Zen micro-architecture was a great “miracle formula”. AMD rise in the processor market against Intel, which until a few years ago enjoyed a strong and comfortable dominant position. The red giant’s good work with the Ryzen, Ryzen Threadripper and Epyc processor lines allowed it to exceed 30% share in the fourth quarter of 2022.

According to Mercury Research’s market analysis and within the x86 spectrum, the share is AMD was at 31.3% in the last quarter of 2022 compared to Intel’s 68.7%. Go ahead, processors aimed at the home sector as well as servers and professional and business environments are included here, so part of the credit for this comeback goes to Epyc processors, which have been able to establish 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 seen the biggest drop in processor shipments in the last thirty years. In a year-on-year comparison, the decrease in processor shipments were 34%, while compared to the third quarter of 2022, this is a decrease of 19%..

We find ourselves in a processor market with similar dynamics to that of graphics cards, resulting from a combination of the bursting of the bubble experienced during the pandemic and the turbulent economic context we live in, with high inflation prominent. In other words, the inability to buy a new computer was compounded by a small need to buy a new computer, although not all of them were shadows.

Mercury Research explained to PC Mag that “unit shipments in 2022 were 374 million (excluding ARM processors) and revenue was $65 billion, down 21% and 19%. While this sounds very grim, keep in mind that overall processor market revenue was still higher in 2022 than in any other year, except for 2020 and 2021.” Another fact he pointed out is that low demand for PCs and concerns about the economy are “prompting PC makers to reduce their inventories as well”.

Weak demand for PCs, how could it be otherwise, is hitting the notebook sector hard, which in the fourth quarter of 2022 saw its largest drop in supply levels in its history. In addition to all the above, Intel’s decision to raise prices has also been able to influence them, on the other hand, Apple seems to resist better thanks to the novelty and technological benefit of its ARM-based processors.

In short, and according to Mercury Research, AMD will gain over 30% share during 2022, but the processor sector (and hardware in general) is not experiencing its best moment. The red giant is joined by particularly weak sales, which Ryzen 7000 recorded at least in the first months on the market.