Zen microarchitecture has been the great “miracle formula” for AMD rise in the processor market against an Intel that until a few years ago enjoyed a strong and comfortable dominant position. The good work of the red giant with the lines of Ryzen, Ryzen Threadripper and Epyc processors have allowed it to exceed a 30% share in the fourth quarter of 2022.
According to the market analysis company Mercury Research and within the x86 spectrum, the share of AMD stood at 31.3% during the last quarter of 2022 vs. 68.7% for Intel. Go ahead, processors aimed at the domestic sector as well as servers and professional and business environments have been counted here, so a part of the credit in this comeback goes to Epyc processors, which have managed to position themselves very well in sectors such as supercomputing. Intel and AMD had shares of 71.5% and 28.5% respectively in the fourth quarter of 2021.
However, the same analyst points out that Intel and AMD have had their biggest declines in processor shipments in the last thirty years. On a year-on-year basis, the drop in shipments of processors has been 34%, while compared to the third quarter of 2022 the decrease has been 19%.
We find ourselves with a dynamic in the processor market similar to that of the graphics card and that derives from the combination of the bursting of the bubble experienced during the pandemic and the turbulent economic context in which we live, from which high inflation stands out. In other words, the little need to buy a new computer has been added to the inability to buy a new computer, although not all have been shadows.
Mercury Research explained to PC Mag that “2022 unit shipments were 374 million (excluding ARM processors) and revenue was $65 billion, 21% and 19% less respectively. While this sounds very bleak, keep in mind that overall processor market revenue was still higher in 2022 than in any other year, with the exception of 2020 and 2021.” Another fact that he has pointed out is that low demand for PCs and concerns about the economy are “prompting PC OEMs to reduce their inventory as well”.
The low demand for PCs, how could it be otherwise, hits the laptop sector hard, which has seen the largest drop in the level of shipments in its history in the fourth quarter of 2022. In addition to everything mentioned, here Intel’s decision to raise prices has also been able to influence, while on the other hand it seems that Apple is resisting better thanks to the novelty and technological contribution of its ARM-based processors.
In short, and according to Mercury Research, AMD has gained share during the course of 2022 to be above 30%, but the processor sector (and hardware at a general level) is not experiencing its best moment. To the red giant is added in particular the poor sales registered by Ryzen 7000 at least in its first months on the market.
