Desktop CPU sales see biggest decline in 30 years as AMD gains market share

[Daniel Sims]

The big picture: A new research report shows that desktop CPUs haven't escaped broader economic trends like inflation and falling product demand. The tech industry's Q2 numbers are down all over, and yet AMD is somehow coming off an excellent quarter, making gains on chief rival Intel.

Mercury Research reports (via Tom's Hardware) that last quarter's desktop CPU shipments saw their biggest year-on-year decline since the group started keeping records in 1994. One researcher suspects this is the largest decline since 1984. The report suggests reduced OEM inventory and falling demand are the primary driving factors.

As the pandemic economy appears to be ending, that declining demand has manifested in bad reports in various areas. Intel lost half a billion dollars amid a 22 percent year-over-year revenue decline. Nvidia's gaming revenue dropped by one-third. Phone shipments fell for the fourth consecutive quarter, Chromebook shipments decreased 50 percent year-over-year, and growth for tablets flattened. One of the only companies that did well was AMD.

Earlier this month, AMD reported a 70 percent year-over-year increase in revenue that briefly made it more valuable than Intel. Mercury's report is also upbeat regarding AMD, showing their market share growing against Intel's in multiple areas.

AMD's slice of the desktop PC pie grew 2.3 percent from the previous quarter and 3.5 percent year-over-year. Mercury thinks AMD managed to dodge the forces that hurt Intel here.

In notebook and mobile CPU shipments, falling demand led to year-over-year declines for AMD and Intel, but impacted AMD less. Thus, AMD experienced a 2.3 percent quarterly gain and a 4.8 percent annual gain in market share against Intel.

Team Red made similar gains in server unit market share – 2.3 percent quarter-over-quarter and 4.4 percent year-over-year – representing AMD's biggest quarterly gain in servers since Mercury's records in that segment began in 2017.

Similar trends appeared in last month's Steam hardware survey, where AMD's CPU share rose 2.22 percent over the previous month.

Both Intel and AMD plan to launch new desktop CPUs this year. AMD's Ryzen 7000 series will be available next month, while Intel's 13th generation processors could launch in October. AMD also has new Epyc server chips planned for later this year, while Intel delayed its Sapphire Rapids server CPUs, likely into 2023.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/95611-desktop-cpu-sales-see-biggest-decline-30-years.html

 

[nnguy2]

Subae is on fire!

 

[umbala]

Oh come on, Intel already has a solution for this problem: raise prices!

 

[psycros]

Funny thing: don't give people affordable new products for a long time and they realize they can do without them.

 

[George Keech]

Funny thing: don't give people affordable new products for a long time and they realize they can do without them.

I mean unless your a high end gamer or professional. there are loads of cheap CPUs that are still very capable from even 5 years ago

 

[dragosmp]

My experience is that there simply is nothing on the market to be bought on the enperprise market. I wait for PCs months and for whatever reason only 5th gen Ryzen and at best 11th gen Intel are available (yes need to buy the Intels too as they come with some GPU configs that the AMDs don't, and no, I can't build custom). 1st get Threadrippers found their way in my company, but ever since discontinuing those, new Threadripper Pros seem to appear only on youtube and review sites.

I have a feeling it's a supply issue, but of course can't be sure. The supply moreover I have a feeling is constrained by lack of motherboards, which may be way to complex nowadays and some IC being late messes everything up.

We'll see, there's a lot of demand

 

[Nobina]

Funny thing: don't give people affordable new products for a long time and they realize they can do without them.

Unfortunately, I only realize I don't need a new product once I buy it and after 3 days of the initial hype I don't care about it anymore.

 

[Tantor]

Interesting article, and it may be true. The threats against Taiwan have to be deeply troubling for the industry.

 

[Faelan]

Unfortunately, I only realize I don't need a new product once I buy it and after 3 days of the initial hype I don't care about it anymore.

lol…

Been there, done that, got a stack of t-shirts…

I’m getting much better at it though. At least it’s now on my list of things to consider. It’s one of the reasons why I canceled my Steam deck reservation. As cool as the concept is, I just don’t see myself using it much after the initial 1-2 weeks of geeking out with it. It’s also why I hate when I have to make snap decisions because of things like availability or price. I prefer to wait out the initial excitement of “omg, this is so cool, I want it!”, because I’ve discovered that sometimes it’s more the thought of buying said product that excites me than actually using the darn product.

 

[Roddy_K]

As the old saying goes,"what goes up, must come down." Or "nothing last forever".

 

[mbk34]

I'd like to of bought components for a whole new system but the price of a new GPU has simply been too high. I feel it's pointless building a new system without a new GPU so I just read the reviews and patiently wait for things to get better. It obviously doesn't help that we're in a recession either.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Funny thing: don't give people affordable new products for a long time and they realize they can do without them.

Nailed it. Sha' Bang.

 

[Irata]

The tech industry's Q2 numbers are down all over, and yet AMD is somehow coming off an excellent quarter, making gains on chief rival Intel.

Imho, there are two factors here:

1. AMD is supply constrained, so lower relative losses in a contracting market
2. Upgrading your CPU in an existing system is more attractive vs building an all new system in times of economic uncertainty. Particularly when prices for upgrade options go down.

That‘s where AM4‘s long term support pays off.

