Consumers seem to have had enough as CPU sales tank to record-low on German retailer

The DIY PC market is going through a rough patch right now, as increased component prices have pushed many consumers away. Relaying German retailer Mindfactory’s CPU sales data for week 13 of 2026, TechEpiphany claims that desktop CPU sales have now dropped to a record low.

In other words, consumers, for the most part, have stopped upgrading to new CPUs. This is not surprising as, like GPUs and RAM, CPUs have also gotten more expensive over the past few months. So, people who might’ve upgraded to newer CPUs alongside more/faster memory and a better GPU seem no longer interested in doing so.

TechEpiphany reports that AMD still leads with an 89.09% share of the total CPUs sold during week 13, while Intel follows with a 10.91% share. Intel recently launched the Core Ultra 200S Plus Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs, which are rather good. For instance, the $200 Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is a superb value with excellent application and strong gaming performance.

So, it will be interesting to note if the release of cost-effective Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 9 270K Plus can move the needle in Intel’s favor in the coming weeks. We suspect things could get better as RAM prices have started to come down.

Moving on, TechEpiphany also reports that, although AM4 CPUs are slowing down, customers keep buying aging processors like the Ryzen 7 5700X, Ryzen 5 5500, etc. These CPUs are not only much cheaper than the latest generation Zen 5 parts, but can also run with considerably less expensive DDR4 RAM.

Finally, Intel’s best-selling CPU in week 13 of 2026 was the Core Ultra 7 265K with only 10 units sold. The “KF” version of the chip launched at around $380, but can now be found on Amazon for just $249. However, this is the only Arrow Lake CPU on the list, as the rest of the Intel CPUs sold are a mix of older 12th-gen Core i5/i3 models and the 14th-gen Core i5/i7/i9 SKUs.

All in all, the situation hasn’t changed when it comes to the relative position of AMD and Intel processors. Team Red still dominates CPU sales on Mindfactory. What has changed, however, is that the total number of CPUs sold is now reportedly lower than ever. This coincides with falling GPU sales and points to the severe degradation of the overall consumer DIY PC market.