eTailer Data Shows AMD Ryzen Putting The Smackdown On Intel In Sales To DIY PC Builders
Who knows what the future holds, but for the current generation of Ryzen processors, AMD correctly surmised that it did not need to surpass Intel in IPC performance in order to offer customers a compelling a solution. It just needed to be competitive at the higher end of the spectrum. Combined with aggressive pricing, customers have responded by buying more AMD processors than Intel chips, according to data released by an online retailer in Germany.
Before we go any further, caveats are in order. For one, a single online retailer in Germany is not necessarily indicative of the marketplace as a whole. It is also important to consider that the sales figures for individual CPUs mostly apply to do-it-yourself (DIY) builders, and generally leave out OEM system builders. So, there can be a significant gap in what the numbers show and the overall sales picture.
Caveats out of the way, the data is still interesting. The numbers come from Mindfactory, and they show (again) AMD's Ryzen processors and Zen-based Athlon chips outselling Intel's CPUs by a huge margin in March—more than 2:1.
All tallied, 69 percent of Mindfactory's CPU sales are for AMD Ryzen processors, including first- and second-generation Ryzen chips and also Threadripper. The remaining 31 percent of CPU sales are for Intel hardware. That is a sizeable gap, and it shows that AMD has a winning product on its hands.
There is one other caveat, though: price. Have a look at this next set of charts...
Click to Enlarge (Source: Reddit [ingebor] via Mindfactory)
These charts highlight the effectiveness of AMD's pricing, and the trade off that comes with it. The revenue split is much closer than the sales gap, meaning AMD has to sell a bunch more processors than Intel to generate the same amount of dollars. AMD still comes out ahead here, at least at Mindfactory's online store, but the margin is much narrower—54 percent for AMD and 46 percent of Intel.
Whether there is wiggle room in AMD's pricing to potentially charge more is something for the company's bean counters to figure out. We may see that with AMD's upcoming third-generation Ryzen processors, which we have been told by a major AMD ecosystem OEM will close the gap with Intel in single-threaded performance. The same source also said AMD is expected to remain aggressive with pricing, but that performance is so strong with Ryzen 3000, it could merit higher pricing.
Whatever the case might be, AMD is in a good place right now, and positioned to do well in the future.
