AMD passes Intel as the most popular choice among Puget Systems customers

[midian182]

TL;DR: AMD's march from "second-choice option" toward parity with Intel in the CPU space continues, and nowhere is that better illustrated than in the sales data of Puget Systems. The custom computer builder recently saw team red's processors appearing in more than half the systems it builds. That's an especially impressive feat as the company previously dropped AMD CPUs from its configurations because they were so unpopular.

Seattle-based Puget Systems, which specializes in high-performance workstations, writes that AMD processors appeared in over half its PCs back in 2006. But Intel started dominating the market following the launch of its Core 2 processor line. Just under a decade later, Puget quietly dropped AMD CPUs from its configuration options amid falling sales numbers.

Puget re-introduced AMD processors to its systems in 2017, and while the processors did spend two more years with a single-figure share, that started to change in late 2019. This was soon after the Ryzen 3000 series arrived, which offers high core-counts and blistering performance at a much lower cost that Intel's HEDT chips.

The launch of the Threadripper 3000 chips gave the company another boost. Being perfect for content creation, engineering, and data science workflows while costing less than Intel's Xeon range meant more Puget customers opted for an AMD-powered system, leading to red chips becoming the most popular option.

AMD has long been eroding Intel's share of the CPU market, though Q4 saw Chipzilla claw back share for the first time in three years—mostly due to AMD's processor shortages.

Despite the gains, AMD is estimated to hold just 20% – 30% of the overall CPU desktop space, but according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey, the gap between it and Intel gets a little smaller every month.

Thanks, Tom's Hardware

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88889-amd-passes-intel-most-popular-choice-among-puget.html

 

[Achaios]

If it wasn't for AMD, Intel would still sell monocore with HT (TM) CPUs for laptops, Duo-Core CPUs for ultra high end laptops and the most a mainstream enthusiast would have been able to buy would have been 4 Core 8 Thread Haswell derivatives such as the 2018 7700K.

Intel would charge you exorbitant amount of money to buy a 6 core CPU and triple charge you for a special mobo to run it, and they would charge you over $1k for an 8 core CPU.

If I were a suit high-up in Intel, I would be having daily nightmares of a certain East-Asian woman.

 

[Tom Yum]

You also see it in the Amazon sales charts (https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/pc/229189/ref=psdczbs_229189_t0_B08166SLDF), AMD processors are consistently the majority of the top 10 and top 5. Currently Ryzen 5600X and 5800X are number 1 and 2, which shows there is supply, just not enough to meet demand. 3/4 of the Intel processors in the top 10 are old 9th gen parts on clearance. Mindfactory in Germany is similar. But at the end of the day, the DIY market remains a very small piece of the much larger CPU market pie, pre-builds ultimately are the main market for CPU's. That is why AMD has been pushing so much stock at OEM's at the expense of the DIY market, reliability of supply for OEMs is critical, whereas the DIY market is less effected (other than damage to mindshare). From memory, AMD has double the number of design wins for 5000 series Ryzen mobile than they did for 4000 series, which was double to that of the 3000 series. I don't expect AMD to change course on prioritising OEMs first, though I do hope supply continues to improve.

 

[Digitalzone]

I look at my local HW store and no AM4 CPUs with iGPU is stocked... Since no relevant GPUs are available, this makes big advantage to intel. AMD should integrate GPU into Ryzens much more. At least just something decent for OS and media, dont get why they market APUs with competitive GPUs when just basic performance is needed.

 

[Puiu]

I look at my local HW store and no AM4 CPUs with iGPU is stocked... Since no relevant GPUs are available, this makes big advantage to intel. AMD should integrate GPU into Ryzens much more. At least just something decent for OS and media, dont get why they market APUs with competitive GPUs when just basic performance is needed.

They will most likely move towards that, but when they started with Ryzen they had only Vega GPUs and they'll most likely need more time for cheap RDNA2 or 3 APUs. Production is fully booked right now and it doesn't make economic sense outside of laptops.

 

[VitalyT]

If it wasn't for AMD, Intel would still sell monocore with HT (TM) CPUs for laptops, Duo-Core CPUs for ultra high end laptops and the most a mainstream enthusiast would have been able to buy would have been 4 Core 8 Thread Haswell derivatives such as the 2018 7700K.

Not true, ARM would have reigned supreme instead.

 

[Irata]

Not true, ARM would have reigned supreme instead.

When Intel only have one target, they crush that quite easily - AMD with Athlon, all non x86 server CPU....

Their problem right now is having to go up against several threats. Even with very deep pockets that is a problem.

 

[8600M GT]

If it wasn't for AMD, Intel would still sell monocore with HT (TM) CPUs for laptops, Duo-Core CPUs for ultra high end laptops and the most a mainstream enthusiast would have been able to buy would have been 4 Core 8 Thread Haswell derivatives such as the 2018 7700K.

