AMD records its highest server market share in decades — Intel fights back in client PCs
Another strong quarter for AMD.
AMD enjoyed another great quarter in Q2 2024 as it gained share in data center and laptop CPU markets, according to a new report from CPU market tracker Mercury Research. Still, Intel gained share in desktops and continues to lead in terms of units in general.
Intel continued to dominate the client PC market in the second quarter of 2024, securing a 78.9% market share, while AMD held 21.1%. This outcome is expected, considering the strength and variety of Intel's client product lineup. Still, AMD managed to increase its unit share by 0.5% sequentially and by 3.8% year-over-year. Despite AMD's ongoing success, it will likely take the company years to achieve the sales growth needed to fully shift the market in its favor, not only because Intel dominates corporate PC sales but also because of Intel's access to vast production capacity.
Desktop PC, Mobile, Client Revenue / Unit Share
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | 2Q24 | 1Q24 | 4Q23 | 3Q23 | 2Q23 | 1Q23 | 4Q22 | 3Q22 | 2Q22 | 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 | 23.0% | 23.9% | 19.8% | 19.2% | 19.4% | 19.2% | 18.6% | 13.9% | 20.5% | 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 over Quarter / Year over Year (pp) | -1% / +3.6 | +4.1 / +4.7 | +0.6 / +1.2 | -0.2 / +0.5 | +0.1 / -1.02 | +0.6 / +0.9 | +4.7 / +2.4 | -6.6 / -3.1 | +2.2 / +3.4 | +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 / - | - |
AMD lost 1% of market share to Intel in desktop PCs in the second quarter of 2024 and now controls 23%, leaving 77% to Intel. Considering that AMD was preparing to release its all-new Zen 5-based CPUs for desktops in August, we doubt the company was too aggressive with stuffing the channel with its previous-generation Zen 4-based offerings, which might be one of the reasons why the company lost a small chunk of the market to its rival. Then again, when compared to the second quarter of 2023, AMD gained a 3.6% share in Q2 2024, which is quite a good result.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | 2Q24 | 1Q24 | 4Q23 | 3Q23 | 2Q23 | 1Q23 | 4Q22 | 3Q22 | 2Q22 | 1Q22 | 4Q21 | 3Q21 | 2Q21 | 1Q21 | 4Q20 | 3Q20 | 2Q20 | 1Q20 | Q419 | 3Q19 | 2Q19 | 1Q2019 | 4Q18 | 3Q18 | 2Q18 |
| AMD Mobile Unit Share | 20.3% | 19.3% | 20.3% | 19.5% | 16.5% | 16.2% | 16.4% | 15.7% | 24.8% | 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 over Quarter / Year over Year (pp) | +1 / +3.8 | -1 / +3.1 | 0.8 / 3.9 | 2.9 / 3.8 | 0.3 / -8.3 | -0.2 / -6.3 | +0.8 / -5.1 | -9.1 / -6.4 | +2.3 / +4.8 | +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 / ? | Row 2 - Cell 23 | Row 2 - Cell 24 | Row 2 - Cell 25 |
On the laptop front, AMD made gains both sequentially and year-over-year. The company commanded 20.3% of x86 processors for laptops in Q2 2024: this is 1% higher than in the first quarter of this year and 3.8% higher than in the same quarter a year ago.
Apparently, even the upcoming launch of Zen 5-based Ryzen AI and Copilot+ and the AI PC frenzy are not expected to lower demand for AMD's existing offerings for notebooks, which is why PC makers accelerated purchases of these products. Another reason for AMD's success could be Intel's issues with supplying enough Meteor Lake PCs.
Still, AMD does not seem to have sold many expensive ('expensive' does not mean highest-end, though) Ryzen CPUs. Its laptop CPU revenue share is 17.7%, which is well below its 20.3% unit market share. Again, AMD's position improved as it increased its revenue share by 2.8% compared to the second quarter of this year and by a rather noticeable 4.5% compared to the second quarter of 2023.
Server Revenue / Unit share
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | 1Q24 | 1Q24 | 4Q23 | 3Q23 | 2Q23 | 1Q23 | 4Q22 | 3Q22 | 2Q22 | 1Q22 | 4Q21 | 3Q21 | 2Q21 | 1Q21 | 4Q20 | 3Q20 | 2Q20 | 1Q20 | 4Q19 | 3Q19 | 2Q19 | 1Q2019 | 4Q18 | 3Q18 | 2Q18 | 4Q17 |
| AMD Server Unit Share | 24.1% | 23.6% | 23.1% | 23.3% | 18.6% | 18% | 17.6% | 17.5% | 13.9% | 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 over Quarter / Year over Year (pp) | +0.5 / + 5.6 | +0.5 / +5.6 | -0.2 / 5.5 | 4.7 / 5.8 | 0.6 / 4.7 | +0.4 / +6.3 | +0.1 / +6.9 | +3.6 / +7.3 | +2.3 / +4.4 | +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 / - | Row 2 - Cell 25 | Row 2 - Cell 26 |
AMD's biggest success for the second quarter probably lies in the server space. The company has managed to capture another 0.5% share away from Intel and now controls 24.1% of the data center CPU market with its EPYC CPUs. When compared to the second quarter of 2024, AMD's gain looks even more impressive, as the company grabbed 5.6% from Intel.
