AMD's desktop CPU market share climbs almost 10% from last year, according to research, but it still trails behind Intel in every sector

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor — (Image credit: Future)

PC market sleuths Mercury Research and Jon Peddie Research have both announced their latest judgments in the never-ending battle between AMD and Intel, as to which one is selling the most processors. Focusing on x86 chips for desktop, mobile, and server platforms, the findings claim that it's all going very well for Team Red, but it's still Team Blue that rules the roost for now.

Starting with Mercury Research's report, sent to us directly, it suggests that in the last three months of 2025, AMD had a 29.2% share of the x86 CPU market (not including embedded or IoT processors). With Intel obviously taking up all the rest, that might not sound like great news for AMD, but it is 4.5% better than the same period in 2024.

An AMD Zen 5 Turin-based EPYC processor with the head spreader removed, showing 13 chiplets, held in a hand — 13's a lucky number (of chiplets) for AMD. (Image credit: AMD)

"Intel's capacity reallocation hit the company's mobile client CPU shipments the hardest, resulting in Intel experiencing significant sequential and on-year declines in shipments, far below seasonal norms in what is typically an up quarter."

However, while Mercury Research suggests that "x86 processor unit shipments declined sequentially, which is unusual as the fourth quarter typically has the highest sequential total unit growth of the year," Jon Peddie Research's figures paint a slightly different picture, claiming that "the global client CPU market expanded for four quarters in a row, and in Q4’25, it showed modest growth of 2.7% from last quarter."

"We think the PC CPUs’ growth was in line with seasonal buying behavior, albeit a bit low. The influence of the up-again, down-again tariffs, and Microsoft’s withdrawal from support of the 2016 Windows 10, also had an effect," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research.

JPR does agree that sales of server chips have been especially good: "The overall server CPU market increased by 6.5% quarter to quarter and by 13.6% year to year." No prizes for guessing which tech industry is buying all those AMD Epyc and Intel Xeon processors.

A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor — (Image credit: Future)

As to how things are going to fare over the next few months, Mercury Research doesn't offer anything, and JPR merely says that "We expect Q1’26 to be down due to memory constraints and higher process."

Both AMD and Intel are expected to launch new desktop processors at some point in 2026 (Zen 6, Nova Lake), but with DRAM prices and availability both looking extremely grim for the foreseeable future, there probably won't be any significant change in market shares, just a general decline in chip shipments until the global memory supply chain improves.

Best CPU for gaming 2026

1. Best overall:
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

2. Best budget:
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

3. Best mid-range:
AMD Ryzen 7 9700X

4. Best high-end:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

5. Best AM4 upgrade:
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D

6. Best CPU graphics:
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

👉Check out our full CPU guide👈

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Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?

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