Monday, August 24th 2026

AMD Gains Ground as Intel x86 Market Share Goes Back to 1995 Levels

According to Mercury Research, Intel's x86 CPU market share has dropped below 70% for the first time since 1995, hitting 69.3% in Q2 2026, a 6.5-point drop year over year. AMD was there to pick up the difference, reaching 30.7%, a new record for the company. Mercury Research president Dean McCarron confirmed the 31-year low to CRN following the release of his second-quarter CPU market share report. Those figures cover PC and server CPU shipments only. When semi-custom, embedded, and IoT products are included, the Intel market share falls to 65.9% vs. AMD's 34.1%, with the latter getting a boost from a stronger than expected gaming console SoC shipments, a segment Intel doesn't compete in, if we skip the Arc G3 CPU family dedicated to handhelds.

Breaking it down by segment, AMD's desktop share reached 34.9%, up 2.7 points year over year against Intel's 65.1%, despite Intel CPUs returning to Amazon's CPU Top 10 sales ranking yesterday. In the server CPU market, AMD managed to grow by 7.3 points year over year, reaching 34.5% against Intel's 65.5%. The competition is fierce in this segment, AMD has launched the 6th Gen EPYC "Venice" server processors powered by the "Zen 6" CPU microarchitecture, while Intel just announced its upcoming Xeon 7 "Diamond Rapids" CPUs and the "Crescent Island" graphics card for data centers and workstations. The laptop market is where AMD moved the most, climbing to 28.9%, up 8.4 points year over year, while Intel stays at 71.1%. Overall PC market share for AMD hit a record 30.3%, up 6.4 points year over year.
Intel pointed to record year-over-year sales growth in its Data Center Group and a growing number of long-term supply agreements when asked to comment. On the channel side, a U.S. systems integrator executive told CRN that Intel's partner engagement has picked up noticeably after a period when AMD was getting more attention. "I think they're realizing that they have to be active," the executive said, speaking anonymously.
Source: CRN
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122 Comments on AMD Gains Ground as Intel x86 Market Share Goes Back to 1995 Levels

#101
Bigshrimp
JustBenchingIn MT, they are. Vastly. The 14700k is over 50% faster in MT workloads. EG. blender


