Puget Systems, a custom computer building company specializing in configuring workstations for professional users, has published its annual Hardware Trends statistics. As a disclaimer, this data only reflects the preferences of Puget Systems’ customers, who have vastly different needs than the average consumer, requiring high-end machines for content creation and scientific research. You get the idea.
Before we jump into the data, the statistics only include workstation and rackstation sales, not including servers and mobile counterparts. The data has been reported as percentages instead of raw numbers for a better overview. For basic terminology, client CPUs typically refer to AMD’s Ryzen and Intel’s Core lineup of processors. Moving over to workstations, we have Threadripper and Xeon W, whereas EPYC and Xeon Scalable / Xeon 6 families are designated for servers.
In terms of overall CPUs sold, AMD has finally dethroned Intel after four long years, capturing almost 55% of all orders in Q4 2024. Since this number encapsulates both consumer and workstation-grade offerings, let’s go over them individually for more insight. Client CPU sales (Ryzen/Core) see AMD slowly creeping up to Intel, with a substantial jump from just 20% of CPUs sold at the start of 2024 to almost 40% by the end. This is, for the most part, an outcome of Intel’s shortcomings; see the Raptor Lake degradation fiasco and Arrow Lake performance hiccups.
On the contrary, enthusiasts haven’t paid much attention to Intel’s workstation lineup which has been in AMD’s shadow for many years. Since the start of 2021, Intel’s workstation market share, per this limited data, has been hovering between 10% and 20% and has not improved since. Just in the last quarter, nine out of ten professionals opted for a Ryzen Threadripper-equipped workstation at Puget Systems.
The data also revealed the preference for consumer-grade RTX GPUs (80%) over Nvidia’s professional offerings (20%). Moving over to Operating System choice, Linux is now in more demand than Windows 10 but still pales in contrast to Windows 11; installed on 90% of all workstations. With Windows 10’s EOL approaching this year, Microsoft has now made it possible to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware but does not guarantee a stable experience.
Overall, other aspects remain mostly unchanged but there is a high probability that AMD’s Ryzen sales could overtake Intel this quarter. Budget Ryzen 9000 non-X CPUs will go neck and neck against Arrow Lake non-K, though AMD has a clear platform advantage.
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