Intel CPU Market Share Obliterated by AMD in the Last Few Months

Written by Jon Sutton on 2018-10-01 11:17:00

German retailer Mindfactory has provided some insightful data on CPU sales in the country, revealing AMD is absolutely crushing Intel right now and breaking records in the process. Mindfactory may not be all that familiar to those of us outside of Germany, but based upon its figures they’re shifting tens of thousands of processors each month, making it a reliable gauge of market performance.

Onto the hard data then, and the key point is that AMD’s monthly market share has shifted from around 44% in June all the way up to almost 80% by the end of September. Likewise, Intel has plummeted down to just 23% or so of the CPU market in terms of sales. At Mindfactory, this equates to around 3,000 AMD processors sold per week, while Intel has plummeted down to under 1,000.

There are a number of reasons behind this, but it’s chiefly coming down to supply and pricing. Intel has been suffering well-documented issues with 14nm Coffee Lake supplies, as well as major troubles with 10nm manufacturing. This has led to a dramatic uptick in pricing for Intel CPUs in some territories, with Mindfactory noting a 150% price increase within the last four months alone.

It’s been suggested by market analysts during the last few months that AMD could potentially triple its market share, and this right here is the first indicator of this actually happening. For the month of September, we can see Pinnacle Ridge Ryzen 2000 processors are the bestselling CPUs, outselling intel Coffee Lake. The rest of Intel's output then drops off a cliff while AMD's Raven Ridge and Summit Ridge make up a respectable 27% share between them. Summit Ridge, in particular, is doing impressively considering its age.

The one positive note for Intel is that the increased selling price of its processors means Team Blue commands almost 50% of the revenue, despite actually selling far fewer CPUs. For those looking to spend their money wisely though, AMD is, right now, the far shrewder proposition.

For Intel, the priority now is on pushing CPUs through the supply channels and attempting to better meet demand. Intel did announce an $1 billion will spent on ramping up 14nm production, although this is going to take some time before we see the benefits.

In terms of 10nm, Intel claims its manufacturing yields are increasing and volume production of 10nm is still “expected” in 2019. To that end, a 2020 launch for 10nm CPUs is probably on the cards.