Wednesday, February 3rd 2021

Despite AMD Momentum, Intel Claws Back Market Share in Both Desktop and Mobile

AMD's CPU offerings are generally considered to best Intel's competition, especially since the company's Zen 3, Ryzen-5000 series of CPUs launched to great critical and customer acclaim. However, silicon performance can only get you so far - one other issue impacting market penetration is availability of said processors. As AMD fights for constrained wafer supply from TSMC - in no small part due to their focusing of their entire portfolio on the company's highly-sought 7 nm process - users worldwide are generally seeing insufficient stocks of AMD silicon to satisfy their needs. And as such, it seems that at least some users are going with Intel solutions, due to their higher availability in the market.

According to a report from Mercury Research, AMD's constrained chip supply has led the company to a market share loss QoQ. AMD's desktop penetration fell from 20.1% to 19.3% in a single quarter, and its mobile market share saw a similar decrease, going from a 20.1% share down to 19.1%. Of course, not only from market share and shipments are a company's financials made of; AMD ushered in higher ASP (Average Selling Price) for its products, leading the company to a 50% increase in YoY revenue. This doesn't mean AMD is selling less CPUs, however; the x86 CPU market grew a massive 20.1% YoY, so AMD is actually shipping more product than in previous years - it just couldn't account for the entirety of that x86 market increase. Overall, and considering AMD's desktop, mobile, and server markets, the company's x86 market share decreased by 0.7% in Q4 2020 to 21.7% - still a very significant increase, YoY, from its previous 15.5% of the market pie.
Sources: Mercury Research, via Tom's Hardware
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114 Comments on Despite AMD Momentum, Intel Claws Back Market Share in Both Desktop and Mobile

#51
lexluthermiester
ZoneDymo2 big 2 fail/fall, world's f'd
No, it's because no one can find any AMD CPU's for sale. Yet there is plenty to be had from Intel. Fairly simple actually.
Posted on Reply
#52
DeathtoGnomes
The way I see it, AMD ran out of supplies, Intel didnt. Intel's backroom agreements with OEMs dictates they produce more Intel base products than AMD or they get cut off from the premium supply chain. AMD's ability to play 2nd fiddle to Intel is a hard habit to break
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#53
renz496
R0H1TYou apparently missed ~

Intel :- Here's your cheque :pimp:
yeah i think some people think intel are back with their old tactic. but seeing the supply constrained that AMD are having this time intel does not even to waste their resource to really bribe OEM. they just need to let things happen. sooner or later it will start going to hit AMD hard.
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#54
valrond
Bork BorkStock will pretty much look the same across EU.
Indeed. The biggest online store in Spain (pccomponentes.com) has the 5600x at 350€ and the 5800x at 475€
I got my 3800x in november of 2019 at 360€. Now the equivalent is over 100€ more expensive, and if you add the cost of the aftermarket cooling, that adds another 50-100€ on top of that. Too much money. That is the reason I didn't get Intel, my alternatives were the 9900K at over 500€ plus the cooling, or the 9700K, but it had no HT, and my I could use the motherboard I already had.
Now, I bought a 10400f for my son's gaming computer, 140€ for the CPU and 80€ for the mobo. Similar gaming performance to 3600 and cheaper (and cooler, even the crappy intel cooler is enough as it can't overclock).
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#55
MikeSnow
Looking at the latest Steam hardware survey, AMD seems to be growing its CPU usage share among gamers:



So, I'm guessing the "can find any AMD CPU's for sale" claims are a tiny bit exaggerated.
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#56
mechtech
DeathtoGnomesThe way I see it, AMD ran out of supplies, Intel didnt. Intel's backroom agreements with OEMs dictates they produce more Intel base products than AMD or they get cut off from the premium supply chain. AMD's ability to play 2nd fiddle to Intel is a hard habit to break
Well Intel does have it's own fabs, AMD does not.

