Pepsi versus Coke. Duracell versus Energizer. Marvel versus DC. McDonald’s versus any semblance of healthy eating. Famous brand rivalries have come to define commerce in the modern age so much that we expect to see everything through the dichotomy of one dominant player and a plucky underdog trying to take top spot, even though they almost never do.
Except in the case of AMD. The plucky underdog has finally pulled one out against chipmaking juggernaut Intel by finally acquiring a slim majority of the desktop CPU market, according to benchmark software producer PassMark.
PassMark just released their Q1 stats for 2021, and it has some interesting tidbits about how AMD and Intel are facing off as we head into the new year. The big reveal is that AMD now has 50.8% of the desktop CPU market while Intel has the remaining 49.2%. This is the first time that AMD has had a majority share of the desktop processor market since way back in 2006, when AMD briefly held the crown before Intel bounced back as the market leader.
This time AMD is hoping its lead will last a bit longer than last. AMD just released their new Ryzen 5000 series of CPUs that have some impressive performance compared to their Intel counterparts. Intel plans to fire back with its new “Rocket Lake” line of processors sometime in the first quarter, which will apparently be “fantastic for gaming.”
While AMD has eeked ahead in the desktop CPU market, Intel still holds the lion's share or the laptop and server processor markets. In fact, AMD doesn't seem to compete at all when it comes to server CPUs. You can chalk that up to AMD strictly focusing on personal devices rather than business applications, where Intel has traditionally been a market leader.
AMD is still behind Nvidia when it comes to GPUs, but that might be changing too. AMD is having just as much trouble keeping their new Big Navi graphics cards on store shelves as Nvidia is with its stock of their new RTX cards. It’ll be interesting to see where each manufacturer stacks up when Steam does their next hardware survey.
Source: PassMark