Intel Prevails In Client CPU Sales, But Threadripper Pro Outsold Xeon Nearly 20:1 : Report
custom pc builder Puget Systems (opens in new tab) shared their hardware trends for 2022. Here’s a detailed report revealing the company’s sales in terms of processors, graphics cards, storage, and other information. However, it’s important to emphasize that this data is for Puget Systems sales. As such, it does not represent worldwide sales or market share.
AMD had a great year in 2021, capturing over 70% market share in client processor sales. At the time, the chip maker had a formidable Zen 3 chip lineup that Intel’s 11th Generation Rocket Lake processors couldn’t compete with. However, Intel has slowly regained market share with its first desktop hybrid part, the 12th Generation Alder Lake processors. Data from January 2022 to December 2022 shows a steady decline in AMD Ryzen usage. AMD will finally release his Ryzen 4 processors in September 2022, and Intel will soon strike back with his 13th Generation Raptor Lake chips. Nonetheless, Puget System noted that Zen 4 and Raptor Lake hit a dead end and did not affect their market share status. The scale has already flipped, with Intel finishing his 2022 with over 70% of his market share.
In the workstation segment, Intel was clearly no match for AMD. By the end of 2022, Threadripper Pro processors will own 95% of the market share, with the remaining 5% going to his Xeon chips. AMD’s Threadripper processors outperformed Intel’s offerings by almost 20:1. Threadripper has gained a following in the Puget System due to the processor’s attractive attributes such as more cores than competing Xeon chips, a richer feature set and a more affordable price.
With the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 WX series processors, AMD stopped offering their usual variants to the retail market, marking the end of HEDT processors. Like other system integrators, Puget Systems had no choice but to move to the more expensive Pro version. The Threadripper Pro 5000 WX series hit the market in Q3 2022. This is when the chip began to climb to the top of the Puget System charts.
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Puget Systems tailors workstations for specialized workloads such as content creation, engineering, and scientific computing. The company, which exclusively uses Nvidia’s products, has found a growing trend towards professional graphics (Nvidia RTX, formerly Quadro) cards. For example, his GeForce graphics cards for Nvidia accounted for over 90% of the company’s sales for him. But the Puget System finished his 2022 with just 80%.
Demand for professional graphics cards is not growing exponentially. But Puget System believes there are two main reasons why he encourages customers to use professional graphics cards. The first reason is that Nvidia’s GeForce graphics card has become a poor choice for multi-GPU configurations. Second, as virtual production and AI become more popular, consumers are turning to professional graphics cards.
It’s no coincidence that Nvidia’s mainstream Geforce graphics cards are no longer an attractive option for multi-GPU systems. That’s because Nvidia has more limited support for his NVLink than his GeForce graphics cards of the previous generation. For example, the Geforce RTX 3090 (Ampere) is the last mainstream of his GeForce product to support NVLink until Nvidia pulls the plug on NVLink completely with his latest GeForce RTX 40 series (Ada Lovelace) graphics card. was.
There’s also a lack of blower-type GeForce models. This is the kind you want in a server rack with lots of graphics cards in between. Nearly all of his Nvidia partners had blower versions of the GeForce RTX 3090, which then miraculously disappeared or ended production. There have been whispers that Nvidia isn’t too happy that some system integrators are using these of his GeForce RTX 3090 Blower graphics cards instead of their own more expensive professional offerings. . A closer look reveals a GeForce RTX 4090 blower model on the market. But it’s rare, and even vendors are afraid to name it.
Low-capacity NVMe SSDs and SATA SSDs are roughly equivalent, so it’s no surprise that the former is the primary storage device in 95% of Puget Systems’ offerings. In addition, further price improvements have brought 1TB and smaller NVMe drives within a few dollars of traditional SATA SSDs. As a result, the usage of his NVMe SSD as primary device in Puget System reached 100%.
While NVMe SSDs are within consumer affordability, SATA SSDs and hard drives are still somewhat relevant for secondary storage. In terms of overall drive utilization, NVMe drives account for 80% market share. However, SATA SSDs and hard drives still account for 10% of storage usage. Puget System said it doesn’t think SATA SSDs, much less hard drives, will go away any time soon unless the price of 4TB and larger NVMe drives drops.
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Puget Systems was reluctant to move completely to Windows 11 when it debuted. There were concerns about application compatibility and poor performance. As a result, adoption rates were sluggish until around July 2022, after which they began to rise. Despite this, Puget Systems’ taste for Windows 11 didn’t catch up to Windows 10 until October 2022. The company still has customers who prefer Windows 10. But it won’t be long. As of March 2023, 70% of systems sold by Puget Systems use Windows 11 as their operating system.
At the time, Zen 4 and Raptor Lake hadn’t been on the market long enough to be in the charts. With more time to fight, AMD could take more market away from Intel. As for the workstation segment, Intel recently launched its 4th generation Sapphire Rapids Xeon chips, pushing core counts up to 60 to compete with AMD’s Threadripper. But AMD doesn’t stand still with its arms crossed. The chipmaker’s Threadripper 7000 (Storm Peak) chips with Zen 4 cores are expected to hit the market before the end of the year. So it will be interesting to see if Sapphire Rapids can help Intel gain some ground in the workstation segment.
Puget Systems believes Nvidia is the best when it comes to graphics card options. Unless AMD announces something convincing this year, it’s hard to believe that next year’s AMD graphics card will hit Puget Systems’ charts.