But you pretend to misread or misunderstand to make a point. Oh well


Yeah, im arguing in terrible faith when i say that Intel has been dominating for over half a decade in MT performance at most price points. It's totally not true, that's why people have pushed back with plenty of examples instead of personal attacks.
I truly mean no offense and I know how it feels losing an argument, it sucks, but do you ever give up? I really just want to bash both AMD and Intel, but you are on here shilling for Intel like they are the best thing since sliced bread. I just don't get it...
Posted on Reply
#102
JustBenching
BigshrimpI truly mean no offense and I know how it feels losing an argument, it sucks, but do you ever give up? I really just want to bash both AMD and Intel, but you are on here shilling for Intel like they are the best thing since sliced bread. I just don't get it...
What argument am I losing? I've been waiting for 4 pages for an example of an AMD CPU being faster in either ST or MT to a similarly priced intel chip but all im getting is personal attacks and red herrings. Nothing tells me im losing an argument more than getting personally attacked :D
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#103
Bigshrimp
JustBenchingWhat argument am I losing? I've been waiting for 4 pages for an example of an AMD CPU being faster in either ST or MT to a similarly priced intel chip but all im getting is personal attacks and red herrings. Nothing tells me im losing an argument more than getting personally attacked :D
Who cares at this point? Maybe just be happy that you are right in your mind at all times and leave it at that.
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#104
Tyler-98-W68
BigshrimpWho cares at this point? Maybe just be happy that you are right in your mind at all times and leave it at that.
You are a shining example of what he just pointed out. Who cares? Obviously you since you took the time to reply. So I will ask you what chip does AMD have that is similar in price to a 270k that has similar or better performance ST and MT
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#105
Bigshrimp
Tyler-98-W68You are a shining example of what he just pointed out. Who cares? Obviously you since you took the time to reply. So I will ask you what chip does AMD have that is similar in price to a 270k that has similar or better performance ST and MT
Lol, ok buddy. Whatever you say.
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#106
Tyler-98-W68
BigshrimpLol, ok buddy. Whatever you say.
So when you can't answer or provide proof to support your argument you resort to deflection, typical AMD worshipper.
Posted on Reply
#107
Bigshrimp
Tyler-98-W68So when you can't answer or provide proof to support your argument you resort to deflection, typical AMD worshipper. Im guessing you eat corn on the cob long ways too?
No, I just don't feel like wasting anymore time with trolls that argue about stupid shit online.
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#108
Tyler-98-W68
BigshrimpNo, I just don't feel like wasting anymore time with trolls that argue about stupid shit online.
What exactly was your point again little crustacean?
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#109
Bigshrimp
Tyler-98-W68What exactly was your point again little crustacean?
I already made it.
Posted on Reply
#110
Tyler-98-W68
BigshrimpI already made it.
Don't see it anywhere, so again what AMD cpu that costs the same as the 270k has superior ST and MT performance? Right you won't answer it because you can't and answering it doesn't fit your narrative. Go jump in some cocktail sauce
Posted on Reply
#111
Hecate91
When the trolls lose an argument they resort to repeating the same nonsense until everyone with any logical reasoning gives up.
This thread isn't about what CPU is faster in certain tasks, AMD is gaining market share in server and desktop where they have the overall better products, not niche cases where a certain task benefits from a bunch of atom cores. I had though some people here were shilling, but no company would want to represent sh*t this stupid.
Posted on Reply
#112
Bigshrimp
Hecate91When the trolls lose an argument they resort to repeating to repeating the same nonsense until everyone with any logical reasoning gives up.
This thread isn't about what CPU is faster in certain tasks, AMD is gaining market share in server and desktop where they have the overall better products, not niche cases where a certain task benefits from a bunch of atom cores. I had though some people here were shilling, but no company would want to represent sh*t this stupid.
Yeah. Confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance is quite the cocktail... They double down over and over until your mind is mush, lol.
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#114
Bigshrimp
JustBenchingor youll get personal attacks and death threats on PMs.
You are getting death threats? Who is doing that? Wtf, lol... Mods, do you see this nonsense? You should report that if you are being serious about your life being threatened somehow.

Don't send it to me, send it to the mods, lol. Again if this is a serious threat to your life, you should send it to the mods so they can vet it and take action, wtf...
Posted on Reply
#115
Ahhzz
The Wizard thereof
JustBenchingCognitive dissonance and confirmation bias is strong here. You have to pretend that the 9700x is faster than the 270k or youll get personal attacks and death threats on PMs.

...
If you're receiving death threats via PM, please add myself and/or other mods to the message immediately. If you're not, then I don't expect to see this noise from you again.
Posted on Reply
#116
JustBenching
AhhzzIf you're receiving death threats via PM, please add myself and/or other mods to the message immediately. If you're not, then I don't expect to see this noise from you again.
I did forward it to a mod the same day. It's been taken care off.
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#117
razaron
JustBenchingCommon misconception. They are not non stop winning. When was the last time AMD offered a faster product at a similar price point to Intel? Back in 2019 pretty much. They have been non stop losing top to bottom in both ST and MT performance in the majority of price segments.
I remember seeing they performed well in reviews (ignoring TDP) with the e-cores putting in work, haven't payed attention to prices since I upgraded (from an i5 6600k).
Looked at Wiz's latest review, price/performance looks like a mixed bag in Intels favour. AMDs cheaper in the UK, so more mixed here.

I wonder what percantage of AMDs CPU sales come from people already on a compatible socket? If Intel keeps it up, will be interesting to see the market share once AM6 drops.
Tek-CheckThey obviously compete in data centre GPUs with MI400 series. Nvidia is simply bigger and the first mover, but hey, there's a lot of space in that market. TAM is enormous, to the point that Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others can simply produce their own chips and racks. It's huge.

