AMD products now account for over 50% of premium CPU sales

[midian182]

Why it matters: It's no secret that since the launch of its Ryzen processors, AMD has been clawing CPU market share away from leader Intel. In its latest financial report, CEO Dr. Lisa Su revealed this has been happening for ten quarters in a row, or 30 months, and the company now has “more than 50 percent of premium processor sales at many top global etailers.”

Last year brought several indicators that AMD was taking the fight to Intel in the desktop CPU space, having seen its market share increase every quarter since Q2 2017. Illustrating the popularity of team red’s processors was a survey showing they were preferred by 60 percent of Europeans. There is also the fact that Amazon’s ten best-selling CPUs in the US consist of eight AMD products.

AMD posted a record Q1 2020 revenue of $1.79 billion. While that’s up 40 percent compared to the same period last year, it’s down 16 percent from the previous quarter. Su cited Covid-19 factors, including reduced supply chains and closed retail stores in China for the QoQ downturn.

“PC demand in the rest of the world was strong, offsetting the softness in China,” said Su. “Client processor revenue grew significantly year-over-year as strong Ryzen processor demand resulted in significant double-digit percentage increases in unit shipments and ASP. As a result, we believe we gained client unit market share for the tenth straight quarter.”

Su added that demand for Ryzen 3000 and the previous-generation Ryzen 2000 chips were strong, with both CPU lines making up more than 50 percent of sales at many top online retailers.

AMD is also making strides in the laptop segment, where Ryzen Mobile 4000 is helping it to "strong double-digit percentage year-over-year."

With the global pandemic causing many product delays, there was concern the disruption could affect the launch of Zen 3 and RDNA 2 GPUs, but Su says these are still on track.

Looking forward, AMD says it expects weaker consumer demand in the second half of 2020, but still projects yearly revenue growth of 25 percent.

In other AMD news, an internal roadmap from the company has shown DDR5 and native USB 4.0 support arriving in 2022.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/85030-amd-products-now-account-over-50-premium-cpu.html

 

[psycros]

Create a good product at a fair price and the majority of the public will flock to your brand. A shame other companies (and even whole industries) seem have forgotten this simple truism that's been around since Adam Smith.

 

[BadThad]

Capitalism at work! Build a better product at better prices and people will buy.....it's quite simple really.

 

[picka]

Good for AMD. 40% increase YOY is massive.

 

[psycros]

Create a good product at a fair price and the majority of the public will flock to your brand. A shame other companies (and even whole industries) seem have forgotten this simple truism that's been around since Adam Smith.

I hate to split hairs but its more like the free market at work. Capitolism takes it to a new level that often leads to market manipulation, collusion and price gouging (to say nothing of taxpayer-funded bailouts).

 

[Fobus]

I hate to split hairs but its more like the free market at work. Capitolism takes it to a new level that often leads to market manipulation, collusion and price gouging (to say nothing of taxpayer-funded bailouts).

"market manipulation, collusion and price gouging" by definition is part of the free market. After all, if you're are not allowed to do all those things, are you really free? On the flipside, if you do those things, then your competitors are not free anymore. People need to stop idolizing free markets, because there's no such thing.It's a utopian idea used to justify selfish and nefarious behaviour.

 

[VitalyT]

The woman that clipped Intel's nuts.

 

[Uncle Al]

Now the elephant in the room is how long AMD will continue before they start raising prices. Remember, in the early days Intel was VERY competitive until they got to the point they thought everyone would HAVE to meet their demands ......

 

[Lew Zealand]

We're already there. The R9 3900x and R9 3950x are not cheap and while prices for the R5 3600 through R7 chips are slowly coming down, their introduction prices were a bit higher than everyone expected. Still low enough to generate demand, but none were obvious steals. AMD knows how to do business.

 

[neeyik]

The R9 3900x and R9 3950x are not cheap

They absolutely are for what you're getting. Go back to the Opteron days, and look at the prices for 12 core CPUs:

AMD's 12-core "Magny-Cours" Opteron 6174 vs. Intel's 6-core Xeon

www.anandtech.com

Sure they were server processors and we are, of course, 10 years on from there. But to get a 4.6 GHz 12 core CPU for less than $435 is remarkably cheap from where I'm sitting, given that's just $36 more than what I had to pay for my 9700K a year and a half ago.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I guess the problem is that I'm too cheap. You're right though, the 12C24T 3900X is very nice for $435, I still had $500 and limited availability on the brain.

 

[Irata]

Capitalism at work! Build a better product at better prices and people will buy.....it's quite simple really.

In principle, yes..but if there are other players who make an offer that cannot be refused, it no longer works that way. You can't really buy what is not being sold.

Sort of like the mob operates minus the physical kneecapping.

 

[Irata]

"market manipulation, collusion and price gouging" by definition is part of the free market. After all, if you're are not allowed to do all those things, are you really free? On the flipside, if you do those things, then your competitors are not free anymore. People need to stop idolizing free markets, because there's no such thing.It's a utopian idea used to justify selfish and nefarious behaviour.

No, collusion, bribes and threats are not part of the ideal free market as they reduce other economic players' freedom.

