AMD hits record 25.6% share of the overall x86 market

[nanoguy]

In brief: The PC processor market grew to 500 million units in 2021 thanks to continuing strong demand from consumers and organizations for faster, more capable machines. AMD’s overall share of the x86 market is still growing, but it’s unclear if the trend will continue this year.

AMD continues to make gains in market share against Intel in the x86 processor market. According to a new report from Mercury Research, Team Red in Q4 2021 enjoyed a 25.6 percent share of the overall market for CPUs built on the x86 architecture, the highest it’s seen since 2006. It’s also a 3.6 percent year-over-year increase, which isn’t bad considering the ongoing chip shortage.

To put things in context, AMD has been gaining market share against Intel for 11 quarters in a row, especially when it comes to PC, console, and IoT x86 products. The only exception was in the area of desktop and laptop processors, where Intel managed to claw back some market share in the three months ending in December 2021. This was mostly thanks to Tiger Lake mobile parts and a combination of Rocket Lake and Comet Lake desktop products.

Luckily for AMD, its server shipments helped it reach a 10.7 percent market share, and this is the 11th quarter where it chipped away at rival Intel’s foothold in this area. Demand for consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S and Sony’s PlayStation 5 also remained high, contributing to AMD’s overall market share in Q4 2021. The findings are echoed by an Omdia report, except for AMD’s server CPU share being estimated at 18.3 percent as opposed to 10.7 percent in the analysis made by Mercury Research.

Also worth noting is that the overall x86 market grew 16 percent in 2021, with almost 471 million units shipped across all categories. Mercury Research also notes that SoCs for Chromebooks and Apple Silicon Macs totaled 29 million units, most of them being of the latter variety.

Intel boss Pat Gelsinger isn’t concerned with AMD’s gains, and believes the latter company is “in the rearview mirror” following the release of the Alder Lake family of CPUs. Team Blue does seem to have some compelling 12th generation processors to sway buyers away from AMD, but we’ll have to see how they stack up against upcoming offerings from Team Red.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93342-amd-hits-record-256-share-overall-x86-market.html

 

[Dimitriid]

Only 10% on servers is both understandable but criminally low for how aggressive Epyc chips are on that market but it's almost impossible to get data centers to even consider switching away from intel thanks to both years or even decades of established business partnership and anti-competitive tricks from intel locking out as many people as they can into overall deals and not just single server sales.

 

[envirovore]

Good for them, and here's hoping to see that continuing to rise.

 

[wiyosaya]

sIntel "AMD is in the rear-view mirror"

 

[wiyosaya]

Only 10% on servers is both understandable but criminally low for how aggressive Epyc chips are on that market but it's almost impossible to get data centers to even consider switching away from intel thanks to both years or even decades of established business partnership and anti-competitive tricks from intel locking out as many people as they can into overall deals and not just single server sales.

When those same people realize that AMD is in some of the top HPC/Supercomputers, they will come around, IMO. Data centers run notoriously expensive equipment. I bet it is more budget related, however, when the time comes to buy new equipment, I think that anyone paying attention will notice.

 

[psycros]

When those same people realize that AMD is in some of the top HPC/Supercomputers, they will come around, IMO. Data centers run notoriously expensive equipment. I bet it is more budget related, however, when the time comes to buy new equipment, I think that anyone paying attention will notice.

One would think, but most companies aren't run by people who put common sense first.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Mercury is reporting drops in both AMD desktop and mobile. Both have been dropping since Q4 2020. Consoles making up the remaining .5% to break their record.

Newegg and Best Buy top CPU lists are already looking quite blue. Amazon US has 3 entries in the top 10. Amazon Japan is already 80% blue overall apparently. Germany and UK at 50/50. ADL also picking up the pace at MindFactory.

In the next year or two we'll see if AMD really has it in em and if Intel can compete in server.

 

[Sausagemeat]

This will probably start to decline from now as the 12th gen is superior to the Ryzen 5000 series on both performance and price. If AMD doesn’t have an answer for Alder lake in the next few months it will set AMD back quite some way. But to be honest that’s how we will get cheaper prices from them.

But it’s good to see that the data here is consistent with that of the steam survey.

 

[punctualturn]

Well done AMD.

In spite of all the bribes that intel send to dell, other OEMs, websites to blindly promote the furnace that is alder lake and of course, everyone most beloved shill, Fake Linus at LTT.

 

[Sausagemeat]

When those same people realize that AMD is in some of the top HPC/Supercomputers, they will come around, IMO. Data centers run notoriously expensive equipment. I bet it is more budget related, however, when the time comes to buy new equipment, I think that anyone paying attention will notice.

I used to work as a systems engineer and what customers pay for with data centers is not performance per dollar. What consumers want is support. They want to know that if their system fails that it will be fixed in due course to prevent loss of income, they will use whichever of AMD and Intel can do this. Companies often sell data Center solutions as a service contract. They pay X amount and they get a data Center that does the job for a set period of time, they don’t usually buy a set amount of chips and hardware etc themselves unless they are very large and have the in-house expertise to implement and support it. The cost of chips by comparison to the cost of support and all the other hardware is tiny.

