Intel surprised by number of enthusiasts buying 10-core CPUs

During the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich reveals the company was surprised by how many people are buying 10-core gaming systems. He says sales of 10-core gaming systems "far and away" exceeded Intel's original sales forecast.

Krzanich also mentions that Intel doesn't expect a decline in the average selling price of CPUs, so it seems the company doesn't anticipate AMD's Zen to drive down prices.

Joe L. Moore - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

Great. Thank you for that. That's great. And then separately on the PC market, the ASP growth that you guys saw over the course of 2016, is that strictly mix shift and strength in the higher-end segments as you've been talking about? And any thoughts on your ability to continue that price momentum over the course of this year?

Brian M. Krzanich - Intel Corp.
Sure, yeah, it mostly, if not in almost every case, all mix shift and our customers buying up. And the great example was the case SKUs, the enthusiast, the 10-core systems that we put out there, and they far and away exceeded our original sales forecast for people who are out there buying 10-core gaming systems.

So we do believe that that market, that enthusiast market will continue. We factored a little bit more caution into this as we go into the 2017 in the first quarter. Some of that is seasonality. Holiday, people tend to buy lot of gaming systems, and some of it's just how much more can people buy up? And so how much more growth in ASP can we see? But we don't see a decline or anything of the average ASPs.

I'm definitely surprised to read this. Intel's first 10-core CPU was launched about half a year ago, the Core i7-6950X Extreme Edition entered the market for $1,723 and still commands a price of $1,635 on Amazon.