German PC hardware retailer MindFactory sold an astonishing 25,625 AMD and Intel CPUs in January 2025. However, an honor falls to AMD this time, as Team Red has managed to capture as much as 92.16% (23,615) of all units sold by this retailer. Not only did it leave Intel with 7.84% (2010) of total units sold, AMD also beat Intel in average selling price, where AMD managed to keep ASP at 320 Euros, while Intel buyers were considering some less expensive CPU SKUs at 290 Euros. This has resulted in AMD's revenue share recording 93.45% at 8,300,674 Euros, while Intel left a smaller mark at 6.55% or 581,959 Euros. The best-selling CPU was AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D, sold in 8,390 units in January.

A detailed analysis of socket distribution reveals AMD's AM5 platform's overwhelming dominance, securing 18,410 units or 71.84% of total sales. The mature AM4 platform maintains a significant market presence with 5,205 units (20.31%), showing strong continued demand for AMD's previous-generation socket. Intel's LGA 1700, compatible with 12/13/14th generation processors, accounted for 1,745 units (6.81%), while their older platforms showed minimal market penetration. The LGA 1851 socket, supporting Intel's latest Core Ultra 200S processors, managed just 185 units (0.72%), with legacy LGA 1200 and LGA 1151 sockets trailing at 55 (0.21%) and 25 (0.1%) units respectively. AMD's latest platform market performance suggests strong consumer confidence in AM5's upgrade path and performance capabilities. This dramatic market share capture by AMD represents one of the most significant shifts in the desktop CPU market in recent years, particularly notable given the higher average selling prices at which AMD CPUs are now sold.

We have recently received some early gaming benchmarks for the upcoming Intel Core i7-11700K after German retailer MindFactory released the chip early. The creator of CapFrameX has managed to get their hands on one of these processors and has put it to the test comparing it with the Intel Core i9-10900K in some gaming benchmarks. Intel has promised double-digit IPC improvements with the new Rocket Lake generation of processors however if the results from this latest benchmark are representative of the wider picture those improvements might be a bit more modest then Intel claims.

The processors were paired with an RTX 3090 and 32 GB of 3200 MHz memory as this is the new stock maximum speed supported versus 2933 MHz on the Core i9-10900K. The two processors were put to the test in Crysis Remastered, Cyberpunk 2077, and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, with the i7-11700K coming ahead in all three tests by ~ 2% - 9%. These tests are unverified and might not be fully representative of performance but they give us a good indication of what Intel has to offer with these new 11th generation chips.

There seems to be no end in sight for current high-performance, discrete graphics cards' supply constraints. If you've been looking for a specialized graphics processing unit to push eye-candy on your favored 3D experiences to the max, you've probably been having trouble for a while now. It all stems from a crazy, dizzying wave of cryptocurrency mining. And the fact that this mining spree has already taken global mining power consumption to levels close to a 17 million population country, as one of our editors puts it, kind of has a human problem. And it would seem that not even NVIDIA and AMD's partners' attempts to sate current miners' appetite for profit-generating graphics cards has put a dent on demand.