consortium to establish an open benchmark to measure overall system performance, it added.

Taiwanese chipset manufacturer Via and US-based graphics card maker Nvidia have also quit BAPCo on the issue.