AMD’s efforts to build chips for servers, laptops, and video game consoles helped it achieve its highest market share in the x86 CPU market in 14 years, according to a research firm.
In Q2, AMD’s market share of the total x86 CPU market reached 22.5% against Intel’s 77.5% share, according to Mercury Research, which tracks processor shipments.
The company’s share hasn’t been this high since Q4 2007, Mercury Research President Dean McCarron told us on Thursday. (AMD’s ultimate peak was back in Q4 2006, when the company’s total share reached 25.3%.)
It’s certainly been good times for AMD. The company’s latest desktop processors, the Ryzen 5000 series, have received rave reviews since they launched last fall for their strong performance against Intel’s competing chips.
But ironically, AMD’s share of the desktop CPU market fell in Q2. It reached 17.1%, down from 19.3% in Q1. Overall, desktop processor shipments were flat between the two quarters.
However, AMD did see growing shipment numbers in the server market and for laptops. “Webelieve AMD set a new record for both server CPU units and revenues (in Q2),” McCarron said. At the same time, the company has been churning out custom chips to power the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, which also use x86 architecture.
“In the current capacity-constrained market, the suppliers have to choose which segments to build products for, and in Q2 it appears that AMD traded off desktop production for more mobile and console CPUs, while Intel traded low-end mobile CPUs for more desktop processors,” McCarron said in an earlier email.
“As a result AMD gained mobile client share, while Intel gained desktop client share. Due to net higher client and server shipments, AMD gained share overall as well,” he added.
