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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware via McCarron) Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware via McCarron)
Mercury Research CPU market share results are in for the first quarter of 2022, and the results are somewhat dire — Mercury’s Dean McCarron pointed out that aside from IoT/SoC, all segments of the x86 processor market declined during the quarter. Desktop PCs suffered the most as units declined 30%, the biggest quarterly decline in history.
Amazingly, AMD managed to post significant wins during the tumultuous quarter and has now, once again, set a new record high x86 market share of 27.7%, a new record higher than the previous year. an incredible increase of seven percentage points.
Intel and AMD both suffered sharp declines in the desktop PC market, but AMD didn’t lose sales as fast as Intel, resulting in share gains for the quarter. In particular, desktop PCs declined greatly as vendors burned through excess CPU inventory, which McCarron says hit Intel more severely than AMD. As such, Intel still garnered some unit share in the desktop PC market compared to a year ago.
AMD continued to make strides in the mobile/laptop space as it set another record with a 22.5% share in that segment. This marked the 12th consecutive quarter of growth in the server market, reaching 11.6% of the market.
The overall CPU market has had several impressive performances in the past, with McCarron saying, “Despite the slowdown, the market set several records, including record highs for server processor revenue, IoT/semi-custom units and revenue, and a combined New record high for client (desktop and notebook) CPU average selling prices.
“Low shipments of low-priced entry-level CPUs and the strong ramp of new mobile processors (Alder Lake CPUs for Intel and Barcelona and Rembrandt CPU cores for AMD) resulted in very high mobile CPU prices, setting records for clients. helped.
(Desktop and notebook combined) average selling price of $138,
Those who were more than 10 percent and more than 30 percent in the quarter
Year.”
McCarron also brought us an acceleration of Arm’s infiltration into the desktop PC space, which is largely led by Apple, “Our estimate for ARM PC client share (including Chromebooks and Apple’s M1-based Macs in total client size) Includes x86 desktop and mobile CPUs in the estimate) up 11.3 percent, up from 10.3 percent last quarter and just shy of double from 5.9 percent a year ago. While Apple’s Mac business declined in the first quarter, x86 The decline was modest compared to the PC market.” McCarron said.
You’ll find a segment-by-section analysis below, along with some additional comments.
AMD vs Intel Desktop PC Market Share Q1 2022
| 1Q22 | 4Q21 | 3Q21 | 2Q21 | 1Q21 | 4Q20 | 3Q20 | 2Q20 | 1Q20 | 4Q19 | 3Q19 | 2Q19 | 1Q2019 | 4Q18 | 3Q18 | 2Q18 | 1Q18 | 4Q17 | 3Q17 | 2Q17 | 1Q17 | 4Q16 | 3Q16 | |
| amd desktop unit share | 18.3% | 16.2% | 17.0% | 17.1% | 19.3% | 19.3% | 20.1% | 19.2% | 18.6% | 18.3% | 18% | 17.1% | 17.1% | 15.8% | 13% | 12.3% | 12.2% | 12.0% | 10.9% | 11.1% | 11.4% | 9.9% | 9.1% |
| Quarter to Quarter / Year to Year (PP) | +2.1 / -1.0 | -0.8 / -3.1 | -0.1 / -3.1 | -2.3 / -2.1 | +0.1 / +0.7 | -0.8 / +1.0 | +0.9 / +2.1 | +0.6 / +2.1 | +0.3 / +1.5 | +0.3 / +2.4 | +0.9 / +5 | flat / +4.8 | +1.3 / +4.9 | +2.8 / +3.8 | +0.7 / +2.1 | +0.1 / +1.2 | +0.2 / +0.8 | +1.1 / +2.1 | -0.2 / +1.8 | -0.3/- | +1.5/- | +0.8 / – | , |
The decline in the PC market comes during the preceding pandemic and global economic turmoil and inflation, exacerbated by seasonal downturns, have all conspired to dampen demand for both Intel and AMD. McCarron reports that additional desktop PC inventory also played a role here, which affected Intel more than AMD.
AMD has had supply issues with its pricey server CPUs — it sells them as fast as it can make them — so it has prioritized these higher-margin products by reducing production of its desktop PC chips. As such, it doesn’t have that much inventory to burn, so it didn’t lose that much.
Intel, on the other hand, actually gained a percentage point year-over-year share during the first full quarter that comes with its Elder Lake processors, which completely dominated our list of the best CPUs for gaming. has taken in. Available.
AMD vs. Intel Notebook/Mobile Market Share Q1 2022
| 1Q22 | 4Q21 | 3Q21 | 2Q21 | 1Q21 | 4Q20 | 3Q20 | 2Q20 | 1Q20 | Q419 | 3Q19 | 2Q19 | 1Q2019 | 4Q18 | 3Q18 | 2Q18 | |
| amd mobile unit share | 22.5% | 21.6% | 22.0% | 20.0% | 18.0% | 19% | 20.2% | 19.9% | 17.1% | 16.2% | 14.7% | 14.1% | 13.1% | 12.2% | 10.9% | 8.8% |
| Quarter to Quarter / Year to Year (PP) | +0.9 / +4.4 | -0.4 / +2.6 | +2.0 / +1.8 | +1.9 / +0.01 | -1.0 / +1.1 | -1.2 / +2.8 | +0.3 / +5.5 | +2.9 / +5.8 | +0.9 / +3.2 | +1.5 / +4.0 | +0.7 / +3.8 | +1.0 / +5.3 | +0.9 /? |
The mobile market also declined during the quarter, so both Intel and AMD saw a decline in the number of units sold. But, again, AMD’s decline was small, resulting in another quarter of share growth. However, that gain also represents an impressive 4.4 percentage point gain year-over-year.
