Like the first two quarters, the third quarter also saw an increase in CPU shipments, but 2025 has been showing unusual growth due to some factors.
Client CPU Shipments Grew by 2.2% Quarter-on-Quarter, While Server CPU Shipments Increased by 13.7% Year-on-Year
John Peddie Research has published its latest data on the CPU shipments, including both the Client and Server segments. JPR data shows that the third quarter of 2025 is showing usual growth in CPU shipments, but this is the third consecutive quarter witnessing such growth. CPU shipments grew in the first two quarters this year due to tariff uncertainty, but the growth in the third quarter was mostly due to the end of life of Windows 10.
JPR says that while looming tariffs did play a role in affecting the CPU sales, the end of support to Windows 10 had a major impact on users upgrading their CPUs. Those who want to upgrade to Windows 11 must meet strict requirements like TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Therefore, older CPUs that didn't meet such requirements couldn't run the new OS. OEMs have also benefited from this due to higher shipments, and the shipments will continue to increase even in the next quarter.
We think the PC CPUs’ growth was prompted mostly by the end-of-life of Windows 10, and a little bit due to the tariffs,
The client PC market has now had three consecutive quarters of growth, which, except for Q3, is out of sync with traditional seasonality trends. We don’t expect Q4 to be very strong.
- JPR
However, it's expected that the growth won't be significant in Q4 and could be similar to the growth witnessed in Q3 2025. Compared to the second quarter, the current 2.2% higher shipment is much lower. Usually, the first two quarters remain flat, indicating a constant demand, but this year we saw the CPU shipments jumping by 7.9% in the second quarter due to uncertainty created by US tariffs.
According to the graph, both the Desktop and Laptop CPU segments have maintained their shares at 70% and 30% respectively. This was a bit higher for the laptop in Q2, but we are now back to the same share as in Q3 2024. That said, the server CPU market has increased by 2.7% quarter-over-quarter. This is somewhat identical to what we are witnessing on the client side, and overall, the server CPU shipments grew by 13.7% year-over-year.
News Source: JPR
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