Josh Norem
2024-03-07 08:00:00
www.extremetech.com
Boutique system builder Puget Systems has released its annual “hardware trends” report for 2023, and it illustrates the dominance both AMD and Intel enjoy when it comes to the different PCs it builds for its customers. The company makes high-end, custom computers for various clients, and the summary of its sales is based on the workstations it built last year. Therefore, the numbers do not represent the industry at large but rather what its customers are asking it to build. That said, Intel dominates when it comes to computers with “client” CPUs, whereas AMD also rules the roost when it comes to systems with workstation processors.
Puget’s report starts off by showing how Intel regained its former glory when it launched its 12th Generation Alder Lake CPUs in 2021. Before that, the company’s client PCs were primarily outfitted with AMD Ryzen CPUs, which was common since AMD held a significant advantage over Intel before its “hybrid” processors arrived. It’s since followed that up with two more revisions known as Raptor Lake and then Raptor Lake refresh, which have allowed Intel to jettison itself back onto the top of the heap over AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. Puget says Intel’s resurgence allowed it to flip the share of its systems with client CPUs from AMD back to Intel, where it now comprises about 80% of its customers’ orders.
Intel Core CPUs account for about 80% of systems with “client” CPUs installed.
Credit: Puget Systems
AMD pulled the same switcheroo as Intel regarding systems with workstation CPUs. As you may recall, AMD previously abandoned the regular Threadripper market in mid-2021 by only offering a pricey Threadripper Pro CPU. Puget says by mid-2022, it had ceased offering Threadripper builds, but that changed in 2023 since AMD brought Threadripper back from the dead with the new Zen 4 versions in both regular and Pro variants.
A motherboard shortage prevented the company from selling regular Threadripper chips until late in the year, but sales skyrocketed once it had those mobos handy. If you look at the blue line in the chart below, you can see it going almost vertical, where it meets the line for Threadripper Pro, meaning they are selling the same number of both CPUs. Intel, meanwhile, languishes at the bottom of the chart.
Sales of systems with an AMD Threadripper and Threadripper Pro CPU outpace Intel Xeon by 10:1.
Credit: Puget Systems
Overall, these numbers are not indicative of the market in general, but they certainly align with the public perception of both companies’ strengths and weaknesses. Intel’s hybrid processors are very competitive with AMD’s offerings on the client side, though there’s no explanation as to why they’re preferred so heavily compared with AMD Ryzen. Intel’s support of DDR4 memory for these processors may be partially responsible; it makes systems less expensive to build because Ryzen 7000 requires DDR5. However, that’s just speculation on our part.
When it comes to workstations, though, AMD’s new Threadripper CPUs are clearly the dominant offering in the industry, so it’s no surprise to see that reflected in the sales charts. AMD currently has a sizable advantage over Intel when it comes to core counts, so its multi-threaded performance is unparalleled. Intel does hold the lead in PCIe connectivity, but Puget’s customers might not be too concerned about that, given the numbers presented.
The report includes several other comparisons that might interest readers, including which OS people are buying these days (Windows 11) and which storage type is preferred (NVMe). Still, the answers are so obvious we didn’t feel the need to expound on them.