 

[Puiu]

Only 10% on servers is both understandable but criminally low for how aggressive Epyc chips are on that market but it's almost impossible to get data centers to even consider switching away from intel thanks to both years or even decades of established business partnership and anti-competitive tricks from intel locking out as many people as they can into overall deals and not just single server sales.

10% of total servers, not of chip sales in that Q

 

[Puiu]

This will probably start to decline from now as the 12th gen is superior to the Ryzen 5000 series on both performance and price. If AMD doesn’t have an answer for Alder lake in the next few months it will set AMD back quite some way. But to be honest that’s how we will get cheaper prices from them.

But it’s good to see that the data here is consistent with that of the steam survey.

I was expecting 12th gen to have higher adoption rates, but it's been fairly slow. AMD's Zen4 should be enough as Intel's 13th gen is only expected to be an incremental upgrade (a bit more cache and more E cores).

 

[kiwigraeme]

I was expecting 12th gen to have higher adoption rates, but it's been fairly slow. AMD's Zen4 should be enough as Intel's 13th gen is only expected to be an incremental upgrade (a bit more cache and more E cores).

Think about it - most people now who want a new PC will now buy a GPU first - then they know the motherboard / CPU are easy buys - may even be 2022 models ,
It's the GPU that makes the most difference for most people - having a shiny new PC and no GPU for 6 months plus is sad .

Saying that - someone on a slow PC - get a cheap level 12 Intel chip , cheapest m/b M2 drive , cheapest memory - throw in old GPU - are probably super happy .

I want to upgrade my 3rd family PC - will be completely based on reason priced next gen GPU - so maybe 18 months away - the next gen will be much better in a large number of areas - fps/watt . RT and encoding ( Nvidia is stagnating here at moment )

 

[Dimitriid]

When those same people realize that AMD is in some of the top HPC/Supercomputers, they will come around, IMO. Data centers run notoriously expensive equipment. I bet it is more budget related, however, when the time comes to buy new equipment, I think that anyone paying attention will notice.

I've given this some thought and I think that while AMD might continue it's slow but steady reclaiming of server market share, there's still some skullduggery within the intel trick book.

For example, Alder Lake. It's well understood that those chips are good performers, in fact while AMD doesn't release the 5800X3D fairly low competition unless you're willing to put money down for the very top of the line 5950x and understandeably that's a very specific chip: only there for people who know that they need 16 cores 32 threads.

However one thing I always point out is how the Ryzen 5000 series was undisputed through over a year even when intel tried and failed to compete with 11 gen chips.

However just scroll through the (Understandeably clickbait but nevertheless) titles and discussion here in tech spot. It's all about how "Alder Lake is DESTROYING AMD" and how AMD should really lower their prices and are losing again. I am not saying this was intentional but because of how the internet works, most reviewers are pretty much following what intel's own Patrick Gelsinger came out and said "Oh AMD is in the rear-view mirror now"

This is probably enough to convince more than a few consumers that they should invest in Alder Lake and assume AMD won't be able to surpass them since intel went with a different release cycle to AMD's as a result of trying to catch up to AMD.

Yet what matters is the perception and that's enough for intel to claw back market share, without a concrete, long term technological advantage just a temporary one with clever marketing and release dates.

I suspect we will see this a lot on the server world because it's likely to work much, much better on large, long term investments where intel doesn't really need for a Xeon to be a better product than an Epyc platform, they just need to make sure they are aware of AMD's release schedule (Easy to do right now due to widespread manufacturing shortages) and be there in time with a Xeon that edges out a meager, definitively not long term victory over the current top-of-the-line Epyc chips and they will be able to renew overall deals for potentially another 10 years.

 

[Sausagemeat]

I was expecting 12th gen to have higher adoption rates, but it's been fairly slow. AMD's Zen4 should be enough as Intel's 13th gen is only expected to be an incremental upgrade (a bit more cache and more E cores).

Intel 12th gen has only been out for about 2 months, I think we need to give it a chance. But the gaming groups on FB where people love posting their new RGB clad builds are mostly posting 12th gen rigs now and not 5000 series anymore. It also takes a few months for the prebuilt market to catch up, there are still dozens of prebuilts available with the 11th gen inside of it. At current pricing you would have to be a pretty savage team red fanboy to go for them over Alder lake. Especially with the very recent release of B660. If I could get a 3060 for MSRP id order an i5 12400F with a B660 board For less money than the MSRP of a 5600X by itself.

I hope AMDs 6000 series can beat Alder lake, if it doesnt then we are back to square one. Although it may mean AMD will finally cut their massive prices that they jacked in with the 5000 series, which I call the “faster than Intel tax”.