In client, AMD will try to come back with wider GPU portfolio on RDNA5 architecture. Currently, their upper mid range 9070XT is ding pretty, pretty well.
Yeah my bad, I meant RDNA. CDNA is doing great. nVidia managed to pull off a unified arch, here's to hoping UDNA does well. AMD struggled to cost effectively do both last time (he who chases two rabbits etc.). It'd be nice if I don't have to skip another gen... With RAM prices being what they are, competition is our only hope for stomachable prices...
Posted on Reply
#118
mkppo
Soo what's the verdict after 5 pages, why did AMD double their marketshare over the last 6 years? The only reason given that I can see is they are slower in MT performance for the dollar. Maybe that's the trick right there.
Posted on Reply
#119
wheresmycar
mkppoSoo what's the verdict after 5 pages, why did AMD double their marketshare over the last 6 years? The only reason given that I can see is they are slower in MT performance for the dollar. Maybe that's the trick right there.
Verdict on page-5?

Not enough forensic analysis. The forensic scientists in these threads need at least page-15 to determine which benchmark supports the conclusion they already reached on page one.

Page-16 should be interesting.... thats when personal attacks start outperforming the CPUs. You can't put a page number on that sort of contaminated crime scene.
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#120
unknownk
You guys are funny.

Intel was always known for their FABs more so than their chip designs. If you can stay a few generations ahead in FABs even run of the mill chip designs can be world leaders. Cyrix and AMD had design wins in the past for short periods, but Intel could just lower prices and vastly outproduce competition to weather the storm nicely.

AMD with the Ryzen series changed their fortunes from being the cheapest CPU/motherboard you can find to get the job done to being competitive at a time when Intel figured they had already won the race and let their FABs stagnate to save money. TSMC won the FAB war and if AMD could have purchased 1000% more wafers then allocated Intel would be toast. That is the major difference between them, how many chips they can actually make. Intel had to lower prices to be competitive and make it up in volume since they still own their own FABs while AMD has been selling higher profit chips to make the most of the wafer allocation they can (while still making lower profit contracted console chips and a few GPUs to keep the brand alive).

For consumers it's all about availability vs price/performance. If AMD had an unlimited amount of 16GB RX 9070 XTs at MSRP to sell they would dominate the market, but they don't because the dies are large and that would cut into more profitable high-end CPUs.

AMD's valuation is more than intel's because people are gambling that as AMD buys more and more wafers, they should be able to overtake Intel's production over time. Intel will end up like AMD down the road with underperforming foundries that they have to keep dumping money into like AMD did with GoFlo. Now maybe if Intel can get their shit together and be on par with TSMC they can reverse their fortunes because the competition has caused Intel to actually make better chips designs that were hobbled by poorer manufacturing nodes.
Posted on Reply
#121
Tek-Check
unknownkNow maybe if Intel can get their shit together and be on par with TSMC they can reverse their fortunes because the competition has caused Intel to actually make better chips designs that were hobbled by poorer manufacturing nodes.
Intel is not able to move nowhere near as much volume as TMSC can at the moment. It's not even close. TMSC serves more than 70% of global chip production, and Intel doesn't even appear in the top 10 list of global foundries.

Secondly, Intel doesn't have a proper AI data center GPU, so their volume is mostly confined to Xeons and client market. Whether thid changes any time soon, we shall see. They seem overvalued in stock markets, but hey, that's the case with many companies.
Posted on Reply
#122
unknownk
Tek-CheckIntel is not able to move nowhere near as much volume as TMSC can at the moment. It's not even close. TMSC serves more than 70% of global chip production, and Intel doesn't even appear in the top 10 list of global foundries.

Secondly, Intel doesn't have a proper AI data center GPU, so their volume is mostly confined to Xeons and client market. Whether thid changes any time soon, we shall see. They seem overvalued in stock markets, but hey, that's the case with many companies.
I meant with respect to CPU production. A lot of the global chip market is for much older technology meant for cars, analog circuits, toys, and cheap devices.
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