Source: ETCIO
After AMD’s announcement, some Wall Street analysts are anticipating an opportunity for AMD to take an even bigger share of the market for PC processors.
Out of all the intense rivalries that have fuelled competition in Silicon Valley, the longest-running battle belongs to chip manufacturers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). At a recent computer conference in Taiwan, the tech tug-of-war between the two companies underwent an interesting turn.
For decades, Intel has dominated the processors market that power desktop PCs, with AMD often forced to satisfy itself with the second spot. Over the decades, the companies have clashed in courts as well as the expanding market for computer processors.
AMD CEO Lisa Su took the stage at the Computex computer expo in Taipei to showcase the third generation of the company’s Ryzen microprocessor, which it began developing more than five years ago.
Su said the new chips based on AMD’s Zen architecture, outperformed a comparable processor from Intel by more than 16% in its internal tests. Come July, the new Ryzen chips will sell for $500, half the price of Intel’s competing offerings.
AMD’s innovations have overtaken those at Intel in the past, but after the recent announcement, some Wall Street analysts are anticipating an opportunity for AMD to take an even bigger share of the market for PC processors.
Ryzen chips have already helped AMD’s CPU market share to surge 17% last quarter, up from 12% a year earlier (with Intel holding the remaining share), thanks in part to a shortage of CPU processors at Intel. If Ryzen delivers on price and performance as Su promised, it can take more of Intel’s dominant share.
“This announcement represents the first time AMD has taken the desktop CPU lead process technology and performance lead from Intel in its 50-year history,” Stifel Financial analyst Kevin Cassidy said in a research note Monday. “We expect AMD to accelerate its PC market share gains due to higher performance, lower power usage, lower cost and ease of upgrade.”
Another analyst, Aaron Rakers at Wells Fargo, said Su’s “presentation reinforced our positive thesis” that the Ryzen chips could sustain AMD’s market-share gains through the rest of 2019.
* Lead image used for representational purposes only.
