ASUS: Intel CPU Shortages Easing, But Future Is Uncertain
by Anton Shilov on November 15, 2019 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Motherboards
- Asus
- 14nm
- Coffee Lake
- Comet Lake
During its earnings call with analysts and investors, ASUS commented that while the tight supply of Intel’s processors persisted, it is no longer as severe as it was in late 2018. The company said that based on claims of the chipmaker, it did not expect CPU shortages in Q1 2020, but the situation with Q2 2020 remained unclear. Meanwhile, to lessen the impact of insufficient supply from Intel, ASUS now offers more AMD-based products.
Intel has increased its 14 nm production capacity in terms of wafer starts per month (WSPM) by 25% in 2019 as compared to 2018, yet the company admits that its backlogged status will persist in the fourth quarter of this year, so not all of its partners will get all the chips they want. The world’s largest supplier of processors continues to give priority to production of server and higher-end client processors, so the situation with supply of entry-level products continues to be uncertain. Since ASUS is focused primarily on premium products, it was not affected by shortages of Intel’s inexpensive processors as severely as its peers who have more numerous inexpensive offerings in their lineups, though there was still some negative impact on the company.
Here is what S.Y. Hsu, co-CEO of ASUS, had to say.
“The Intel CPU shortage began in Q4 of last year and continued into Q1 of this year. In Q2 and Q3 of this year the situation is easing and the messaging from our partner tells us that in Q4, we still face some shortage. This is not something that is unique to ASUS, but affects the entire PC industry. As for 202… Currently, the information transparency lets… allows us to know that in Q1 we will have some – we will not have CPU shortage. However, there is not enough transparency for Q2 because this is a situation that has continued from Q4 of last year.”
Considering that sales of PCs are usually slow in the first quarter and Intel’s fabs are running at full steam at the moment (keep in mind that production cycle of modern CPUs is long), it is likely that supply-demand balance will be more or less met in Q1. Meanwhile, demand for computers in Q2 and onwards is something that is harder to predict.
In a bid to lower the impact of Intel CPU shortages, ASUS and other makers of PCs and components have developed more AMD-based products. In the desktop space, where AMD is very competitive and is gaining market share, this approach has clearly worked. In the laptop space, on the other hand, the lion’s share of ASUS notebooks is based on Intel processors. Meanwhile, notebooks in general commanded 71% of ASUS’ revenue in Q3 2019.
To lessen the impact of Intel CPU shortage, this year ASUS introduced several AMD-powered notebooks and began to promote them among retailers and end users, which is why they are now better received by the market than before, according to the company.
Related Reading:
- Intel Boosts 14nm Capacity 25% in 2019, But Shortages Will Persist in Q4
- Intel Supply in Q4: “Output Capacity up, Supply-Demand Still High”
- Intel: CPU Shortages Will Persist Throughout Q3 2019
- ASUS Comments on Intel Shortages, U.S.-China Trade War
- Intel Further Boosts CapEx to Meet Demand for 14nm Chips
- Intel Investing $1B to Meet 14nm Demand: Prioritizing High-End Core and Xeon
Source: ASUS
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eek2121 - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
After watching the somewhat hilarious review of the 3950X by Wendell of Level1Techs, I've found that I can no longer recommend Intel for anything. Even in cases where Intel leads in performance, it takes much more power and generates much more heat for very little extra performance. Between that and continuous security issues, I'm going to stay away unless Intel seriously rethinks their architecture. Hopefully they won't make the same types of mistakes with their GPUs as they do their CPUs.It doesn't matter if they can win in games by even 5-10% (although I haven't seen any large wins like that without huge overclocks). The price, security, and power efficiency just isn't there. This is coming from someone who, prior to my Threadripper, has been with Intel since the Core 2 Quad Q6600 launched (Q6600 -> i7 2600k).
I can't wait until Zen 2 hits mobile, because when it does, I'm selling my laptop and getting an AMD based one.
Jorgp2 - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
You does realize Wendell is heavily biased towards AMD, and will ignore any positives for Intel.Qasar - Saturday, November 16, 2019 - link
there are positives for intel ???RealBeast - Sunday, November 17, 2019 - link
Well there are for me -- got an i9-9900KF for $250 (retired employee pricing program). I got 10 cores running at 5GHz, but it was a bit hotter than I liked with only air cooling for full time use.Qasar - Sunday, November 17, 2019 - link
na, that just means you were able to get a good deal. maybeyannigr2 - Saturday, November 16, 2019 - link
I could say the same for Anandtech those last years. Nine out of ten times reviews here are extremely carefully written to focus on positives for Intel and downplay huge negatives. It hasn't became like Tom's of course, thankfully it's far from Tom's, but it is obvious. Even the review of the 3950X here was giving me the impression that AMD is still trying to catch up to Intel, while other reviews from various sites/youtubers where much more enthusiastic. And don't say that AMD is paying sites for positive reviews. They don't have the financial power and influence of Intel.Gondalf - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
Obviously Intel can supply channels, AMD nope, there is not enough 7nm silicon around to do this.Intel choses to maintain the control of the market, AMD choses to follow new streets knowing well to have not momentum to penetrate the market over a certain limit.
Looking carefully Intel strategy have a sense and it is very similar to Nvidia way to act.
AMD will be forever a second source for both Cpus an GPUs. Intel is too large and rich, Nvidia too advanced and flexible.
Korguz - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
yea ok gonfalf.. sureyannigr2 - Saturday, November 16, 2019 - link
Don't bet your house on Nvidia. They will lose sales because of Intel's GPUs, they will lose their edge on AI in a couple of years also, because everyone is trying to manufacture it's own AI chip. And in GPUs, AMD does have now an architecture for gaming. It doesn't try to compete with Nvidia using an architecture that was build for compute. Intel, yes, it's still the huge company that can supply the world with 70-80% of all the x86 CPUs needed. But if their 7nm get delayed, they will be in very very very deep s...problems.Kishoreshack - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
I think having a single dominant chip maker is the reason for downfall of Pc & mobile industryThe market was soo dependent on intel that when it f**ckd up the market suffered
I think OEM'S promoting amd is a good thing
it's a consumer friendly decision as it will promote competition