Nah, if AMD had never existed, Cyrix, VIA, or Transmeta likely would still be in the x86 market in some quantity. VIA was shipping a quad-core chip in 2011; if nothing else they would have pushed Intel to have quad core mobile chips some time in the past decade.

Not saying it isn't a good thing we've got AMD around, but their absence likely would have opened up the door for at least one of the other x86 vendors to survive... in part due to greater opportunity for those vendors, and in part because Intel would be inviting anti-trust suits if their last competitor died out.

 

[Avro Arrow]

They will most likely move towards that, but when they started with Ryzen they had only Vega GPUs and they'll most likely need more time for cheap RDNA2 or 3 APUs. Production is fully booked right now and it doesn't make economic sense outside of laptops.

I don't think that having RDNA APUs are a real priority right now because, let's face it, very few gamers buy APUs, so few in fact, that they're almost statistically zero. However, for non-gaming tasks, the tasks for which the overwhelming majority of APUs are purchased, the Vega IGPs are far more than adequate.

Hell, the POS that my work gives me to use (that I'm typing on right now) is hoplessly, even hilariously, outdated. I'm talking about a Lenovo ThinkCentre with an Intel Core2Duo E8400 and (I think) an Intel GMA X4500HD chipset-based IGP. I haven't been able to identify the actual GPU model but the Wolfedale E8400 launched in January of 2008. The Intel GMA X4500HD was released in June of 2008 and this IGP is capable of 1080p so I must assume that it's the X4500HD included with the Intel G45 chipset. Now, using Passmark, we can get an idea of how strong an IGP needs to be for non-gaming purposes:

Intel GMA X4500HD (Intel G45 Chipset): 61 G3D Marks
nVidia GeForce 8200 (nForce Chipset): 79 G3D Marks
ATi Radeon HD 3200 (780G Chipset): 82 G3D Marks
Intel HD 3000 (i7-2600K): 259 G3D Marks
ATi Radeon HD 6620G (AMD Llano Mobile A8-3500M): 374 G3D Marks

I think it's pretty clear that there should be absolutely no issues for non-gaming applications starting with Sandybridge's HD 3000. So, let's see what we get with the weakest of the Vega IGPs, the RX Vega 3:

ATi Radeon RX Vega 3 Mobile (AMD Athlon 200GE): 900 G3D Marks

The lowest-scoring RX Vega IGP is almost 15x as potent as the IGP that's in my work computer, the piece of crap that I use every day in the office because the corporation I work for has tech morons procuring them. An RDNA-based IGP won't make a lick of difference to anyone using non-gaming applications. If someone has to hang their gaming ambitions on an IGP, they should just get a console and be done with it because AMD has far bigger problems to worry about than people complaining that their IGP isn't RDNA-based when Vega works just fine.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

You also see it in the Amazon sales charts (https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/pc/229189/ref=psdczbs_229189_t0_B08166SLDF), AMD processors are consistently the majority of the top 10 and top 5. Currently Ryzen 5600X and 5800X are number 1 and 2, which shows there is supply, just not enough to meet demand. 3/4 of the Intel processors in the top 10 are old 9th gen parts on clearance. Mindfactory in Germany is similar. But at the end of the day, the DIY market remains a very small piece of the much larger CPU market pie, pre-builds ultimately are the main market for CPU's. That is why AMD has been pushing so much stock at OEM's at the expense of the DIY market, reliability of supply for OEMs is critical, whereas the DIY market is less effected (other than damage to mindshare). From memory, AMD has double the number of design wins for 5000 series Ryzen mobile than they did for 4000 series, which was double to that of the 3000 series. I don't expect AMD to change course on prioritising OEMs first, though I do hope supply continues to improve.

Your post is very interesting to me as I've been salivating at buying a Ryzen 5000 series laptop now. Everywhere they are selling them they are already sold out or out of stock. What is this about the doubling of "design wins" going from 4000 to 5000 series? Can you expand and even better still post a link to that information?

 

[Tom Yum]

Your post is very interesting to me as I've been salivating at buying a Ryzen 5000 series laptop now. Everywhere they are selling them they are already sold out or out of stock. What is this about the doubling of "design wins" going from 4000 to 5000 series? Can you expand and even better still post a link to that information?

I have to apologise, checking back it was 50% more design wins than the 4000 series, not double (~100 to over 150 apparently). Info came from a Lisa Su interview Anandtech did, https://www.anandtech.com/show/1640...on-2021-demand-supply-tariffs-xilinx-and-epyc was where I got that info. Remember a design win is just an OEM saying 'we will make a particular computer model using an AMD 5000 CPU'. It might take 6 months for that deisgn to become available on the market.