However, something more seems to be going on. Covid era has been going on for a year, and prior to september/about 5 months ago there was lots of stock of everything. Now AMD GPUs and CPUs going back 4 generations (and Nvidia GPUs) are typically out of stock (here in Canada) at least. Mining, scalping, for GPU's I can see, but CPU's also?? hmmmmmmm
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#57
londiste
mechtechHowever, something more seems to be going on. Covid era has been going on for a year, and prior to september/about 5 months ago there was lots of stock of everything. Now AMD GPUs and CPUs going back 4 generations (and Nvidia GPUs) are typically out of stock (here in Canada) at least. Mining, scalping, for GPU's I can see, but CPU's also?? hmmmmmmm
You said it - Covid era has been going on for a year. Significant amount of people are home and want or need additional hardware. When this happens worldwide, it makes things difficult.
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#58
DeathtoGnomes
mechtechWell Intel does have it's own fabs, AMD does not.
Yep forget to add that tidbit.
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#59
milewski1015
mechtechHowever, something more seems to be going on. Covid era has been going on for a year, and prior to september/about 5 months ago there was lots of stock of everything. Now AMD GPUs and CPUs going back 4 generations (and Nvidia GPUs) are typically out of stock (here in Canada) at least. Mining, scalping, for GPU's I can see, but CPU's also?? hmmmmmmm
The worldwide substrate shortage as well as AMD having to divide silicon supply between both new consoles, CPU, and GPU production is a big part. Add on top of that that TSMC is booked up and will be adding automotive industry chips into the mix. AMD can't churn out desktop CPUs and GPUs fast enough to meet the demand and so people are buying up the last gen products instead.
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#60
RandallFlagg
MikeSnowLooking at the latest Steam hardware survey, AMD seems to be growing its CPU usage share among gamers:



So, I'm guessing the "can find any AMD CPU's for sale" claims are a tiny bit exaggerated.
And every bit of that was in 2 and 4 core CPU growth. These are most likely APUs.



And it's showing up in AMD Vega APU growth :



Also of note, the 3060Ti, 3090, and 3070 have now made the charts (3080 made it last month and is still growing market share). RDNA2 is still a no show. The 570 and 580 were AMDs big GPU market share growth for January.

None of this bodes very well for PC gaming.
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#61
MikeSnow
RandallFlaggAnd every bit of that was in 2 and 4 core CPU growth. These are most likely APUs.
Maybe. But December was a bit of an outlier, and the percentage on the right shows only the December to January delta. But if you compare the first and last column from your table, you will see that both 2 and 4 core CPUs actually went down in the last 4 months, unless January is an outlier as well.

For the last 4 months 2 core CPUS actually decreased by 1.81%, 4 core CPUs by 2.47%, while 6 core CPUs increased by 2.28% and 8 core CPUs increased by 1.75%. Comparing November with January shows a similar trend. So only December is unusual, probably being skewed by the people starting to play Cyberpunk 2077.

That also means that the AMD growth in January is not as large as the percentages from my post show, but it is still a growth, even compared to November and earlier. The long-term trend is clearly positive for AMD. I don't think Intel actually recovered any gaming market share in December. More likely, people that are infrequent gamers dusted off their older Intel systems excited to play Cyberpunk and, after that excitement wore off, the statistics returned to normal in January.
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#62
macrobe
Intel has increased orders to TSMC with the intention of not having a free capacity for AMD and therefore the market is full only of their garbage.
Posted on Reply
#63
RandallFlagg
MikeSnowMaybe. But December was a bit of an outlier, and the percentage on the right shows only the December to January delta. But if you compare the first and last column from your table, you will see that both 2 and 4 core CPUs actually went down in the last 4 months, unless January is an outlier as well.

For the last 4 months 2 core CPUS actually decreased by 1.81%, 4 core CPUs by 2.47%, while 6 core CPUs increased by 2.28% and 8 core CPUs increased by 1.75%. Comparing November with January shows a similar trend. So only December is unusual, probably being skewed by the people starting to play Cyberpunk 2077.

That also means that the AMD growth in January is not as large as the percentages from my post show, but it is still a growth, even compared to November and earlier. The long-term trend is clearly positive for AMD. I don't think Intel actually recovered any gaming market share in December. More likely, people that are infrequent gamers dusted off their older Intel systems excited to play Cyberpunk and, after that excitement wore off, the statistics returned to normal in January.
I actually agree with that train of thought, but one thing I've learned this past year is that normal / expected trends from the past are pretty worthless in this environment.

This could easily be a million moms buying cheap laptops for their kids to work from home with, and those kids then using them to play games.
Posted on Reply
#64
B-Real
ThrashZoneHi,
AMD 5k series nowhere to be found except maybe price gougers
Intel 10 series prices now slashed and instock bestbuy 10900k 445.us okay maybe not instock but price is slashed lol
Hi.

