After several quarters of sharp declines, global personal computer sales rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2023, with worldwide shipments of desktop and laptop computers increasing to over 65 million units. A recent report shows that positive market sentiment and an increase in PC sales helped processor manufacturers like Intel and AMD achieve sequential and year-over-year growth in CPU shipments.
According to data from Jon Peddie Research, global client PC CPU shipments reached 66 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 7% increase over the third quarter and a 22% increase over the fourth quarter of 2022, impressively. In the same period, shipments of iGPUs increased to 60 million units, indicating that the vast majority of sold CPUs were equipped with integrated graphics. The report shows that iGPU sales grew 7% sequentially and 18% year-over-year.
Laptops have long been the preferred computing mode for most consumers, and demand for notebook processors has consistently outstripped desktop CPU sales for years. The latest data shows that this trend is becoming more pronounced. In the fourth quarter of 2022, desktop processors accounted for 37% of the market share, but only 30% of shipments in the same period last year, as the market share of mobile CPUs rose from 63% to 70%.
The study also predicts a significant increase in the penetration rate of iGPUs in client PCs, reaching 98%. This suggests that more people are expected to buy personal computers for general purposes, rather than for specialized GPU-intensive tasks such as gaming, video editing, or 3D modeling. However, the study did not specifically state whether the gamer/enthusiast market will shrink in the coming years, or whether overall growth will be strong enough to allow both segments to grow simultaneously.
The report also provides market share segmentation of Intel and AMD in the iGPU field. As expected, Intel held 84% of the market share, while AMD controlled the remaining 16%. However, this is a slight decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, when Intel’s iGPU market share was 87%, and AMD’s was only 13%.
Interestingly, although client PC CPU sales increased year-over-year in the last quarter, server CPU shipments declined. The report shows that server CPU shipments in the fourth quarter of 2023 grew by 2.8% sequentially but fell by 26% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
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