Wall Street was figuring on about $1.44 billion in sales, up over 8%.

AMD also said that its Q4 operating income, which again it limited to chips, is "expected to be positive but substantially lower than in the third quarter."

It explained that its fourth-quarter gross margin and operating income were "impacted by significantly lower microprocessor average selling prices, which largely offset a significant increase in unit sales."

How bad all this is going to be - and where AMD hurts the most - will become clear on January 23 when AMD reports its numbers.

Intel is believed to have been cutting prices to clear as much its steep desktop inventory as it could to make way for its next-generation dual-cores.

AMD had previously made no clear revenue forecasts and only said that it expected sales to be "seasonally strong" and the fourth quarter is usually a doozy.

AMD shares in what remained of after-hours trading were pushed down over 2%.