Although Intel is an indisputable leader when it comes to volumes, as it still controlled some 75.9% of datacenter CPU shipments in the second quarter, it is necessary to note that AMD seems to lead in high-end crème-de-la-crème machines that require the most powerful and expensive processors, as we can conclude from the financial results of the two companies in Q2 2024. While Intel earned $3.0 billion selling 75.9% of data center CPUs (in terms of units), AMD earned $2.8 billion selling 24.1% of server CPUs (in terms of units), which signals that the average selling price of an AMD EPYC is considerably higher than the ASP of an Intel Xeon.
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Indeed, AMD's revenue share of the server market in Q2 2024 was 33.7%, as calculated by AMD itself based on data from Mercury Research. That is up 0.7% QoQ and 6.6% YoY, an impressive result. Then again, Intel has nothing to offer against AMD's 96-core and 128-core processors for now, so AMD controls the market for high-end servers.
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
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Pierce2623 To be fair, Intel only has access to “vast production capacity” if they can get back to producing their chips in their own foundries. 18A is holding all their hopes and dreams but supposedly it’s pretty good. Lets hope it turns out that way.Reply -
TesseractOrion Best hope is that Intel fails and other, more innovative and market disruptive companies get traction.Reply -
oofdragon So.. AMD dominates high end and Intel low end... guess the 75% low end market share doesn't care about defective chips 🤷Reply -
rluker5 Reply
What could Intel do to be more innovative?TesseractOrion said:Best hope is that Intel fails and other, more innovative and market disruptive companies get traction. -
Kamen Rider Blade Reply
Sell off it's Design side and become "TRULY INDEPENDENT".rluker5 said:What could Intel do to be more innovative?
Pledge to never have a Design Division EVER AGAIN, just like TSMC.
Become a "For Contract" Semi-Conductor Foundry
Let Intel's Design side become a independent Fabless company, just like AMD. -
thestryker Reply
None of this is in any way innovative it's just something that would benefit shareholders.Kamen Rider Blade said:Sell off it's Design side and become "TRULY INDEPENDENT".
Pledge to never have a Design Division EVER AGAIN, just like TSMC.
Become a "For Contract" Semi-Conductor Foundry
Let Intel's Design side become a independent Fabless company, just like AMD. -
thestryker Reply
They're having to make over 100 million CPUs every year on Intel 7 capacity itself isn't a problem at all. This is still a DUV process node whereas everything newer is EUV so the biggest machines used in fabrication aren't the same. The key will be the transition point (probably 2025-2026) and whether or not they nail that execution. The way they did MTL is a great example of how messy this has been where they shipped fabrication tools from Oregon to Ireland and had to spin up immediately. So while it sounds like this all went smoothly that isn't the way you want to have to do things. Once they're able to cut a lot of the Intel 7 volume this should make things simpler since Intel 3 and 18A are both refined EUV processes based on their respective predecessors.Pierce2623 said:To be fair, Intel only has access to “vast production capacity” if they can get back to producing their chips in their own foundries. 18A is holding all their hopes and dreams but supposedly it’s pretty good. Lets hope it turns out that way. -
dalek1234 Reply
Nothing at this point. Intel started screwing up more than 10 years ago. It has been slowly catching up with them since. It's a slowly sinking Titanic. They couldn't save the Titanic; Intel is no different now.rluker5 said:What could Intel do to be more innovative? -
artk2219 Reply
I wouldn't say they're doomed, they still have plenty of capital and talent. But they are going through a transition period, they haven't been in the position they are in for at least 20 years, if ever. So it will take some time for it to stabilize, that is unless the shareholders or management runs the boat into the ground. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if we end up with a Coke and Pepsi situation, with one holding 50% of the market, the other 45, and everyone else taking a small piece of what's left.dalek1234 said:Nothing at this point. Intel started screwing up more than 10 years ago. It has been slowly catching up with them since. It's a slowly sinking Titanic. They couldn't save the Titanic; Intel is no different now.