Can you define the term "nowhere"? It can be bought in many webshops. In terms of performance, the 8-core $450 5800X is faster than the 10-core $480 10900K, needs cheaper mobo for equal comparison (~ 3200 RAM).
londisteEspecially when talking Ryzen 5000 series, Intel also has the price advantage.
Sorry, what? If you buy a Comet Lake CPU, you have to buy a Z motherboard to be comparable to Zen3, as b450 and b550 mobos support higher speed RAMs while B460 mobos only support 2600 MHz. And don't forget that in terms of performance, the $300 5600X crushes the $262 10600K in CPU performance (and easily beats it in games too - around 10-11%) and it's much more closer to the $374 10700K, even beating it in some multithread apps)
Posted on Reply
#65
Minus Infinity
londisteEspecially when talking Ryzen 5000 series, Intel also has the price advantage.
How, Rocket Lake is more expensive than Coffee Lake and Intel Z490/Z590 MB's are dearer than x570 . Yes you can easily get older Intel CPU's cheaper, but I'm seeing good prices for Zen+, Zen2 CPU as well. I've almost given up on Zen 3 though, and gave up entirely on the new GPU's and bought a 2080 Super.

It would be a cold day in hell before I bought Rocket Lake, it's pointless CPU. I might though consider Alder Lake if Zen 3 is still in short supply in 6 months.
Posted on Reply
#66
Cobain
B-RealHi.

Can you define the term "nowhere"? It can be bought in many webshops. In terms of performance, the 8-core $450 5800X is faster than the 10-core $480 10900K, needs cheaper mobo for equal comparison (~ 3200 RAM).




Sorry, what? If you buy a Comet Lake CPU, you have to buy a Z motherboard to be comparable to Zen3, as b450 and b550 mobos support higher speed RAMs while B460 mobos only support 2600 MHz. And don't forget that in terms of performance, the $300 5600X crushes the $262 10600K in CPU performance (and easily beats it in games too - around 10-11%) and it's much more closer to the $374 10700K, even beating it in some multithread apps)
B460 supports 3000mhz RAM speeds, but you can get a z490 as low as 120€-150€, same price as a B550. Do not forget 10600k costs 250€ here, while 5600x is 350€. Yes I know it is better, but costs 100€ more aswell.

Even the 10400f vs 3600, 140€ vs 200€. Intel has better stock too, so I understand his opinion.
Posted on Reply
#67
Makaveli
I was able to pickup a 5800X last week.

And when I check that store inventory today they have 10+
Posted on Reply
#68
Cobain
MakaveliI was able to pickup a 5800X last week.

And when I check that store inventory today they have 10+
They do, but the cost 500€. How Many ppl is willing to pay that for a CPU? Not Many.

i7 10700kf costs 340€. Again, I know 5800x is better but the difference in price is big
Posted on Reply
#69
Makaveli
CobainThey do, but the cost 500€. How Many ppl is willing to pay that for a CPU? Not Many.

i7 10700kf costs 340€. Again, I know 5800x is better but the difference in price is big
You are speaking of a new build and in that instance it will come down to overall platform cost. You have a valid point but that will vary per person and budget.

In my example I'm already on a AM4 Platform and its was just a processor upgrade so not really a fair comparison as I sold my 3800X so the cost to me was basically $250.
Posted on Reply
#70
Cobain
MakaveliYou are speaking of a new build and in that instance it will come down to overall platform cost. You have a valid point but that will vary per person and budget.

In my example I'm already on a AM4 Platform and its was just a processor upgrade so not really a fair comparison as I sold my 3800X so the cost to me was basically $250.
Sure, on your situation you did the right thing, no doubt. I was talking about getting a new platform, yes.

If I had a Ryzen 3600/x/3700x/3800x/3900 I wouldnt bother upgrading tho, great CPUs
Posted on Reply
#71
Chrispy_
tabascosauzMight not be super budget or tough like an X13, but it is a 100% sRGB screen and 60Wh in a 13" package.

www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/yoga/yoga-2-in-1-series/Yoga-6/p/88YGC601532
4700U for £899 with 16GB is actually pretty nice, there has also been sparodic 4700U availability over the last couple of months of the Ideapad 5 (8GB only though) but both the Yoga6 and Ideapad5 suffer the classic issues I'm complaining about. One isn't available for another month, despite the CPU being launched 12 months ago, the other is suffering from patchy availability in anything other than the low-end 4500U variant. Both are cheap, plastic laptops with flexy keyboard decks, mushy typing, and single-fan cooling (noisy), and both come with mediocre low-gamut, standard-resolution, 60Hz, no VRR screens which, although serviceable, are distinctly non-premium, bottom-rung solutions.

My personal (and corporate) experience with Lenovo is that if they have a shipping date of more than one week, you'll be waiting for a couple of months before they cancel the order and tell you that the model you ordered is unavailable.

