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Intel is forecasting a "slight decline" in its premium chip prices for the remainder of the year, and AMD's Ryzen chips could have played a part in that. Prices of Intel's chips in both desktops and laptops went up in the first quarter. That helped drive up the quarterly revenue for Client Computing Group -- which deals in PC chips -- to $8 billion, which was up 6 percent compared to the same quarter last year. But Intel's PC chips now face serious competition from AMD's new Ryzen chip, which was released last month. Ryzen chips offer competitive performance, and are priced significantly lower.
During an earnings call on Thursday, Intel's CEO Brian Krzanich sidestepped a question on whether Ryzen had any role in the projected chip price declines. He said the market dynamics were a reason.
Did you read the transcript of the call? It get's better:
Vivek Arya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch And are you seeing any effect of competition from AMD's product launches?
Brian M. Krzanich - Intel Corp.
So right now we've forecasted a slight decline through the rest of the year, but we had strong demand for it in Q1. And we really believe that's a function of our products and our roadmap. From a competition standpoint, we're not seeing anything unusual right now as far as – there's always some level of competition in this market, and I'd tell you for Q1 and our forecast for Q2, we're not seeing anything out of the ordinary from what we normally see.
Intel have to say something like that to keep investors calm. Ryzen 7 and 5 are mainly competing in the gaming market, which is too small a segment to effect overall prices, but that's just because Intel's market share is so large. It's still a sizable hunk of change. Estimates are that they sold a few million units this quarter.
It'll get more interesting when AMD attack the servers market.
It's a game for analysts to try to get a tech CEO to acknowledge they have competition. In the most cut-throat, ultra-competitive market there is. The first rule of being a tech CEO, In my opinion, is, you never acknowledge the competition. Has Apple ever talked directly about Samsung? Or Microsoft about Google? Why should BK talk about AMD?
Ryzen doesn't have integrated graphics or any mini-ITX boards. Non-gamers won't buy until both situations change. I would like to buy one, but I need integrated graphics and mini-ITX.
The first rule is to keep your reputation high. If you lose ground and you are not able to explain why, then either you are incompetent or a liar. In both cases, you'd better leave.
Ryzen is actually a beast for non gamers. It is the productivity leader hands down for both price and performance.
The first rule is to keep your reputation high. If you lose ground and you are not able to explain why, then either you are incompetent or a liar. In both cases, you'd better leave.
Ryzen is actually a beast for non gamers. It is the productivity leader hands down for both price and performance.
While that's true, don't expect it to sell much in the non-gamer market. OEM's view Ryzen as a gaming CPU. AMD needs a "pro" branded product in order to sell to the professional market.