That's like saying arson, armed robbery and murder are part of an ideal free society.

Freedom != anarchy / lawlessness

 

[Nobina]

Now the elephant in the room is how long AMD will continue before they start raising prices. Remember, in the early days Intel was VERY competitive until they got to the point they thought everyone would HAVE to meet their demands ......

If that happens then just don't buy 'em until it makes sense. You'll probably have Intel selling for cheaper as the underdog.

 

[Evernessince]

"market manipulation, collusion and price gouging" by definition is part of the free market. After all, if you're are not allowed to do all those things, are you really free? On the flipside, if you do those things, then your competitors are not free anymore. People need to stop idolizing free markets, because there's no such thing.It's a utopian idea used to justify selfish and nefarious behaviour.

You misunderstand the meaning of free market. A free market is free because customers have choice without undue influence of market control from the players.

If there is rampant market manipulation then it isn't a free market but the market could still extol other values as part of the ideology.

Mind you just like Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism, Free Market is an ideology. The translation from paper to reality means that actual implementation will vary.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

If you can't beat them, make them join... any bets on hostile offer by Intel? Yeah, capitalism.

 

[Adi6293]

I guess the problem is that I'm too cheap. You're right though, the 12C24T 3900X is very nice for $435, I still had $500 and limited availability on the brain.

Remember Intel's 6950X for $1700? That was only a 10 core chip : - ) Now tell me that Ryzen 9 is expensive, 3950X beats intel's 10980XE in many tests and its $250 cheaper

 

[Lew Zealand]

Remember Intel's 6950X for $1700? That was only a 10 core chip : - ) Now tell me that Ryzen 9 is expensive, 3950X beats intel's 10980XE in many tests and its $250 cheaper

Both can be expensive, with one being a notably better deal than the other if you have the need.

I just missed the hoopla about 10 cores for $1700 as I got into building PCs about a year or so later. I've been very much spoiled by Ryzen as the first PC I built had an R3 1200 in it.

 

[Lew Zealand]

If you can't beat them, make them join... any bets on hostile offer by Intel? Yeah, capitalism.

Antutrust would probably prevent that bid. Even if Apple gets all their Macs to A-series CPUs, that still not enough competition to allow Intel and AMD to merge into one company.

Maybe if A-series CPUs can be adopted in the Windows world in 5-10 years, maaaaybee...... It'll never happen though.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

Now the elephant in the room is how long AMD will continue before they start raising prices. Remember, in the early days Intel was VERY competitive until they got to the point they thought everyone would HAVE to meet their demands ......

Yep exactly, people forget those days where it was reversed in role, however, I think L Su knows it would be disastrous for AMD to return to that model, the last thing they want to become is Intel. Remember it was the budget mainstream that kept them alive all these years, and they learned that lesson, I think we will see reasonable pricing from them with a small markup but not backbreaking like Intel or NVidia.

 

[Tom Yum]

Yep exactly, people forget those days where it was reversed in role, however, I think L Su knows it would be disastrous for AMD to return to that model, the last thing they want to become is Intel. Remember it was the budget mainstream that kept them alive all these years, and they learned that lesson, I think we will see reasonable pricing from them with a small markup but not backbreaking like Intel or NVidia.

I agree, but also back then AMD still fabricated its own CPU's. That meant 1) if demand outstripped supply (which it did as they only had two high-end fabs at their peak) then AMD's only option (other than leaving profit on the table) was to increase prices, and 2) AMD's cost basis was much higher back then because they had to cover all process node R&D, fab retooling, etc. Now, when demand outstrips supply, AMD just negotiates more capacity at TSMC, allowing them to meet demand while keeping cost advantage. Win win, more profit, more marketshare, less price gouging on consumers.

 

[mrvco]

I guess the problem is that I'm too cheap. You're right though, the 12C24T 3900X is very nice for $435, I still had $500 and limited availability on the brain.

You can always buy an AM4 board and pair it with a less expensive Ryzen proc and upgrade to the 3900X (or whichever suits you) later without having to replace the motherboard.

 

[mrvco]

Yep exactly, people forget those days where it was reversed in role, however, I think L Su knows it would be disastrous for AMD to return to that model, the last thing they want to become is Intel. Remember it was the budget mainstream that kept them alive all these years, and they learned that lesson, I think we will see reasonable pricing from them with a small markup but not backbreaking like Intel or NVidia.

That and AMD still has a lot of cards stacked against them with regards to the media, Intel's PR / marketing juggernaut, all the Intel fanboys and the pervasive 'no one ever got fired for buying Intel' mentality (paraphrasing the cliched old IBM saying of course).

 

[WaltC3]

Capitalism at work! Build a better product at better prices and people will buy.....it's quite simple really.

Yes, indeed! "Build a better mousetrap and they will come knocking at your door!"--It's as true today as it was in the days of the Athlon of yore--but today's AMD has huge sea legs, enabling it to stride the world like a colossus for years to come!

 

[pcnthuziast]

Intel's 10th gen is going to be the most blatant example yet of Intel's greed and lack of ethics. They will be inferior in every category and yet sell for significantly more. Worst part is that due to their pr, consumer ignorance and brand loyalty, they will sell quite well.