I've been buying laptops for myself and others for the better part of 20 years. Renoir's lack of availability is an outlier that sticks out like a sore thumb across my entire career history and COVID isn't entirely to blame because Intel 8th/9th/10th/11th gen have remained in good supply throughout the pandemic, even if particular models went out of stock during the busiest periods of national lockdows. I can still buy Ryzen 3500/3700U models without any difficulties, too.

This article is about AMD losing market share to Intel, and as much as I want AMD to be available, successful, and providing meaningful competition that benefits us as consumers, I'm not seeing it happening. The difficulties I've had sourcing Renoir laptops for the last year and the loss or retraction of design wins from OEMs over Q1-Q2 2020 have been eye-opening and out of the ordinary for the IT sector, my own experiences simply reinforce this news of AMD losing marketshare to Intel again.
Posted on Reply
#72
tabascosauz
Chrispy_4700U for £899 with 16GB is actually pretty nice, there has also been sparodic 4700U availability over the last couple of months of the Ideapad 5 (8GB only though) but both the Yoga6 and Ideapad5 suffer the classic issues I'm complaining about. One isn't available for another month, despite the CPU being launched 12 months ago, the other is suffering from patchy availability in anything other than the low-end 4500U variant. Both are cheap, plastic laptops with flexy keyboard decks, mushy typing, and poor cooling, and both come with mediocre low-gamut, standard-resolution, 60Hz, no VRR screens which, although serviceable, are distinctly non-premium, bottom-rung solutions.

My personal (and corporate) experience with Lenovo is that if they have a shipping date of more than one week, you'll be waiting for a couple of months before they cancel the order and tell you that the model you ordered is unavailable.

I've been buying laptops for myself and others for the better part of 20 years. Renoir availability is an outlier that sticks out like a sore thumb, and COVID isn't to blame because Intel 8th/9th/10th/11th gen have remained in good supply throughout the pandemic, even if stocks were low and I ended up buying a different model to the one I initially wanted. I can still buy Ryzen 3500/3700U models without any difficulties, too.

This article is about AMD losing market share to Intel, and as much as I want AMD to be available, successful, and providing meaningful competition that benefits us as consumers, I'm not seeing it happening. The difficulties I've had sourcing Renoir laptops for the last year and the loss or retraction of design wins from OEMs over Q1-Q2 2020 have been eye-opening.
Couldn't find a notebookcheck review on the 13", but it seems to have an alright panel, IPS with 94% sRGB tested. Cooling isn't really the end of the world either considering it doesn't really slash performance significantly. Doesn't seem to lose performance on account of it against the 4700U Zenbooks. Yeah it's kinda flexy but I mean, what can you expect?

AMD's going to have to stop lazing around on the GPU side, as well as work with OEMs to add TB support, if they want OEMs to put them into higher end ultrabooks. Flashy features like TB4 put Intel CPUs into those units even without Intel's bribes - no way an OEM is going to downgrade an existing model's feature set. Cezanne ain't it, unless some ballsy OEMs (Lenovo might be a frontrunner there) decide to throw something like a Titan Ridge controller in with the AMD platforms.

I watched the mobile Renoir launch with great interest, but there's no way I'm ditching an XPS 9370 for a Thinkpad X13. They've come a long way from the "budget brand" with better performance, but they really need to round it out with an attractive featureset before anyone can be arsed to put them in the high end.
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#73
Caring1
Clawing back market share has nothing to do with bullshitting to consumers and back door deals to limit any rivals market. :rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#74
1d10t
BSim500In the UK, an i5-10400F (6C/12T) costs £128, an i7-10700F (8C/16T) costs £241 and a Ryzen 5600X (6C/12T) costs £300. On top of that, motherboards of the same brand & model are also £40 or so more expensive (eg, £149 B550 vs £105 B460 both for MSI Mortar WiFi). AMD's supply chains are beyond borked at the moment and it's not hard to see why many are switching back to Intel the longer this goes on. For all the talk by geeky enthusiasts in tech forums over 7nm vs 14nm, it's ultimately availability that makes a sale.
Even at low end part such as Athlon 3000G, Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3200G AMD had no stock. Even if they did, it already on disadvantage being price higher than Intel counterpart such as Pentium G6400 and Core i3 10100. Notebook doesn' t fare any better, yesteryear 3200U with crappy specs ( TN 4GB soldered ) already price higher than i3-1005G1 with decent specs ( IPS 8GB soldered). AMD achieved celebrity status of fame but only a few people can get his autograph.
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