El Segundo (CA) – The microprocessor war between AMD and Intel showed further signs of calming down as both companies were able to improve their market share numbers in the overall microprocessor market, according to estimates published by iSuppli today.

Robust sales of PCs contributed to an environment in which AMD as well as Intel were able to increase their footprint in the microprocessor market. Including numbers from RISC manufacturers, Intel is estimated by iSuppli to have ended the third quarter with a 78.7% share, up from 78.4% in the second quarter and up from 74.1% in the third quarter of 2006.

AMD, at 13.9%, was still down significantly from 16.8% in Q3 2006, but the company gained 0.6 points from13.3% in Q2 2007, according to iSuppli. The market research firm believes that both AMD and Intel were able to gain at the expense of their smaller rivals, whose collective share of global revenue declined to 7.4% in the third quarter, down from 8.2% in the second quarter.

“The combination of strong PC and server demand—combined with stable microprocessor prices led to a prosperous quarter for both Intel and AMD,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst at iSuppli. “Pricing trends were influenced by many variables, including the consistent strength in computing markets, Intel’s rapid migration to its new Core 2 architecture microprocessors, and the increasing penetration of multi-core products in the market,” Wilkins said.

However, while the pricing battle may be coming to an end, Wilkins believes that the competition will continue to be “extremely fierce”. “AMD’s launch of Barcelona and Barcelona-derived products gives the company a stronger portfolio with which to compete, and with Intel shipping its products based on its new 45 nm manufacturing process, neither company is resting on its laurels,” the analyst noted.

Mac Factor?

Dec 03, 2007 12:39     

Intel's sales would be affected by the new Macs going out with Intel processors, right? This would account for their increase. So AMD's increase would be in the server and PC market, which would seem to mean that AMD's pricing is gaining them share at the expense of Intel. Is the pendulum swinging again???
Paul (The Other One) report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Doubt it is the Macs

Dec 03, 2007 13:20     

It is probably more at the expense of companies like VIA with their low power processors and many, many RISC processor manufacturers. Apple sales are a small sub-segment of personal processors
Joel report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Re: Mac Factor?

Dec 03, 2007 14:47     

Did the pendulum shrink? Considering AMD's top priced processor in Q3 was around $200, they tried giving processors away and still only gained .6%?? Back are the days of AMD competing against the "celeron". As Mac sales increase, a new Intel only OEM is born. And Macs all seem to have high ASP Intel processors in them. (ie Xeon's, Core 2 mobiles) Its Decemeber and still see no 2.5GHz Phenom or Opteron. AMD is the new king of paper releases.

BSMonitor report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

AMD’s launch of Barcelona and Barcelona-deriv...

Dec 03, 2007 16:55     

AMD’s launch of Barcelona and Barcelona-derived products gives the company a stronger portfolio with which to compete.... Maybe in the server side Barcelona competes but currently Phenom doees not. Only die hard AMD fans are buying Phenom considering that you can get a better performing clock per clock and per watt not to mention better OC'ing Q6600 for less than or equal to a Phenom 9600(2.3GHz version). As well most users who have a X2 6000 wont have a performance increase. I would say desktop wise the Phenom wont be competing until they release a B3 revision even then against the Yorkfeild/Penryn might be a challenge due to the fact they run cooler, use less power(3GHz QX9650 uses less than a 2.4GHz Phenom 9700) and much easier to OC than anything before.

Jimmy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

RE: Mac Factor Again

Dec 03, 2007 19:01     

Also Macs have had Intel for awhile so the Intel improvment isnt all Macs
Michael report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

server & laptop drives

Dec 04, 2007 03:38     

unfortunately.. desktop as a whole is shrinking and laptops taking up the lion's share in Personal Computer space. So... whoever now has the tentacles in laptop and server markets gonna survive pretty well in future... desktop will remain as enthusiasts ppl can't afford laptop share... But honestly.. I love desktops...
Alien report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Competition?

Dec 04, 2007 06:56     

VIA, Transmeta and other companies are hardly competition for Intel and AMD. VIA's processors sure use less power to run but at a gross performance hit. I'm not sure what's the point in doing that. I'm thinking of buying a Biostar board with a C7 processor to have a better base to criticize VIA with, as at the moment I'm going with the online reviews. This is PC-wise, of course. When it comes to flexibility, VIA is a much better option, car computers, exotic computer cases, et al, are good applications for the ITX factor that VIA uses.

Fabio report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0