I remember when Renoir first came out AMD said they had over 100 design wins, but I had to wait a few months for laptops to start coming out. Even 3 months afterwards there was only a couple of Renoir laptops I could buy, but now there are heaps. The same will be true for 5000 series mobile. That is something Intel seems to do better, ensuring OEMs are ready to release products as soon as a CPU is launched.

 

[punctualturn]

I fought the mods there over and over, because even though their articles and benchmarks kept showing AMD cpus were faster, when you went to the store side, they always recommended Intel CPU's.

At least, their customers knew better.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I have to apologise, checking back it was 50% more design wins than the 4000 series, not double (~100 to over 150 apparently). Info came from a Lisa Su interview Anandtech did, https://www.anandtech.com/show/1640...on-2021-demand-supply-tariffs-xilinx-and-epyc was where I got that info. Remember a design win is just an OEM saying 'we will make a particular computer model using an AMD 5000 CPU'. It might take 6 months for that deisgn to become available on the market.

I remember when Renoir first came out AMD said they had over 100 design wins, but I had to wait a few months for laptops to start coming out. Even 3 months afterwards there was only a couple of Renoir laptops I could buy, but now there are heaps. The same will be true for 5000 series mobile. That is something Intel seems to do better, ensuring OEMs are ready to release products as soon as a CPU is launched.

Well, regardless of that, no matter which Ryzen craptop is purchased, they're amazing. I've found that my craptop, which only has an R5-3500U, is very fast. Now, I don't think that it's a speed demon but that's not the fault of the craptop. It's because I use my R5-3600X-based desktop a lot more and there's really no comparison between a desktop-grade Ryzen 2 6-core CPU and a craptop-grade Ryzen+ 4-core APU. However, if I only had the craptop, I know that I'd be very satisfied with it, especially since it's a huge upgrade from an old A8-3500M.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I fought the mods there over and over, because even though their articles and benchmarks kept showing AMD cpus were faster, when you went to the store side, they always recommended Intel CPU's.

At least, their customers knew better.

AnandTech has been known for decades as being very Intel-centric. They're not as bad as they used to be (because reality does have some influence on their attitudes, if not much) but they're kinda like "QAnon for Intel" over there.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

I have to apologise, checking back it was 50% more design wins than the 4000 series, not double (~100 to over 150 apparently). Info came from a Lisa Su interview Anandtech did, https://www.anandtech.com/show/1640...on-2021-demand-supply-tariffs-xilinx-and-epyc was where I got that info. Remember a design win is just an OEM saying 'we will make a particular computer model using an AMD 5000 CPU'. It might take 6 months for that deisgn to become available on the market.

I remember when Renoir first came out AMD said they had over 100 design wins, but I had to wait a few months for laptops to start coming out. Even 3 months afterwards there was only a couple of Renoir laptops I could buy, but now there are heaps. The same will be true for 5000 series mobile. That is something Intel seems to do better, ensuring OEMs are ready to release products as soon as a CPU is launched.

Ah, thank you for clarying. So, a design win is going from 100 different OEM designs to over 150 OEM designs because everybody wants Ryzen now just as much, if not more so, than Intel. I was thinking technical changes in the architecture that made Zen 3 so much better than Zen 2. Even if it's not a doubling I know that Zen 3 is gonna be amazing. I know from all the research I have done I have absolutely zero interest in an Intel based laptop right now. The Ryzen 5000 series just looks too good to pass up at the moment. It's probably even better bang for buck. I gotta be patient just a little bit longer I guess.

 

[punctualturn]

AnandTech has been known for decades as being very Intel-centric. They're not as bad as they used to be (because reality does have some influence on the attitudes there, if not much) but they're kinda like "QAnon for Intel" over there.

And Nvidia! They surely love Nvidia!

Same reasons why I no longer follow Linus. I still remember when he did that video on the rainy streets of HK, crying because he saw that his preferred sponsor was getting beat by AMD.

 

[Avro Arrow]

And Nvidia! They surely love Nvidia!

That kinda goes hand-in-hand for people without morals. I'm willing to bet that people who are left-leaning are also far more likely to hate Intel and nVidia.

Same reasons why I no longer follow Linus. I still remember when he did that video on the rainy streets of HK, crying because he saw that his preferred sponsor was getting beat by AMD.

Well, not exactly. He was crying because Intel's introduction of the i9 and the X299 platform was terrible. He was like an abused spouse after getting smacked around.

I have to at least give Linus credit because he has at least admitted why he loves Intel. It's not that he loves the company itself, but he really loves the people who work for Intel with whom he interacts and with whom he has great working relationships. I can see how that could affect a person's perspective and so I give him a pass on that. I also LOVED his reaction to nVidia's blacklisting of Steve and Tim. It was the second time that I've seen someone named Linus telling nVidia to go "LOVE" themselves. Man, I got a real kick out of seeing that. I had to watch it several times because it refused to get old and it still refuses to get old even today:

 

[punctualturn]

That kinda goes hand-in-hand for people without morals. I'm willing to bet that people who are left-leaning are also far more likely to hate Intel and nVidia.