 

[Uncle Al]

It's the all too typical business cycle running it's process .... next quarter it will change yet again ....

 

[Avro Arrow]

This is just for desktop CPUs. The REALLY profitable market segment is server chips and Intel still has nothing that can compete with EPYC.

 

[BigMeatyClackers]

Yeah I still got taht delidded 8700k

 

[texasrattler]

Let's not use words like the pandemic is ending. It's not and it's not even close to. It may never end.
You can say the restrictions are ending in some places but the pandemic, no it is not. Covid and other diseases will be around for awhile, may even get worse before anything gets better.
Polio was found in New York. Thats a rare disease these days but it's here now. Let's hope that doesn't spread or mutate with another disease.
War is here and with it come diseases. World better start realizing n preparing. Cause it won't be a joke when it's comes home.

 

[MasterMace]

This is entirely meaningless of a number, as it is right before the next generation of the top seller

 

[Biostud]

Looking forward to upgrading my 5820k to a 7800X3D

 

[Puiu]

It was obvious that the covid PC/laptop buying craze would die out eventually.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

It was obvious that the covid PC/laptop buying craze would die out eventually.

Exactly. Companies and people have finally realized that it's human to be exposed to our environment, and does nothing but kill the immune system to isolate. So the whole buying craze for being at home has stopped. Add inflation to the mix and it was bound to happen. It's going to be a rough few years for business. On the flip side, I'm seeing inventories growing again and when they start having dead stock, the deals begin. Well, deals relative to today.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Let's not use words like the pandemic is ending. It's not and it's not even close to. It may never end.

It's possible may never end, but the odds are against that being the case. Humanity suffered through far more dangerous diseases than COVID without our modern medical technology like smallpox and bubonic plague. Those diseases make COVID look like a joke in comparison and our medical science makes the medical science of just 50 years ago also look like a joke in comparison. I'm not at all worried.

You can say the restrictions are ending in some places but the pandemic, no it is not. Covid and other diseases will be around for awhile, may even get worse before anything gets better.

That's very possible. The refusal of some people to protect themselves against it has given it a foothold as well as several chances to mutate. As for other diseases, other diseases have always been around and we're still here.

Polio was found in New York. Thats a rare disease these days but it's here now. Let's hope that doesn't spread or mutate with another disease.

Polio was found in New York because of the fools who weren't vaccinating their children. I was vaccinated against polio, as was pretty much everyone of my generation. You'll never be able to stop people being stupid but there will never be enough people not getting vaccinated to make polio a serious issue. Most people will simply be immune to it.

War is here and with it come diseases. World better start realizing n preparing. Cause it won't be a joke when it's comes home.

If war is coming, with the tech we have, we'll all be dead anyway so who cares? War brings far worse things than diseases, like nuclear holocaust.

 

[texasrattler]

It's possible may never end, but the odds are against that being the case. Humanity suffered through far more dangerous diseases than COVID without our modern medical technology like smallpox and bubonic plague. Those diseases make COVID look like a joke in comparison and our medical science makes the medical science of just 50 years ago also look like a joke in comparison. I'm not at all worried.

That's very possible. The refusal of some people to protect themselves against it has given it a foothold as well as several chances to mutate. As for other diseases, other diseases have always been around and we're still here.

Polio was found in New York because of the fools who weren't vaccinating their children. I was vaccinated against polio, as was pretty much everyone of my generation. You'll never be able to stop people being stupid but there will never be enough people not getting vaccinated to make polio a serious issue. Most people will simply be immune to it.

If war is coming, with the tech we have, we'll all be dead anyway so who cares? War brings far worse things than diseases, like nuclear holocaust.

I wasn't referring to war against a country, that's already going on. War will happen in US because of divide of the people. The country is so divided that people will choose one side or another. The US is at a tipping point, if it's not careful, it's people will uprise and that is something no one should want to see.
Diseases come with War. Just cause we've seen and been through it before doesn't mean we'll be rdy. A simple disease could easily mutate with another when the situation is just right, War can cause that type of situation. While people may survive, a lot would die from a War then possibly starving or dirty water, finally a disease.

Covid could be that one virus that mutates into the global killer that ppl truly fear. Or maybe it was just the first of many viruses to come, who knows but science doesn't know as much as we think.

 

[sac39507]

Because people are now having real problems like gas and food, especially here in Communist California.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I wasn't referring to war against a country, that's already going on. War will happen in US because of divide of the people. The country is so divided that people will choose one side or another. The US is at a tipping point, if it's not careful, it's people will uprise and that is something no one should want to see.
Diseases come with War. Just cause we've seen and been through it before doesn't mean we'll be rdy. A simple disease could easily mutate with another when the situation is just right, War can cause that type of situation. While people may survive, a lot would die from a War then possibly starving or dirty water, finally a disease.

Like I said though, any major war would involve nuclear weapons and that would make any disease irrelevant because you can't really classify someone as sick if they're already dead. It would be an extinction-level event for us so I don't think that disease would be something that I'd be worried about at that point. Come to think of it, I don't think that I'll be worrying about anything if I'm killed by radioactive fallout.

Covid could be that one virus that mutates into the global killer that ppl truly fear. Or maybe it was just the first of many viruses to come, who knows but science doesn't know as much as we think.

I think that I'd be more afraid of Ebola becoming more easily transmitted than COVID becoming deadlier.