McCarron says AMD grew the commercial notebook market significantly, possibly helping to increase its shipments. This quarter represents another record high for AMD’s notebook share. However, the battle for notebooks will continue AMD recently revealed its Zen 4-powered Dragon range processors would hit the market early next year, while Intel recently unveiled its Elder Lake HX-series chips. Did. Intel and AMD will continue to flesh it out in this critical segment, but the biggest threat to both comes from Apple’s M1 processors, as we’ll cover in the next table.
Arm vs x86 Market Share Q1 2022
| arm vs x86 market share | 1Q22 | 4Q21 | 3Q21 | 2Q21 | 1Q21 | 4Q20 | 2Q20 |
| arm unit share | 11.3% | 10.3% | 8.3% | ~7.0% | 5.9% | 3.4% | less than 2% |
This accounting of Arm’s market share includes Chromebooks and Apple’s M1-based Macs. McCarron has just started tracking/sharing these values, so there isn’t much historical data yet. Regardless, the implications here are clear: Fueled by Apple’s rapidly growing business with its M1 CPUs in multiple flavors, Arm is progressing much faster than in the past.
AMD vs Intel Server Unit Market Share Q1 2022
| 1Q22 | 4Q21 | 3Q21 | 2Q21 | 1Q21 | 4Q20 | 3Q20 | 2Q20 | 1Q20 | 4Q19 | 3Q19 | 2Q19 | 1Q2019 | 4Q18 | 3Q18 | 2Q18 | 4Q17 | |
| amd server unit share | 11.6% | 10.7% | 10.2% | 9.5% | 8.9% | 7.1% | 6.6% | 5.8% | 5.1% | 4.5% | 4.3% | 3.4% | 2.9% | 3.2% | 1.6% | 1.4% | 0.8% |
| Quarter to Quarter / Year to Year (PP) | +0.9 / +2.7 | +0.5% / +3.6 | +0.7 / +3.6 | +0.6 / +3.7 | +1.8 / +3.8 | +0.5 / +2.6 | +0.8 / +2.3 | +0.7 / +2.4 | +0.6 / 2.2 | +0.2 / +1.4 | +0.9 / +2.7 | +0.5 / +2.0 | -0.3/- | +1.6 / 2.4 | +0.2/- |
AMD bases its server share projections on IDC’s forecasts, but only accounts for the single- and dual-socket market, which eliminates four-socket (and beyond) servers, networking infrastructure, and the Xeon D (Edge). As such, Mercury’s numbers differ from numbers cited by AMD, which predict a higher market share. Here’s AMD’s comment on the matter: “Mercury Research captures all x86 server-class processors in its server unit estimate, regardless of device (server, network, or storage), while the estimated 1P [single-socket] and 2p [two-socket] Tame [Total Addressable Market] Contains only traditional servers provided by IDC.”
Server CPU shipments fell during the quarter, but AMD continued its three-year streak of quarterly share gains. Intel says it’s shipping its Sapphire Rapids Xeon to some customers, but we haven’t seen a general release yet. Similarly, we are also waiting for AMD’s EPYC Genoa to hit the market.
AMD vs. Intel Overall x86 Market Share Q1 2022
| 1Q22 | 4Q21 | 3Q21 | 2Q21 | 1Q21 | 4Q20 | 3Q20 | 2Q20 | 1Q20 | 4Q19 | 3Q19 | 2Q19 | 4Q18 | 3Q18 | |
| AMD Overall x86 | 27.7% | 25.6% | 24.6% | 22.5% | 20.7% | 21.7% | 22.4% | 18.3% | 14.8% | 15.1% | 14.6% | 13.9% | 12.3% | 10.6% |
| Change Overall PP QoQ/YoY | +2.1 / +7.0 | +1.0 / +3.9 | +2.1 / +2.2 | +1.8 / +4.2 | -1.0 / +6.0 | -0.7 / +6.2 | +4.1 / +6.6 | +3.5 / +1.2 (+3.7?) | -0.7 /? | +0.9 / +3.2 | +0.7 / +4 | , | , | , |
While other segments exclude IoT and semi-custom (such as AMD’s game console business), this accounting of the overall x86 market also includes those products and focuses primarily on broader AMD versus Intel competition.
Mercury Research provided the following commentary: ,For the all-inclusive share, which includes not only PC client CPUs and servers but also IoT and semi-custom products used in items like gaming consoles, AMD gained share in the first quarter and set a
New record high at 27.7 percent, beating the previous quarter’s record of 25.6 percent. Recall that last quarter AMD broke the record 15 years ago of 25.3 percent.”