Well, not exactly. He was crying because Intel's introduction of the i9 and the X299 platform was terrible. He was like an abused spouse after getting smacked around.

I have to at least give Linus credit because he has at least admitted why he loves Intel. It's not that he loves the company itself, but he really loves the people who work for Intel with whom he interacts and with whom he has great working relationships. I can see how that could affect a person's perspective and so I give him a pass on that. I also LOVED his reaction to nVidia's blacklisting of Steve and Tim. It was the second time that I've seen someone named Linus telling nVidia to go "LOVE" themselves. Man, I got a real kick out of seeing that. I had to watch it several times because it refused to get old and it still refuses to get old even today:

I saw that part where he defended Steve and applaud him for it.

But his next video could had been a nice knife twisted on nvidias back, like telling his minions how nvidia has screwed their own customers or something like that, but instead, it was simply business as usual.

about loving his contacts at intel, sorry but thats BS.

those people would get a nice job somewhere else given their talent, assuming the miracle of intel dying overnight happened.

 

[hahahanoobs]

This is a very good start for AMD, but it's OEM's that matter. Hopefully those orders pick up at a more rapid pace.

 

[Bobbydpue]

If it wasn't for AMD, Intel would still sell monocore with HT (TM) CPUs for laptops, Duo-Core CPUs for ultra high end laptops and the most a mainstream enthusiast would have been able to buy would have been 4 Core 8 Thread Haswell derivatives such as the 2018 7700K.

Intel would charge you exorbitant amount of money to buy a 6 core CPU and triple charge you for a special mobo to run it, and they would charge you over $1k for an 8 core CPU.

If I were a suit high-up in Intel, I would be having daily nightmares of a certain East-Asian woman.

Did you forget all the years of AMD putting out poor performing products with low prices? You think AMD kept their prices low because they cared about their customers? AMD was the low price choice because they had to be. Once AMD has another couple of years of competitive products they will price their products just as high as intel used it if not higher, I mean what Intel desktop CPU costs $800 MSRP? Where would AMD be without intel? Would AMD have pushed as hard if they were on top?

AMD doesn't make their own CPU's they pay someone else to do it. It's much easier to design a CPU than it is to design and manufacturer a CPU. Intel would have been much farther along if their fab could have kept up with their designs. AMD's old fab hasn't caught up with TSMC or Samsung either and it's still making CPU's no more dense than Intel's second gen 14nm CPUs.

 

[Bobbydpue]

I don't think that having RDNA APUs are a real priority right now because, let's face it, very few gamers buy APUs, so few in fact, that they're almost statistically zero.

Of course they don't because they aren't good enough to game at 1080p. If they were good enough so many people would buy them. I would buy one and use that as a travel computer. Can you image how small and relatively cheap a gaming computer could be with such a powerful iGPU.

 

[Bobbydpue]

And Nvidia! They surely love Nvidia!

Same reasons why I no longer follow Linus. I still remember when he did that video on the rainy streets of HK, crying because he saw that his preferred sponsor was getting beat by AMD.

That entire video had nothing to do with AMD, it had to do with a "new" CPU coming out that wasn't new or exciting or interesting. AMD rarely paid for any sponsor spots which is why they didn't do many AMD sponsored videos, but Intel certainly did.

 

[Shadowboxer]

Well there’s not a surprise really is it. AMD are the new Intel, they have the fastest parts and the highest prices. These companies will always swap around at the top. Although I must say Intel did manage to just pull off 15 years or so at the top and that was a bad thing. I hope to god we don’t get AMD on top for 15 years now, we need the title to be changing hands frequently

I must also say Puget do well for a boutique system builder to regularly feature for indirect marketing in the tech press. There’s an enormous retailer that probably builds a lot more systems (albeit office type stuff) than Puget about 20 mins walk from my house but I’ve never seen them mentioned in the tech news.

 

[punctualturn]

Did you forget all the years of AMD putting out poor performing products with low prices?

Do you remember why they ended doing that?

A big part of that was thanks to Intel illegal tactics, including bribing Dell to do not sell AMD parts.

Intel f*cked AMD so bad that AMD had to sell their headquarters and the lease them just to cut expenses.

 

[punctualturn]

That entire video had nothing to do with AMD, it had to do with a "new" CPU coming out that wasn't new or exciting or interesting. AMD rarely paid for any sponsor spots which is why they didn't do many AMD sponsored videos, but Intel certainly did.

But thats my point, I cant trust the dude or what comes out of his mouth when is not honest.